Lewis Hamilton on Thursday said there was a “racial element” to International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Mohammed ben Sulayem’s recent comments regarding drivers swearing during Formula 1 races.
In an interview with motorsport.com, Ben Sulayem said: “We have to differentiate between our sport — motorsport — and rap music” when referring to drivers having a responsibility to stop swearing on the radio.
“We’re not rappers, you know,” Ben Sulayem said.
Photo: Reuters
Responding to those remarks ahead of tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix, seven-time champion Hamilton said: “With what he said, I don’t like how he has expressed it. Saying ‘rappers’ is very stereotypical.”
“If you think about it, most rappers are black. So it says, ‘We are not like them.’ So I think those are the wrong choice of words and there is a racial element there,” he added.
Hamilton, the only black driver in F1, did say that he also has concerns about swearing.
“I definitely think there is a little bit too much of it. I agree it needs cleaning up, but it is also good to show some emotion. We are not robots,” the Mercedes driver said.
The FIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There have been prior disagreements between Hamilton and Ben Sulayem.
They previously clashed over the FIA president’s attempts to enforce a ban on wearing jewelry while driving.
Hamilton in March said that Ben Sulayem “never” had his backing, while commenting on a legal dispute at the time involving Susie Wolff, director of the all-female junior racing series F1 Academy, and the FIA.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
‘GLOBAL PRESSURE’: LA’s Dave Roberts said that it was difficult to appreciate the ‘pressure on a global scale’ his starter was under ‘pitching for his country’ The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled out US$1 billion for Japanese talent in the off-season and it is paying off in the MLB playoffs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Friday outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic post-season matchup of Japanese-born starters, while the Dodgers got home runs from Kike Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 and advance to the National League Championship Series. “It’s pretty sweet,” a smiling Freddie Freeman said. Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the win, getting pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a
RSS