Lewis Hamilton demands action not ‘empty words’ to promote F1 diversity

Lewis Hamilton has demanded that F1 and its teams take genuine action against racism and to promote diversity, saying that older voices are holding the sport back.

After the former driver Nelson Piquet’s use of a racist epithet to describe Hamilton earlier this week, the British driver has called out his sport for merely paying lip service towards change.

Related: F1 seeks distance from Ecclestone after his claim he would ‘take bullet’ for Putin

Piquet’s slur was widely condemned but Hamilton, who has taken a strident anti-racism stance in F1 for more than two years, insists there is a bigger picture to address beyond the personal insult.

“It’s all well to stand on the grid and talk about inclusivity but they are just empty words without putting action in,” he said.

Hamilton has backed his words with deeds. On Thursday his and Mercedes’ Ignite Partnership revealed their first grants as part of their joint commitment to improving diversity in the sport. Between them they have committed $6.2m to the fund and Hamilton has donated £20m to his Mission44 project to promote diversity.

Yet he was frustrated at the lack of action by other F1 teams. In the report his Hamilton commission made into improving inclusivity in racing it recommended an F1 charter to provide funding to implement diversity as well as providing access with apprenticeships and to support activity by black community groups. The charter had been agreed but remained unsigned.

“I have been on calls with all the F1 teams who all agreed to be part of this F1 charter and it’s still not signed, it’s still not under way,” he said.

Hamilton has also taken criticism recently from both former F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone and three-times world champion Jackie