Hamilton wants to see more change in Saudi Arabia

Seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton called on Friday (Mar 25) for more change in Saudi Arabia, speaking of being shocked to hear about mass executions and mentioning a letter he said had been sent to him from a youth facing the death penalty.

The Mercedes driver was asked at a news conference ahead of practice for Sunday's Saudi Grand Prix in Jeddah whether he had reservations about racing in the country, which debuted in F1 last year and has a long-term contract.

"It's mind-blowing to hear the stories," said the Briton.

Saudi Arabia said this month it had executed 81 men, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian, for terrorism and other offences, in the kingdom's biggest mass execution in decades.

Also this month, a Saudi Arabian court handed down a new death sentence against a young man for crimes committed when he was 14 years old after a higher court overturned a previous ruling. That man is now 17.

Lewis appeared to refer to that case, saying he had heard that he had been sent a letter from a 14-year-old on death row. "At 14, you don't know what the hell you are doing in life," he said.

The Saudi government media office CIC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Saudi Arabia denies accusations of human rights abuses and says it protects its national security through its laws.

Saudi authorities had in 2020 scrapped the death penalty for juveniles and said they would apply this retroactively. The kingdom's state-backed Human Rights Commission later clarified that the ban on the death penalty only applied to a lesser category of offences under Islamic law known as "ta'zeer."

Hamilton said last December that he did not feel comfortable racing in Saudi Arabia and on Friday he said he felt the same.

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