Current Formula One Champion, Lewis Hamilton has revealed that the Black Lives Matter movement gave him extra spark in 2020, a year he won his seventh Formula 1 world title, equalled Michael Schumacher’s F1 record of winning seven World Championships, and surpassed the German’s total of 91 grands prix victories.
Also, he was voted the 2020 BBC Sports Personality of the Year this month.
The 35-year-old Champion was always taking a knee on the grid and put on anti-racism slogans to support the cause during the season.
While speaking to BBC Radio 4’s program recently, Hamilton said: “I had this extra drive in me to get to the end of those races.
While speaking further to historian and BBC presenter Professor David Olusoga, he said: “It was a different drive than what I’ve had in me in the past – to get to the end of those races first so that I could utilise that platform [for Black Lives Matter] and shine the light as bright as possible.”
Olusoga asked if he had been concerned about the response to his position and Hamilton replied: “There is no way that I could stay silent. And once I said that to myself, I didn’t hold any fear.”
When asked about racism in his sport and the fact that he is the only black F1 driver, he said: “There are many other young kids of colour that deserve the opportunity to progress, have a great education, [who could] be an engineer or whatever it is they want. But the fact is, the opportunity is not the same for them.”
