No FIA penalty for Hamilton over podium t-shirt
Sep.16 - The FIA has backed away from issuing a potential penalty to Lewis Hamilton over his wearing of a politically-themed t-shirt on the Mugello podium.
Earlier, a spokesman for F1's governing body admitted that "active consideration" was being given to determining whether the six-time world champion breached the sport's anti-political rules.
It is believed, however, that it has at least been made clear to the teams that political messaging in official forums like the podium and FIA press conferences is inappropriate.
Those concerns appear to be justified, with 1996 world champion Damon Hill admitting there had been "such a mixed reaction" to Hamilton's highlighting of a police shooting in America.
"But F1 has always had its head in the sand over any issue that might make people think about anything other than F1," Hill added.
"It has to make space for these messages if it is to be embraced by the wider world."
Indeed, Mercedes is backing its 35-year-old star driver completely, with Toto Wolff declaring in Mugello that the team is "leaving it to Lewis about what kind of t-shirts he wants to wear and what he does to support that" initiative.
Hamilton, meanwhile, insists that he will not stop his activism.
"I want you to know that I won't stop, I won't let up, I won't give up on using this platform to shed light on what I believe is right," he said on Tuesday amid news of the FIA investigation.
"This is a journey for all of us to come together and challenge the world on every level of injustice, not only racial."
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
STCU&D. If he keeps this up, people will stop watching F1.
Arrest the person who shot two cops sitting in their car in LA!
Arrest the protestors thst blocked the hospital and chsntrd "Die Cops die".
How many different shirts will we need?
Just STFU&D you hypocrit!
F1 shouldn't be a platform for politic statements. Sometimes you need something that you can switch off to everyday life. Like when went to watch films in the 50's. This just shows how random decisions are still made by FIA. Maybe encouraging more black drives in F1 would be a help for the sport, Hamilton should look at in his new E team.
F1 is going the way of the NFL. The NFL attendance is down 10 % since the kneeling started. I stopped watching the NFL. I am out of here!
FIA just to afraid to do anything
Hamilton has to be aware of the controversy he is causing and yet could care less and said he will continue to use his forum of F1 and F1 stands by idly and, as usual, does nothing. F1 has the ability to stop any action that could cost F1 fans and thereby a loss of income. F1 hasn't the luxury of losing income and should listen to the outcry of its fans. Continue putting your head in the sand and that's all you'll find when you put your hand in your pocket. Keep it up. See what your fans are saying to you. Are you going to listen to just one driver instead of all of your fans? That is idiocy. WTFU.
OK, contrary opinion. I remember James Hunt's antics in the 70's (makes me smile). He was roundly criticized by much of the racing community for his "immoral" behaviour. I don't agree with HAM's promoting his opinions on the podium, but he has a better reason for his maverick behaviour than did James. I agree with STFU&D but he guy is winning races. Perhaps a positive result might be that he attracts more diversity to our sport. Just my opinion...might be wrong.
Does anyone knows how much this activist movement pay him?
As demonstrated on this site, the vast majority of people are against F1 becoming a platform for these very noisy minorities. F1 must remember that their job is to ensure that F1 is an exciting motorsport, NOT a vehicle for the posturing of these minorities. As for LH, if he wants to promote his BLM cause, he should join any other BLM group of marxists and use a different platform. It's already very painful to watch boring races as a result of dumb FIA rules that constrains car development to endure LH 's hypocrisy.
It is disgusting the way LH is behaving! To the detriment of F1 As always he is allowed to do whatever he likes & F### everyone else. His political ranting is completely out of order & I for one am sick & tired of it.Its high time he left the sport & let us all get back to racing.
I couldn't say better. It's bloody pathetic that FIA allow F1 to become involved in politics. LH is the king of posturing, lathing on to a flavour of the moment cause. It's negative all way around, for F1 and for the BLM cause. There is nothing that normal people hate most that when a small minority wants to shove this rubbish down their throat.
I can't agree that black people being killed by police is, in your opinion, "rubbish"
if Hamilton wants to express his opinion publicly, fine, but don't do it on the podium, please. At least part of the appeal of racing is that it rewards outright performance, not politics, religion or anything else highly controversial. Not to mention the fact that he's British, not American, so why stick his foot in such troubled waters, regardless of his views concerning injustice? If an American driver made similar podium comments concerning equally troubling political issues in the UK, would that be considered appropriate? What about how the Chinese treat the citizens of Hong Kong, or...? How far will this go?
I would ask that the F1 authorities allow their drivers to say (or wear) whatever they want, especially such controversial statements, but if they do, no podium appearance, no matter how they finish. If they insist on being controversial, they can receive their trophies later, after the event coverage is over for the day. Ditto for interviews broadcast as part of race coverage.
Excellent Idea!
Besides being a turnoff for those trying to enjoy an F1 race, despite covid, becoming involved in American politics by a Brit seems somehow inappropriate. Such opining should be left to media exposure outside F1, and each sport (including American football). Please don't allow F1 to be ruined, more than it already is! Please, please don't do what Hollywood has done for the cinema industry!
Noone else would be allowed to get away with it.
In my opinion Black Lives Matter is reciest and it offends me. Lewis should stop the political stuff and just get on with racing which he is good at. BLM is a left wing organisation and it's founded advocates looting so if Lewis contines to support it then I will stop supporting F1 as I believe many others will looking at the previous posts. So whats it to be Lewis F1 or Politics and what are you saying with BLM, your life ,matters, your Dad's life matters, Nick's life matters but not your Mum,. Listen to others who say all life matters said by Chase and Jean.
OK, I agree that HAM's podium performance was egregious, full stop. BUT, you guys either do not live in the US, or are drinking the FOXTrump kool-aid. Lewis is protesting police brutality in the US, not making a generic political protest. That brutality does exist and he is correct to point it out, but ANY type of advocate t-shirt is unwelcome on the podium. IMO, we should respect his right to use his platform to protest the brutality, and confine our criticism to his methods that negatively effect our sport. Perhaps it would benefit all of us to walk the streets of an underprivileged big US city in black skin. You are all missing his point.
Well said!
When you say "confine our criticism to his methods that negatively effect our sport", what exactly do you mean? Do you think that when accepting his trophy on the podium, his making such statements on his t-shirt do, or do not, negatively affect our sport?
Rich, please read the first sentence in my post. He should absolutely NOT have been allowed to wear a cause based t-shirt on the podium. It was an egregious act and he was wrong to do so. My point is that HAM has the right to use his high profile platform to voice his opinions, but that does not include using our sport as a prop. He is at the track to race, not proselytize.
OK, thanks for the clarification. I now understand what you meant to say, but honestly the sentences following the first one sorta threw me off, at least somewhat. Cheers!
Disgusting the way LH is allowed to get away with all his BLM & racist comments! Anyone else would be taken to task! KEEP ALL POLITICS OUT OF ALL SPORT.
So Lewis wants the FIA to encourage more black kids to enter F1, maybe they want to be footballers. athletes, musicians, actors or some other profession that has a lot of black people in it. Of sports why is there no black people in snooker or darts. F1 seems to cost a lot of money to get to the top so maybe the FIA should spend some of it's money promoting youngsters into the sport whtever their colour.
I amazed people have such thin skin about this stuff. At the margin, I don't want to know peoples foolish and uninformed ideas about politics. It detracts from the person delivering the message more than anything else. But to see people get their underwear bunched up over a t-shirt. Wow! Life sure has dealt you a terrible hand! F1 is meant to be a mild distraction from the terrible things going on in the world. I watch it to be entertained. I don't want to see it turned in to the cause of the day on an ongoing basis. At the same time, I stuns me people get so excited and amped up about something as trivial as a t-shirt. Lets try to keep things in perspective.
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.