Formula 1

F1 supporting Hamilton over "straw that broke the camel's back"

Supporting grassroots and diversity is key to F1

Ian Parkes

Monday 8 June 2020 16:07

Formula 1 is adamant it is doing all it can at present to promote diversity following Lewis Hamilton's recent comments that he stands alone in the sport.

Hamilton has been a strong advocate of the 'Black Lives Matter' campaign that has been sparked by the recent death of George Floyd in the United States, airing his outspoken comments via his social media platforms.

The six-time F1 champion was particularly pointed with what he considered to be the silence emanating from the sport on the subject, and making clear he was "one of the only people of colour".

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Speaking on the SkySports F1 Show, F1's managing director motorsports, Ross Brawn insisted the series stood with Mercedes driver Hamilton.

"I think Lewis is a great ambassador for the sport, and I think his comments are very valid, and we support him completely," said Brawn.

"What happened was dreadful. It happens far too often, and I think you've seen the public reaction to it. It's almost the straw that broke the camel's back, and we support him totally."

Yet Brawn claims F1 is taking positive steps to ensure there is greater diversity, notably via it's 'F1 In Schools' programme.

"We as F1 have recognised for a few years now that we want to strengthen our diversity and our diversity programme," said Brawn. "Both internally as a company, and externally we started work on this a few years ago.

"I think what we concluded, or our thoughts were that the reason why we don't have more diversity in Formula 1 is that it starts at the very beginning, at a grassroots level.

"It even starts in the schools with the appeal for STEM topics - science, technology, engineering, maths - and how can we get involved in that.

"So we've been involved in Formula 1 In Schools now, we've all supported it, but we've been far more involved in the last year or two, and that has a very strong diversity, in terms of the kids that get involved in that - 40% are girls, so that's a good start.

"And it's an international competition, so we get competitors from all groups."

It is at a grassroots level, though, with karting almost now cost-prohibitive to become involved with, where Brawn feels more needs to be done, and with steps being taken.

"We are looking very strongly at how we can support the grassroots racing level," said Brawn.

"I've spent the last weeks and months working with a group to look at how we can have a really basic karting initiative to get kids involved in karting at a very early stage.

"The fact is Formula 1 is a very strong meritocracy, it should always be that way, it should always be the best who wins.

"We can't force that, but we can give greater opportunity to minority and ethnic groups to get involved in motorsport, not just driving, but engineering and other activities."

Before you go...

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