Lewis Hamilton has been extremely vocal about various causes related to social and environmental justice and racial diversity has been one of them. After launching the Hamilton Commission in 2020, the Mercedes driver had taken a big step towards ensuring diversity in the sport. However, as per a recent report by F1Maximaal, Hamilton has claimed that the Mercedes team photo has given him a reality check regarding the diversity situation.
Hamilton spoke during the 2023 season finale about the various initiatives he came up with, especially the Hamilton Commission. He explained that he started work on the issue when he took a team photo in Abu Dhabi back in 2019 and realized that there is absolutely zero representation of certain racial groups and people.
From the thousands of jobs in Formula 1, only 1% of employees are from Black backgrounds. The Hamilton Commission aims to change that. pic.twitter.com/m0sWvvQwRq
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) July 13, 2021
However, standing in 2023, Hamilton admits that not much has been done and there is still a lot left to do. He said, “We’ll do another team photo this week, and comparing that to 2019, I’m pretty sure things haven’t changed nearly as much as they should have. So the challenge now is to bring about change.”
The 7x World Champion had set up the Hamilton Commission back in 2020 with the aim of investigating the causes behind the lack of representation of minority groups in Formula 1. Working in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Commission undertook a research aimed at finding the various roadblocks that people of color face while making their way up the ranks into Formula 1.
The Hamilton Commission is ongoing. There is so much work happening in the background, to help tackle some serious issues that prevent young Black people getting through into STEM careers. Days like today excite, inspire and motivate me to keep pushing. pic.twitter.com/uSSC07kv37
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) March 20, 2021
The commission came up with its reports in 2021, and Hamilton had claimed that armed with the report, he would be able to make widespread changes to the situation. Since then, there has been quite some work done on the cause, but quite clearly, it hasn’t been enough.
Lewis Hamilton is not satisfied with the state of things in F1
Hamilton also set up a charity foundation – Mission 44, aimed at putting the Hamilton Commission report to work. The Mercedes driver invested $25,000,000 of his own money into the project, which works to create education opportunities for underrepresented communities in the UK.
Lewis Hamilton on the barriers of Formula 1 for people from diverse backgrounds and trying to bring more diversity into the sport with the Hamilton commission: pic.twitter.com/DCgqFoIhlj
— leo (@formuleo_) May 2, 2022
The former McLaren driver spoke about the various things he did in 2023 to promote his cause. This includes inviting a group of children and young women to the paddock in Austin and in the UK, aiming to spark interest in them about the various opportunities present in motorsports.
However, even after doing so much, Hamilton isn’t really satisfied with how things stand right now in terms of diversity. The Briton realizes that quite a lot of work needs to be done before F1 can really have the diversity that it wants.
