Lewis Hamilton: Racial element to FIA president comments on F1 stars and rappers

Lewis Hamilton believes there is a “racial element” to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s claim that Formula One drivers should not act like rappers.

Ben Sulayem made the contentious comment in an interview in which he said F1 stars have a responsibility to stop swearing on the radio.

The expletive messages are bleeped out and then broadcast during races.

“We have to differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music,” Ben Sulaymen, 62, told Autosport.

“We’re not rappers, you know. They say the f-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are (us).”

Responding to Ben Sulayem’s remarks ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, Hamilton, 39, said: “With what he (Ben Sulayem) 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.”

The FIA has been contacted for a response.

Ben Sulayem, elected as FIA president in December 2021, has been involved in a string of controversies.

He was cleared by his own organisation’s ethics committee in March after he was accused of meddling with the result of last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and attempting to block the certification of F1’s £500m Las Vegas Grand Prix on the Strip.

Hamilton claimed then that Ben Sulayem has “never” had his backing.

Ben Sulayem fined the seven-time world champion 50,000 EUR (£42,000) for failing to attend the FIA’s prize-giving gala in the days after his defeat to Max Verstappen in the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton then had a long-running duel with Ben Sulayem over the wearing of jewellery in his Mercedes cockpit.

Hamilton was forced to remove his nose stud ahead of the 2022 British Grand Prix before he was afforded an FIA medical exemption to wear the piercings following “concerns about disfigurement” the following season.

In the Autosport interview, Ben Sulayem revealed he has addressed his concerns over the use of bad language with Formula One management.

And Hamilton continued: “When I was 22 I didn’t think of it as much. It was more the emotions are firing and you said whatever came to mind, forgetting how many people were listening and that kids were listening.

“You listen to some of the young drivers now and they have not got that yet. At some stage they will. I am sure if they brought in penalties for it, it would stop and maybe that is something that is needed.

“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.”

Verstappen, who earlier this year urged critics of his X-rated radio outbursts to “turn the volume down”, was urged by the FIA moderator during the official press conference to preview Sunday’s race to watch his language after he said his car was “f*****” at the previous round in Azerbaijan.

“Excuse me for the language but come on,” said Verstappen. “Like, what are we? Five-year-olds? Six-year-olds?

“Even if a five-year-old or six-year-old is watching, they will eventually swear anyway, even if their parents will not allow it.

“A lot of people say a lot of bad things when they are full of adrenaline in other sports. It just doesn’t get picked up.

“We’re here probably for entertainment purposes. It starts with not broadcasting it. If you don’t broadcast it, no one will know.

“It’s just probably the world that we live in. It seems like people are a bit more sensitive to stuff.”