Six-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton will launch a commission to help draft more young people from black backgrounds into motorsports and help the sport achieve more diversity.
The 35-year-old Mercedes driver said in a column in the Sunday Times newspaper that he was working with the Royal Academy of Engineering to create a research partnership, the Hamilton Commission.
Hamilton spoke about the racism he has faced throughout his racing career, noting that despite his success in the sport, it is still marred by “institutional barriers that have kept F1 highly exclusive.”
“It is not enough to point to me, or to a single new black hire, as a meaningful example of progress. Thousands of people are employed across this industry and that group needs to be more representative of society,” he added.
The Briton noted that education was “the key to unlocking a more equal society.”
“Winning championships is great, but I want to be remembered for my work creating a more equal society through education. That’s what drives me,” he said.
TRT reports that the Hamilton Commission will explore ways of ensure motorsports become vehicles of change, to enable more young people from black backgrounds get opportunities.
It will also look at the lack of role models, the barriers to people from more diverse backgrounds and “problematic hiring practices” that mean fewer black graduates go into engineering professions.
“The time for platitudes and token gestures is over,” said the Mercedes driver.
“I hope that The Hamilton Commission enables real, tangible and measurable change.
“When I look back in 20 years, I want to see the sport that gave a shy, working-class black kid from Stevenage so much opportunity, become as diverse as the complex and multicultural world we live in.”
