Right after the end of the 2022 season, F1 came out with a decree to ban all political messages on their platform. This prevents vocal drivers like Lewis Hamilton from speaking against racism and LGBTQ+ issues, on which he has been vocal over the years.
Though an absolute ban isn’t implemented, the drivers must take prior approval from the FIA before making political and religious statements. Therefore, it’s a clear attempt to gatekeep the expression of drivers as political beings.
Over recent years, a few drivers have come out to speak on the ongoing issues across the world. Hamilton is one of them and have made statements with T-shirts having slogan on them. But the FIA now plans to limit that.
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Valtteri Bottas defies Lewis Hamilton by agreeing with FIA
Hamilton’s former teammate, who has been in past suppotive of his movements in F1 agrees with what FIA does, as he understands that it’s a sport, and not a political platform.
“If you think about it politically, let’s say from F1’s side or the organiser’s side of a race, obviously they want everything to go smoothly and not to have somebody with T-shirts saying this and that,” said Bottas to SkySports.
Though, Bottas tried to take both sides in his statement. He claims that people should be allowed what they want to say and even states that the ban isn’t necessary. But he covers up the little ant-ban sentiment by saying: “this is Formula 1.”
FIA President not doing well with the body
The ban is reportedly a brainchild of the FIA president Ben Suleyam. Though, it seems as a unanimous decision by the governing body as they intend to keep the sport neutral.
But tehre have been recent moves by Sulayem, which has brought a drift between him and the rest of the governing body. His publiclly enthusiastic support for Andretti-Cadillac entry is something which now seems to be a biased stand.
On the other hand, he also angered Liberty Media, when a $20 billion bid by a Saudi Arabian firm, was called inflated by him. The reaction by F1 owners prompted a reply by him to the commercial bosses declaring he made an overstep in his duties.
Moreover, an old comment by him on his personal website’s archives apperared where he stated that he disliked women who think they are smarter than men.
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