Vijay Mallya, the owner of Force India [currently Aston Martin], was the last non-white person to own an F1 team in recent times until his team went into administration in 2018. It’s been five years since there has been a non-white person who has the power of control of an F1 team. The debate about the lack of diversity in F1 also grows strong considering there hasn’t been any involvement of a woman as a team owner since 2020. Now, Lewis Hamilton has come out to ask for diversity, as per GP Fans.
Admittedly, diversity and ethnic representation are some of the weaknesses of the sport as it has a negligible number of people coming out to be involved in this sport.
No one has won more US Grands Prix than Lewis Hamilton. 🏆🔥 pic.twitter.com/ZVahM4TPcg
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) October 14, 2023
This has a direct involvement with the representation of team ownership, as no owner or group of owners belongs to any other race other than white. This is something Hamilton pointed out in his latest statement.
Lewis Hamilton asks for diversity in the sport
Hamilton, the Mercedes maestro, has recently opened up on the lack of diversity and inclusiveness of the sport. Along with supporting the new entry of a team in F1, he also called the female pilots to come up.
Talking about this, the seven-time world champion said as per GP Fans, “At the moment, they are all white owners. And there is a real lack of diversity from the top down. They’re all men, and that needs to change.”
Lewis Hamilton: “We will come back. We can do it. The next step to the top podium will come. And it will probably be my greatest triumph in my career.” 🐐 pic.twitter.com/1g8NQ7ySrK
— Mercedes-AMG F1 News (@MercedesNewsUK) October 1, 2023
Even though Jessica Hawkins’ testing last month made her the first woman to drive an F1 car in five years, there is still a huge lack of enthusiasm from them. However, Hamilton did not sit back and decided to bring his team into a racing venture.
Hamilton began his own way to add diversity in motorsport
Lewis Hamilton has started his own racing adventure named in Extreme E as he fielded a team named X44. This team is a big rival of his former Mercedes star Nico Rosberg’s team, Rosberg Xtreme Racing.
The British driver, who was once been targeted for his race, tried his way to bring as much diversity as possible to X44. Admittedly, Hamilton is the only black F1 driver in its history and, indeed a successful one.
Furthermore, the Mercedes star also began to invest in other sporting sectors to increase the inclusiveness in motorsport. Nevertheless, FIA and F1 rejected the plea of five teams out of six and allowed only one. They also rejected Rodin, who interestingly talked about bringing a woman driver in the paddock. All in all, there is still a heavy underrepresentation of different races in motorsport and F1 as a whole.
