Lewis Hamilton, one of the biggest proponents of diversity in motorsport, has proactively supported the all-female F1 Academy Series when others didn’t. Recently, Hamilton stated that he wanted to start a new F1 team, which would be gender diverse to begin with. However, driver Sophia Floersch has criticized Hamilton, hinting that all talk and no action is of no help for women on the race track.
Floersch, an Alpine-backed driver who has competed in the World Endurance Championship and DTM in the past, wrote on X: “Put your money where your mouth is!” She was replying to a Motorsport post that quoted Hamilton.
Put your money where your mouth is!
— Sophia Floersch (@SophiaFloersch) December 2, 2024
Floersch has taken part in F3 — a feeder series for F1 — but failed to climb the ladder to F2 which is the last step before reaching the pinnacle of motorsport. To be fair, her results were never too stellar to earn a promotion. And her comment berating Hamilton’s statement was met with a lot of backlash.
It is difficult to say whether Floersch simply vented her frustration, or was hinting at deep-rooted problems in the sport and the society at large which have limited women’s participation.
However, fans are backing Hamilton, insisting that he would certainly walk the talk and create a team that is gender diverse someday.
Hamilton’s the one guy who you can’t say this to ffs he has a whole charity dedicated to uplifting people from diverse backgrounds and women in motorsport
— gory | 105 (@hamkkonen) December 2, 2024
The seven-time world champion even mentioned the two drivers he would have onboard: Doriane Pin and Kenzo Craigie.
The 20-year-old Pin is currently driving in the F1 Academy series and has shown a lot of potential to move up the ladder. Meanwhile, Kenzo, 13, is currently racing karts, and gearing up to get into F4.
Hamilton has been supporting the empowerment of female racers in F1 Academy and other categories over the years. Through his Mission 44 charity program, the Briton wants create opportunities for women to enter motorsport, be it as racers, engineers, designers, and more.
It will be interesting to see whether he gets a chance to bring female drivers into F1.
