Lewis Hamilton has responded to FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s comments about trying to stamp swearing over the team radio out.
Lewis Hamilton has accused comments made by FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem about clamping down on swearing by F1 drivers as having “a racial element”.
Ben Sulayem spoke about the need for drivers to act more responsibly over team radio and not swear as much, insisting that drivers were “not rappers”.
Three-time F1 champion Max Verstappen criticised the approach, believing FOM could simply not choose to broadcast radio messages with swearing included.
When asked for his input, Hamilton agreed with Ben Sulayem’s approach of trying to clamp down on the use of swearing, but felt there was a “racial element” to his choice of words.
“There are two segments to that because I’ve only heard of that today,” Hamilton explained to media including RacingNews365 when Ben Sulayem’s comments were put to him.
“On one side, when I was 22, I didn’t think of it as much and it was more your emotions are just firing and you’re just saying whatever comes to mind, not forgetting how many people and kids are listening.
“I agree in that sense that you listen to some of the younger drivers, and they’ve not got it yet, and at some stage, they probably will.
“I’m sure if you say there are penalties for it, people will stop. I don’t know whether that is needed, but I definitely think there is a little bit too much [swearing].”
But then Hamilton added: “With what he is saying, I don’t like how he expressed it. Saying it was rappers was very stereotypical, and if you think most rappers are black, it really points it towards, ‘We’re not like them’.
“So I think those were the wrong choice of words, and there is a racial element there, but as I said, I agree with cleaning it up a little bit.”
