Hamilton: “I don’t feel like I’ve done enough to support the protests”

F1 Fanatic Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says he wants to do more to support the ‘take a knee’ protesters.

Predictions Championship

Remember to make your Predictions Championship entry for the this weekend’s grand prix before qualifying. Among the prizes you can win this year are a motorsport painting of your choice by Rob Ijbema like the one above.

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Comment of the day

The new microphone trialled in practice yesterday to capture engine noise better left some of you feeling underwhelmed:

I don’t really care too much about the noise, but the microphone doesn’t change much about it. It seems louder, but these engines just don’t scream like the V8’s or the V10’s.
@Toiago

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Imre Pardi!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

44 comments on “Hamilton: “I don’t feel like I’ve done enough to support the protests””

  1. Sundar Srinivas Harish
    21st October 2017, 1:33

    a sense grew that they were gathering for a coronation.

    Vettel’s car seems to have succumbed to pressure.

    About Ricciardo’s comments, I’m 100% certain its because he was a junior driver in 2012, and doesn’t reflect the popularity of F1 in any way. A friend of a friend, studying at NUS, volunteered at the Singapore GP this year, and her supervisor asked her if she wanted a picture with “Antonio”, and she declined because she didn’t know who he was. The casual fans don’t know about anyone but the top 4-5 drivers of the last 2-3 years and sporting legends because no one else gets significant media coverage and this is only natural. Send Sainz or Vandoorne, or even Hulkenberg and Perez, out on the streets of Austin and see how many people recognize them.

    1. @Sundar Srinivas Harish +1

  2. About COTD, the noise is not that important to me either, much less if it’s fake noise. It’s not that mic that’s going to change the tv viewer, it’s the outboard, in Monza the cars whistled a lot anyhow, I point my finger at the tv directing and the actual cars more specifically their behaviour, the cars particularly on high fuel are too steady, unspectacular, in order to exult maximize the thrill of f1 FOM needs to look elsewhere, maybe at the old analogue footage.

  3. The Red bull team took a nice jab at Mclaren with that tweet. Almost sounds a little butter after this whole Renault saga.

  4. What a joke…support the multi-millionaire protestors? The average salary in the NFL is USD2.4million. That’s a lot of persecution. Hamilton should travel to North Korea, Myanmar, etc… or pick up a book about Stalin or Mao to learn what persecution and genuine grievances are all about.

    1. “Support the multi-millionaire protestors”….

      Yet another person who’ve lost sight of what the protest is about.

      1. What’s it about anymore? Please enlighten us.

    2. You do know why they’re protesting right? It’s not for themselves, and they’re risking those multi-million pound contracts by taking a stand. America isn’t as forgiving of black guys disrespecting their anthem as they are sportsmen driving drunk or beating women.

      Yes communism is probably the biggest killer and oppressor in human history. But that doesn’t mean any other protest is invalid because some one comes along saying ‘but what about, what about!?’

      You seem to think it’s worth the effort to object to Hamilton wanting to represent a cause close to him personally, maybe you should follow your own advice and travel to North Korea instead than raise objection to such a trivial matter while there is real injustice in the world.

      1. Regardless Hamilton has no bussiness even considering to fault a Flag at a foreigner country.

        Would not end right if F1 gets political, in fact I expect him been to be told by F1 owners to not even think about it.

        1. Neither did Hertha Berlin, but yet they did. But let’s ignore that Hamilton is black & has family members who are also American citizens.

        2. Regardless Hamilton has no bussiness even considering to fault a Flag at a foreigner country.

          How do people keep missing the point on this. It has nothing to do with the flag.

        3. Hamilton has the right to protest anything he wants, and his employer has the right to consider his continued employment if his behaviour conflicts with their ideals.

          The kneeling topic isn’t protesting a flag. It’s protesting participating with an anthem celebration like everything in that country is hunky dory all while a portion of the population are victims of injustice.

          Personally, I don’t know what side of the argument I would take, there are conflicting arguments as to if it even can be considered injustice once the proportion of demographics committing crimes are compared to the proportion of police shootings. But I respect Hamilton having the right to take any stance he wants on the topic, even if I don’t know if he’s on the right or wrong side of the debate.

          1. …there are conflicting arguments as to if it even can be considered injustice once the proportion of demographics committing crimes are compared to the proportion of police shootings.

            Not really. If you control for income, the proportions level out significantly, which suggests that disparity in racial proportion is actually evidence of economic inequality.

            Kudos to you for taking a moment to think about and try to understand the issues.

    3. Money has nothing to do with it.
      It’s just that when poor amateur players protest you won’t notice it!

      And even though I’m not from the USA, and not even coloured, I fully support their protest. They use their fame to focus on a real local issue, as opposed to others who point fingers at predecessors and try to wage war in foreign countries.

  5. It is probably the first time in history that very privileged millionaires are protesting against the state because they claim they are being persecuted. Totally nuts!!! Get some perspective.

    1. It’s about standing together with people who have been persecuted. Sorry you missed the point.

      1. I agree with Adrian. Andy if what u wrote would be true, than these “honest” millionares would give atleast half of their millions away and give them to the “repressed” people – which they honestly are not. This is the year 2017, especially in the USA anyone can be anywhere, only if he is willing to work hard. And most of those protesting and crying about being repressed is just not willing to work for it, they just wait for something to fall from the sky. Not to mention how sick is when they make big protests when drug dealers get shot by the police…

        1. and of course you know about all the charity activities they are involved in, and maybe you should check your facts before making statements about drug dealers and the police … not all of the black people that have been killed were involved in drugs.

        2. You do realize racial profiling and discrimination applies to millionaires too, right? Check out the racist abused suffered by someone like Serena Williams recently from inside the tennis profession. Or the racism against black soccer players in the Champions League virtually every week. That’s leaving aside the solidarity involved, maybe a concept you should try thinking about too.

      2. They can pick a better time to make their so-called stand. The national anthem is a time for unity as all grateful citizens of the nation come together in mutual respect for the nation that the anthem represents.
        To utterly disrespect a nation that provides for THEIR well-being is inviting the contempt of those who feel disrespected.
        For all of the non US citizens agreeing with the millionaire protesters, I would suggest that you sit for YOUR national anthem to show your solidarity. Perhaps your fellow countrymen will be more supportive and understanding of such disgraceful disrespect.

        1. It’s only in totalitarian countries where people are punished for choosing whether to stand or sit for something.

          1. In free countries there is no guarantee that those who protest will be supported. Nor is there a requirement to do so.

  6. Think Hamilton should stop messing about and do the protest if he feels so strongly about it. It sounds like he wants to but doesn’t have the balls to deal with the inevitable fall out if he were to.

    1. No, it sounds like he realizes that he’d become entangled in a political and media debate – including, who knows? some twitter blabber from the guy who won the presidency in the raffle – and he’s, you know, supposed to be concentrating on a 2 hour race at 300kmh+. Kind of thing you do every other Sunday, obviously.

      1. No, it sounds like he realizes that he’d become entangled in a political and media debate

        He’s already entangled in this due to his posting on social media and the fact he can’t help attach himself to this debate whenever questioned.

        he’s, you know, supposed to be concentrating on a 2 hour race at 300kmh+

        Sure he can fit both protesting and cruising to victory in 2nd gear in his Sunday schedule.

    2. Think Hamilton should stop messing about and do the protest if he feels so strongly about it.

      I think Lewis is smarter than that!
      If he protests than he give ammunition to Trump and his followers claiming that foreigners should stay out of their local issues.
      If he only talks about it, and keeps the suspense, then more people (see this thread) talk about it.

      Well done Lewis.

      1. For now. Next race it will be forgotten.

  7. Problem is: working for a company you do not have the right to free speech, because you signed an employment contract.
    So NFL players (and F1 drivers) do not have the right to free speech or speak their mind freely “legally”, because they work for a company.

    So in that way Trump is legally totally right.
    But if he says that people will twist it into something political.

    NFL also gets government subsidies. That means they have to stay political “neutral”

    1. @ia Hmmmmm
      Free Speech is constitutional right (in most countries).
      No (labour) contract or law can stop that!

      1. Free speech means *the government* can’t shut you up.

    2. That’s the whole point of a *protest*. Regular individuals for instance are legally not allowed to walk in the middle of traffic holding placards and disturbing the peace.

      They perform this act of *civil disobedience* to disrupt the normal state of affairs – society’s ‘comfort level’, if you will – and within reason force attention of the state and society towards equitably readdressing the legally permissible injustice evidenced. In the same vein, taking a knee is that act of civil disobedience to protest police brutality perpetrated predominantly on the Black community in the USA.

      Even by rule of law, company contracts cannot supersede a citizen’s right to freedom of expression as enshrined in the US Constitution, which the players are vigorously exercising. I’m just pointing out that by dint of principle, the NFL protest is fundamentally sound.

      1. “In the same vein, taking a knee is that act of civil disobedience to protest police brutality perpetrated predominantly on the Black community in the USA.”

        Has anyone from those communties or the sportsmen themselves presented an end-goal into Policing the communites? Are they proposing new policing methods? disarming Police?
        I noted some states have a no-chase policy where we now see vehicle offenders running free. Maybe Black communites could Police themselves.

        1. That’s an incredibly stupid suggestion. Allowing the black community to police themselves only further adds to the segregation and racial issues that’s surrounding this protest.

          What is being called for is parity within the law enforcement agencies and stamping out the clearly racially motivated police brutality

        2. “Maybe Black communities could Police themselves.”

          Interesting viewpoint. As an option, it’s mighty tempting, but would entail a step back to segregational heydays. One would think the bodycam introduction was a step in the right direction, but without law reform it’s toothless. Not a single police officer has been dismissed or found guilty of criminal homicide in all reported black shootings.

          I do agree that feasible solutions should be vocalized. But what solution do you offer to a society that regards institutionalized racism as a non-problem? Hence the protests.

        3. Yes they are taking steps. Although it seems to be as tough as pulling healthy teeth, they are mandating body cams on many police forces specifically due to the disproportionate contacts with blacks, and due to hair trigger mentality with the public in general. The police in America are so bad, that city’s and municipalities can no longer absorb the lawsuits because the cams are proving the police to be quite fascist and brutal. The only way municipalities are going to be able to employee law enforcement officers is by sub-contracting them out. Then the cop is liable for deaths and millions in damages rather than millions of innocent taxpayers who never would have let some of these cops hold a gun in their hands, ever.

          Actually this all started in the 80’s with Reagan war on drugs. Look how many decades that law enforcement arrested only criminals. Then all the sudden they started arresting NON criminals. And they never stopped.

          https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/US_incarceration_timeline-clean.svg/350px-US_incarceration_timeline-clean.svg.png&imgrefurl=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate&h=234&w=350&tbnid=e9G1_b2SQVgz5M:&tbnh=140&tbnw=211&usg=__3vqYYAhr-mFzrXwliFUxgsZxpRo=&vet=10ahUKEwjfjfTnuoLXAhWLjlQKHYRDBMwQ9QEIKjAA..i&docid=T6JtbGE9QoAAcM&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfjfTnuoLXAhWLjlQKHYRDBMwQ9QEIKjAA

          Geez, sorry about the long link. It’s Wiki.

    3. The NFL does not get government subsidies.

      1. Well… a lot of sports arena’s in the US are build with government money.
        Step 1 The billionaire franchise owner threatens to re-locate the team to a different city if they don’t get a cheap deal in one way or another
        Step 2 fans are outraged and blame government
        Step 3 Government cuts a deal with billionaire owner.
        Step 4 Billionaire owner gets boatloads of funding for the project, a rediculous tax deal on earnings etc, etc.
        Step 5 Billionaire owner cries about making operational losses on the team to the league in order to get a bigger piece of the pie at the next collective bargaining agreement and wins(hence the lock-outs).
        Step 6 Passionate fans pay a premium for their tickets and tv packages while the billionare owner laughs himself to tears counting his monies.

        And that’s how a billionaire makes his money with a sports team! :)

  8. 10 years ago, the greatest spectacle in Sports. Never forget that day. I was so excited I wasn’t able to catch any sleep after the race.

  9. F1 CEO Greg Maffei, donated $250k to Trump’s inauguration. Are you all as upset about that as you are of Hamilton possibly joining Kaepernick’s protest against racial inequality & police brutality?

    1. Racial inequality & police brutality, in the US and elsewhere is a serious matter that needs to be adressed imho. Public figures like athletes have a podium to do just that and to me there’s nothing wrong with that. Moreover, attacking the credibility of the athletes themselves is neither here nor there and doesn’t help adressing the issue (although it does help those who don’t want to adress it and want to get attention off the issue…think about that).

      As for Greg Maffei and the donation he made to Trump… he’s entitled to his political views and to act on them within the law, just like you and me. Whether or not I or you agree with his views isn’t really relevant and most importantly, it doesn’t adress the issue at hand: racial inequality & police brutality.

    2. He has the freedom to do what he pleases as does Hamilton

  10. Good to see the BRDC are bring in some young blood with Paddy Hopkirk. Stirling Moss and Murray Walker would also bring some much needed young blood into the committee.

  11. Hamilton flies to the States in his jet, spends time with supermodels and rappers, pampered and waited on, and he gets the idea that he understands what the protesting is about? You’re a tourist, man. You know nothing. There are real people who feel the effects of the disparity in this country, and they’re being exploited by trend-hounds like yourself as a way of making themselves appear ‘socially-conscious’. Either learn, or mind your own business.

Comments are closed.