Lewis Hamilton says F1’s ‘older voices’ should no longer be given a platform

Lewis Hamilton has called for Bernie Ecclestone and Sir Jackie Stewart to be censored, and declared “enough is enough” after Nelson Piquet’s racial slur.

The seven-time world champion was speaking ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix – days after 69-year-old Piquet’s offensive reference to Hamilton emerged from a podcast recorded last November.

Triple world champion Stewart, 83, said recently that Hamilton should “resign” after struggling for results this season, while Ecclestone, 91, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Thursday that he would “take a bullet” for Vladimir Putin, also describing the Russian president as a “first-class person”.

“I don’t know why we are continuing to give these older voices a platform,” said Hamilton.

“They are speaking for our sport, but we are looking to go somewhere different and they are not representative of who we are now in the sport and where we are planning to go.

“If we are looking to grow our audiences in places like the US and South Africa, we need to be giving the younger people a platform that is more representative of today’s time and who we are trying to be.

“It is not just about one individual, or the use of that term (by Piquet), but the bigger picture.”

Hamilton, 37, continued: “I put to F1 and to the media that we should not be giving these people a platform – these old voices, who, whether it is subconscious or conscious, do not agree people like me should be in this sport.

“I don’t think in the last couple of weeks a day has gone by where some of the older people, who have not been relevant in our sport for decades, are trying to say negative things and bring me down.

“But I am still here, still standing strong and trying to do my work and pushing diversity.