Lewis Hamilton will not boycott Belgian GP after latest US shooting

Lewis Hamilton

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Hamilton will not boycott Belgian GP after latest US shooting

Sports fixtures in America have been postponed this week

Ian Parkes

Thursday 27 August 2020 17:46

Lewis Hamilton does not believe boycotting this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix following the shooting in the United States of Jacob Blake will "have any effect".

Fixtures in the US in basketball, baseball and soccer have been postponed this week in protest after Blake, a black man, was shot seven times in the back by police in a town near Milwaukee on Sunday.

Tennis player Naomi Osaka, a former world number one, also withdrew from her semi-final of a high-profile WTA event being staged in New York. The tennis authorities later suspended the event, the Western & Southern Open, for a day.

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Via Instagram, Hamilton tweeted a message in support of Osaka that read: "I'm so proud of you." The six-time F1 champion, however, will not be following Osaka's example.

Despite Hamilton's promotion of 'Black Lives Matter' this year, and his pursuit of promoting racial awareness and inequality to his fellow drivers and the powers-that-be within the sport, he said: "Firstly, I think it's incredible what many out there in the States are doing within their sports.

"So many people are standing with the players and really pushing for change. It's a shame that is what's needed over there in order to get a reaction.

"But that is in America, and I don't know if me doing here anything here will particularly have any effect. We're in Belgium, we're not in the United States."

The Mercedes driver will, however, again speak to senior figures in F1 and the FIA to see if any additional measures, aside from the now customary pre-race protest, needs to be in place ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

"I haven't spoken to anybody about it, but I am really proud of so many out there, and I do stand unified with them," added Hamilton.

"I'm trying to do what I can over here. I don't really know how us not doing the race...it will still go on is the thing.

"But I will try and speak to Formula 1 to see what else we can do to continue to raise awareness, continue to help push.

"Naturally as a sport, we all need to be aligned, we all need to be supporting one another, even though it is a different sport."

Grand Prix Drivers' Association director Sebastian Vettel feels if the drivers were to boycott, then such a protest would be en masse rather than via an individual.

Asked if he would ever consider boycotting an event, Vettel said: "I think, if so, it is something that will always be decided together.

"Generally, we talk about stuff, we talk about things that are going on and things that are important to us and I think we have grown together as a group of drivers. The more experienced drivers, the younger drivers, I think we share opinions.

"I don't think it makes much sense now to go as far as that [boycotting] because nothing is on the table and there is no reason to boycott a race but I am sure that if we are unhappy with something, we will talk about it first and take actions accordingly."