Sky Italia presenters Matteo Bobbi and Davide Valsecchi were recently suspended from their job after the duo made some sexist comments during the post-race program of the Spanish Grand Prix. However, as it turns out, this is not the only time the duo turned out to be the source of tasteless jokes. A video from 2018 has been unearthed by enraged fans that shows Bobbi and Valsecchi making a racist remark towards Lewis Hamilton.
Bobbi and Valsecchi have landed themselves in trouble after they made sexist ‘jokes’ about a woman standing behind the latter in the paddock. During the post-race show in Spain, Bobbi noticed the woman and commented, “I want to tell Davide there is a nice ‘Upgrade Package’ behind him.”
Valsecchi turned around to take a look and said, “I already know but they told me we can’t test them.” He didn’t stop there, Valsecchi went on for more and said, “We can’t test but we can watch, it’s fair.“
What’s even more shocking is that a female presenter, Federica Masolin, was also present with them at the time. It was very evident that she was uncomfortable with the topic of discussion and wanted to change it as fast as possible. The whole issue was noticed by the authorities at Sky Italia and both Bobbi and Valsecchi were suspended immediately.
Lewis Hamilton was once a victim of their tasteless jokes
As it turns out, the duo has gotten away with such things before. A video of Bobbi and Valsecchi from 2018 has been unearthed by fans. The video shows the duo making a racist comment towards Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
In the video, Hamilton is seen saying something along the lines of “I wasn’t optimistic during the race.” When paraphrased to Italian, it turns out as ‘La vedevo nera’, which literally means ‘I saw it black’.
Valsecchi immediately pointed out that the reason why Hamilton ‘saw it black’ was probably because he himself was a person of color, black. Therefore, Hamilton must have a different perspective to things than everyone.
Everyone laughed at the comments made by Valsecchi except Masolin, who immediately tried to change topic again. No action was taken by Sky Sports Italia regarding these comments. This time, however, they couldn’t ignore the blatantly sexist remarks made by them.
Lewis Hamilton’s fight against Racism
This was not the only incident where Lewis Hamilton got entangled in controversies related to racism with journalists. F1 veteran reporter Will Buxton once spoke against Hamilton when the Mercedes driver claimed that no one in the F1 community has spoken out about the George Floyd Incident.
Will Buxton had said, “No sign from anyone in your industry? Look again. Known you a decade and a half. Open your eyes. We see. We feel. Don’t cast us out.” These comments had led to a row of controversy which led to Buxton apologizing to Hamilton in the end.
Even with so much being spoken about fighting racism, it is very clear that is is widely present and ingrained into the system itself. Therefore, there is a long way to go for F1 before it can be called truly inclusive. People like Hamilton, however, are fighting against this, every single day.
