Lewis Hamilton has been very vocal about the Black Lives Matters movement considering he remains the only black driver in F1's 70-year-old history. He has come out and criticised the appointment of former driver Vitaly Petrov as the F1 Stewart who recently controversially didn't support the kneeling protests before the races.
“Honestly, I don't understand the kneeling ceremony,” Petrov said in the interview with Russia sports new site Championat.com.
Lewis Hamilton uses his position as the sport's foremost star to voice social issues
Photo Credit: AFP
“According to our traditions, people kneel only on two occasions - in a temple, before God, and when you propose to your future wife. With this gesture, they are trying to draw attention to the fight against racism. Russia has a different mentality, and we don't have such a problem that Hamilton talks about,” said the former driver.
Petrov added fuel to the fire by then saying that he didn't understand what Hamilton's Breonna Taylor T-Shirt meant at Mugello. “And what if one of the drivers confesses to being gay and will go out with a rainbow flag and urge everyone to become gay? There can be a lot of examples,” he further said.
Hamilton now has come out stated his surprise in Petrov's appointment as F1 Stewart for the Portuguese GP.
Lewis Hamilton is set to become the most successful F1 driver of all time at Portugal
“I would say it's a surprise to see they would be hiring someone that has those beliefs and is so vocal about things that we're trying to fight against. So you should take it up with them, there's nothing I can particularly do about it,” said the 6-time world champion.
“But we should be including people here who are with the times, who are understanding of the times that we are living in, and sensitive to the matters that are surrounding us. I don't understand what their goal is or why particularly he's here. It's not like they don't have any other good options,” added the 91-time race winner who could go past Michael Schumacher's record in Portugal.
