‘Probably what he has been through his entire life’, Vettel, others show support for Hamilton amid racism row

Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel shared strong thoughts on the matter and spoke to formulaone.com where he said, “It is probably what [Lewis] has been through and his family has been through his entire life. Any form of abuse is wrong, so I think it was great to see that there was so much response from all of the F1 community and so quickly people responded and expressed support towards Lewis.

“We have the campaign ‘We Race As One’; it’s very clear where we’re going and where we want to go in the future… Any community is welcome and we should always respond in that way very quickly and make it clear that we are open to anyone, because kindness matters, people matter, and like I said, it was bad to see what was going on.”

McLaren’s Lando Norris echoed Vettel’s statement and added: “Although we are Formula 1 drivers and that’s what we love and want to do the most, we still want to make things better in the world and we want to create changes and always good ones, and it highlights that we still need to continue to do this. And although we work on different areas and different things – climate change or whatever – there’s the more simple and obvious [issues] that need to have our continued support and continued voices to speak openly about it.”

Hamilton also expressed gratitude towards members of the motorsport community for giving him support and reiterated that Formula One should ignore “old voices” and reject racism as it focuses on becoming more inclusive.

“Well firstly, I’m incredibly grateful to all those that have been supportive within the sport, particularly the drivers,” said the Mercedes racer. “You know, it’s been two years since many of us took the knee at the first race in Austria and, of course, we’re still faced with the challenges.

“I’ve been on the receiving end of racism and criticism and negativity and archaic narratives for a long, long time, and undertones of discrimination. So, there’s nothing particularly new to me. I think it’s more about the bigger picture… it’s not just about one individual, it’s not just about one use of that term – it’s the bigger picture.”

Meanwhile, Piquet apologized to Lewis Hamilton on Wednesday, saying the racial term he used about the Mercedes driver was “ill thought out” but was not meant to be offensive.