Hamilton pushes back against 'old voices' over racism

SILVERSTONE, England (AP) — Lewis Hamilton said Thursday that Formula One should ignore “old voices” and reject racism as it focus on becoming more inclusive, even as reigning world champion Max Verstappen said his “father-in-law,” should not be banned from the F1 paddock.

Hamilton, the seven-time F1 champion and only Black driver, was reacting to comments made last year by three-time F1 champion Nelson Piquet referring to Hamilton by a racial term. The word in question was brought to attention this week. Piquet is the father of Verstappen's girlfriend, Kelly Piquet.

Former longtime F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone defended Piquet on Thursday, said he was surprised Hamilton hadn't “brushed it aside," and expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

“I don’t know why we are continuing to give these older voices a platform because they’re speaking upon our sport and we’re looking to go somewhere completely different. And it’s not representative, I think, of who we are as a sport now and where we’re planning to go,” Hamilton said, without mentioning either Piquet or Ecclestone by name.

“These old voices, whether subconsciously or consciously, do not agree that people like me, for example, should be in a sport like this, do not agree women should be here," Hamilton said. “Discrimination is not something we should be projecting or promoting.”

In an apparent response to Ecclestone's comments, Hamilton added: “No one should have to brush off racism, and it shouldn't be for me to brush it off."

Verstappen said that Piquet had been wrong to use a word he described as “very, very offensive” but doesn't consider him to be racist. He added Piquet's lifetime paddock access given to former F1 champions