FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem recently expressed his intention to address the issue of swearing over the team radio. He drew a comparison between cursing drivers and rap music, stating, “There’s a lot of swearing in that kind of music, but we are not rappers.” Lewis Hamilton took issue with this statement, pointing out the ‘racist undertone’ of these rapper-related remarks.
“I think he (FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem) has articulated it very poorly,” said the seven-time world champion to the media in Singapore. “The fact that he draws a comparison with ‘a rapper’ is very stereotypical,” explained Hamilton. “Everyone knows that most rappers are black. If you then say that we are ‘not like them’, that’s a wrong choice of words – it even has a racist undertone.”
Lewis Hamilton has had disagreements with Ben Sulayem before. During the race weekend in Melbourne, the 39-year-old driver stated that the FIA president ‘never had his support’. “There is a lack of responsibility within the FIA,” he said at the time. “Things are happening behind closed doors, there is no transparency, and nobody takes responsibility.”
