Lewis Hamilton and anti racism

[Changemyname901]

I don’t really understand Hamilton’s anti-racism stance. He is loudly campaigning against Black racism and that’s great, no complaints at all, good for him. But then he spends his free time hanging out with Philip Green, enjoying the spoils of Greens wealth, hanging out on his yacht, wearing his clothes. All of which Green has got from using slave labourers in places like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. He is well known for exploiting people in such countries from young ages.

This makes no sense to me? How can you talk about slavery, as Hamilton has, but then enjoy the spoils of and be good friends with a man who uses slave labour to create his clothes and his empire? I feel like it’s selective. If you’re fighting racism, shouldn’t you be anti all aspects? I’m not saying he should be campaigning about other aspects of racism or modern slavery, if his passion is Black racism then that’s not a problem, he doesn’t have to shout about all other issues in the world, but I feel very cross that he can overlook Greens behaviour and physically benefit from it when he is such an advocate of anti-racism? Green has also been accused of racism and a black worker reported that he said something which I won’t repeat. How can Hamilton overlook all this? Am I being unreasonable to think this? It’s pit me off him to be honest, and I have zero desire to listen to him because I feel like it’s so hypocritical?

Before anyone questions me, I try very hard to shop ethically for food (and clothes when I bother to buy them), so I feel as though I can comment. I wouldn’t support someone like Topshop. Hamilton May also shop ethically, but to hang out on holiday on his yacht and enjoy his wealth just seems such bullshit to me?

I like LH as a racing driver - he is the current champion. Yes, it does get a bit boring when the same person wins all the time, but until someone who is better comes along or he changes cars, that's how it will be. I started disliking him when reading about him having his main home in Switzerland to avoid paying taxes.

Same as I have an issue with Emma Thompson and her Extinction Rebellion involvement and then jetting back to the states in her first class booth drinking champagne.

His tshirt he wears at F1 - don't really care.

@SharonasCorona

Every single time he pits and ends up on the 'wrong' tyre, in traffic, or behind an opponent, he whines down team radio about 'why did you put me on this strategy/tire/stop now' etc, implying that he plays no role at all in decision making and has no control over mid-race adaptations.

You’re quibbling about he says during a live race when he can be smashed into at any time by a car driving 60 miles + per hour?

Lol, try 160 + mph

It's arrogance personified. Every successful sports person is arrogant. Some hide it better than others

You’re quibbling about he says during a live race when he can be smashed into at any time by a car driving 60 miles + per hour?

I'm "quibbling" about his utter lack of self-awareness. He presumably has input on strategy, yet when the strategy isn't playing out as he expects, it's invariably 'why did you?', i.e. someone else's fault.

Use of the radio requires pressing a button and talking. All drivers use it frequently and without issue, especially so on straights. The risk of being 'smashed into' is in no way relevant when it comes to communication over the radio.

It's arrogance personified. Every successful sports person is arrogant. Some hide it better than others

Yes, but there aren't many people who get away with questioning their employers in a public forum when the person themselves is by far and away the single biggest determining factor in controlling outcome. It tends to alienate your colleagues, infuriate your employer, and get you fired.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

But isn’t that just your opinion? Maybe the team know LH is letting off steam. Here’s a bit on the team:

‘It’s also important to note that, while the Mercedes operation is enormous and well-funded, this requires equally enormous organisation and management to make work. The team culture is laudable, avoiding a blame culture but making it possible for those making mistakes to hold their hand up or weaknesses to be highlighted without counter-productive reactions. No team embodies ‘win as a team, lose as a team’ better than Mercedes and that is a significant part of its success. This wasn’t always the case at Brackley, after all.

For such a massive organisation, it feels like a close-knit and honest team.’

the-race.com/formula-1/is-mercedes-f1s-greatest-team-of-all-time-yet/

I don't think you can argue that the language someone else uses is just 'opinion'. It's self-evident he's blaming other Mercedes team mates.

Even if it is just frustration and letting off steam, it's completely unwise to do it in a publicly available media and really doesn't paint him in a good light in so far as working with him as a colleague and 'team' efforts go.

Merc might well be all about 'win as a team/lose as a team', but it's abundantly clear through his repeated outbursts that they have at least one senior employee who believes he is utterly infallable.

I think it’s opinion because we don’t know how the team relate outside of the public eye and the results speak for themselves. If the team was divided due to LH’s mid race comments then it would impact on success.

I can’t take him seriously until he pays his fucking taxes.

@RainbowParadise

I never understand the level of criticism he gets, and I can't help but think so much of it is based on the colour of his skin. It's abhorrent. I often wonder why Andy Murray, the most successful British tennis player has a knighthood, and Lewis Hamilton, the most successful British F1 driver, both of the same generation, does not. Hmmm....

He gets so much more hatred than other f1 drivers. I've never thought he is arrogant- he's confident (as he should be) and always seems friendly (everyone seems to love Kimi Raikkonen- to me the 'ice man' and basically being rude af to everyone routine has surely worn thin by now). I don't get the comment that he 'throws his team under a bus' he seems to have a great relationship with Mercedes and Toto Wolff. His achievements are incredible, made all the more so by how hard he and his family worked to get him there. He is from a working class background, completely different to many of the other drivers.

I'm a fan of his, no I don't think he's perfect, who is? But I understand and respect completely his stance on BLM and it's obvious why he feels the way he does. The racism he experiences is disgusting. His voice is a powerful and unique one and it's great he can step forward like he does. The people criticising him for the t-shirt on Sunday- you are aware that Mercedes backed him completely? Good on them for doing so.

I totally agree with all you have said. I really don't think anyone can deny that he gets far more hate than any other F1 driver. It's hard to believe that a lot of it is not down to his colour.

It's not just in this country either. I was disgusted when he won the Italian GP last year and was booed so much. No way was it down to him not being Italian or driving for Ferrari. They don't boo other non Italian/Ferrari drivers like that.

I too cannot understand why he doesn't have a knighthood. I like Andy Murray and think it's great he has one but I also think Lewis deserves one.

I don't think he is arrogant either. Also he appreciates his fans, always mentions them, make sure to go and see them after a lot of races (especially the British GP). I loved it when he crowd surfed. People talk all the time on F1 forums about the fact he will stop for photos, have a chat, sign autographs etc.

I, like you, totally disagree that he "throws his team under a bus". He may say things in the heat of the moment but I feel he wears his heart on his sleeve. He seems quite an emotional person and, obviously, wants to win so gets upset when things seem to be going wrong. He gets upset/annoyed with himself quite often. He also definitely does own up to his mistakes. When interviewed he will say he did something wrong plus his posts on facebook and twitter.

His social media posts show him to be thoughtful and considerate and also quite a religious person.

As I said, I know he supports quite a few charities especially ones for children and animals. He also helped Billy Monger (the young driver who lost both his legs) a lot.

No, of course his not perfect and I don't agree with everything he says but I admire him for achieving so much as a black man born into a working class family who lived in a council house in a sport that is normally reserved for the white rich or children of the white rich.

We're all hypocrites, we all could do more, although some, such as the mega-rich, could more easily do more. What's new?

It's not just in this country either. I was disgusted when he won the Italian GP last year and was booed so much. No way was it down to him not being Italian or driving for Ferrari. They don't boo other non Italian/Ferrari drivers like that.

I agree with a lot of your post but I’m pretty sure they booed Vettel when he won all the time too.

Yes, I think they're winning despite it, not that it doesn't occur or that they don't care. There have been plenty of instances where the response has been a curt "get your head down and concentrate on the driving".

No employee is perfect, heaven alone knows most of the other drivers aren't beyond having a whine down the radio, but this isn't a thread about other drivers it's about one specific individual. Ayrton Senna was similarly arrogant in the utter belief in his own infallibility, and while I respect both drivers' talents and achievements, I'm also perfectly comfortable stating that I find them both insufferably arrogant and impossible to warm to.

To actually answer the OP and touch on the BLM issue, I don't have an opinion on it really. I think it's one of those things that someone should be absolutely free to express how they choose, or at liberty to participate or otherwise as they see fit. My opinion of Hamilton isn't shaped by his BLM activism, it's a cause I'm supportive of and I would probably act in a similar manner in his shoes truth be told, but I still think he's guilty of enormous hypocrisy on environmental issues, and I can't warm to him as a racing driver because of his on-track persona.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX I take it you haven't heard Kimi's messages on the radio? Or Vettel's? Or Grosjean's? Alonso's?

@SinisterBumFacedCat what about all the others who live abroad especially in Monaco?

I think some people are jealous of him living there as the same old comments are trotted out all the time about not paying taxes.

Good bloody luck to him living in Monaco. I would go and live there like a shot if I could.

Plenty of other drivers live there. Where is all the hate for them? Alex Albon is British and lives in Monaco

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

Yes, I think they're winning despite it, not that it doesn't occur or that they don't care. There have been plenty of instances where the response has been a curt "get your head down and concentrate on the driving".

But thats a good thing that they can say that to him! I love that

@XDownwiththissortofthingX sorry I definitely hit not . Not sure how that happened sorry

I take it you haven't heard Kimi's messages on the radio? Or Vettel's? Or Grosjean's? Alonso's?

Of course I have, they all moan and complain to a degree, I've already stated as much, the difference is you don't hear any of them complaining about strategy decisions with the frequency that Hamilton does, and certainly not in the manner he complains, i.e. implying that the team have screwed up and that they themselves have played no role in that or have no input into decisions.

@EverdeRose

Hamilton is a hypocritical asshat.

He wanted a united stance against racism in f1, complained very loudly that some drivers wouldn't take the knee which made them look like they weren't united, but after the first week wore a different t-shirt to the rest of the drivers supporting a political movement and then wore 'arrest the cops' one last week.

Massive PETA supporter but owns a dog that he's made vegan.

Squaking on Instagram about how people aren't kind to the environment yet races in f1 and travels the world by private jet.

Described where he grew up on Stevenage as 'being in the slums'.

Absolute entitled prick.

^ This, many times over.

He needs to do one!

he makes me cringe from my toes to my ears, so awkward.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

I take it you haven't heard Kimi's messages on the radio? Or Vettel's? Or Grosjean's? Alonso's?

Of course I have, they all moan and complain to a degree, I've already stated as much, the difference is you don't hear any of them complaining about strategy decisions with the frequency that Hamilton does, and certainly not in the manner he complains, i.e. implying that the team have screwed up and that they themselves have played no role in that or have no input into decisions.

I don't get your POV at all but we're all entitled to one.

Kimi is aggressive and abusive at times. I've never heard Hamilton actually be abusive. He's racing under incredible pressure, I'd imagine the team understand the position he is in and know he's venting under pressure. And I really don't think he's that bad compared to Kimi, Vettel, Alonso.

He thanks them profusely after every race win. It just seems like you're looking for faults here when he's no different to any other driver in that regard.

I liked him until he started slagging off the town he grew up in, because I grew up there too. The whole town was so proud of him until he did that. Even the local Asda had a space in their car park with a Formula-1 car painted on it for him in case he ever turned up! It's not there any more, they turned it into a disabled space instead.

@SkyinthePie

I liked him until he started slagging off the town he grew up in, because I grew up there too. The whole town was so proud of him until he did that. Even the local Asda had a space in their car park with a Formula-1 car painted on it for him in case he ever turned up! It's not there any more, they turned it into a disabled space instead.

Being from Croydon, I don't understand this concept. Every famous person who was ever from there slagged it off. David Bowie was particularly vicious.

[quote lynsey91]**@XDownwiththissortofthingX I take it you haven't heard Kimi's messages on the radio? Or Vettel's? Or Grosjean's? Alonso's?

@SinisterBumFacedCat what about all the others who live abroad especially in Monaco?

I think some people are jealous of him living there as the same old comments are trotted out all the time about not paying taxes.

Good bloody luck to him living in Monaco. I would go and live there like a shot if I could.

Plenty of other drivers live there. Where is all the hate for them? Alex Albon is British and lives in Monaco[/quote]
I wouldn’t live in Monaco, the housing is ridiculously cramped and expensive and it’s full of Tax Dodgers.

There was an investigation a few years ago that found he owned a private jet and registered it in the Bahamas. He’s loaded and still feels the need to tax dodge. It’s not about being jealous, if he’s going to become an ambassador for social justice he needs to reflect that in his behaviour, including paying his taxes.

I hope he wins every race for the next ten years as watching idiots start frothing is hilarious