Hamilton "lonely journey" behind diversity push

Hamilton, Mercedes, Imola, 2022 — Photo: © LAT Images

Lewis Hamilton

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Hamilton "lonely journey" behind diversity push

Hamilton founded The Hamilton Commission and Mission 44 to improve diversity

Sam Hall

Tuesday 3 May 2022 12:44

Lewis Hamilton has conceded his time in F1 has been a "lonely journey" but hopes his work to increase diversity will prevent others from a similar experience.

Seven-time champion Hamilton has used his platform in recent years to address the issue of a lack of diversity in motorsport.

After setting up the Hamilton Commission and publishing a report highlighting the scale of the problem as well as ways in which to tackle barriers, the Mercedes driver created the charitable foundation Mission 44, "to support, champion and empower young people from underrepresented groups in the UK to succeed."

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Speaking on Good Morning America, Hamilton explained: “It has been generally quite a lonely journey.

"It’s just been me and my family, we were the only black family. I’ve been racing for 29 years, I’m 37 now, but I’ve been professional for 16 years but I’ve always most often been the only person of colour in the room.

"And when I would ask the question, there was no real great feedback or answer to that.

"So, I put together the Hamilton Commission because it starts with education and understanding.

“We’ve put together this body of work and research to try and understand what those barriers are and we found that there are, not only in our industry, which we have over 40,000 jobs but only one per cent come from black backgrounds, but there are real systemic issues within the education system as well.

“With the Hamilton Commission, we have now started Mission 44 which I have funded myself to try to create more representation and support and empowerment for these young underserved groups.”

Hamilton highlights "incredible jobs"

Although the issue of a lack of diversity is apparent when looking at the current grid, Hamilton explained he is focused on roles in the background where the problem is equally as pressing.

“The goal is for me, I realised that there are only 20 Formula One drivers so it is not like there is a huge way of accessing that.

"But as I said, there are 40,000 jobs. So engineers, mechanics, marketing…there are so many incredible jobs in the background.

"And just in my team, for example, two years ago there was only, out of 2,000 people, three per cent diversity.

“Now we are working on tackling those challenges and improving that.”