Originally posted on my old blog 10/07/2020
On the 22nd of June, in wake of the worldwide protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Formula 1 announced their We Race As One initiative. Its aims are to ‘fight challenges of COVID-19 and global inequality’, with the logo of a rainbow made up of the colours of each team. Whilst I’m happy to see the sport step up and recognise it has plenty of work to do regarding diversity, I feel the initiative is by no means perfect. Meaningful change obviously cannot occur overnight, work needs to be done on a grassroots level to get people from a variety of backgrounds and of different races interested and invested in not only karting, but also the STEM and media sides of the sport. Beyond the end racism t-shirts, F1 has promised to establish a diversity task force over the coming months, as well as a diversity foundation, and I am hopeful that these will be effective at both combating the lack of diversity and the covert racism in the sport, and diversifying its personnel. However, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that they have conflated the issues of Coronavirus and Racism under one umbrella. It feels almost like they are trying to soften the impact of their anti-racism stance, placating those who object to it by tying it to the virus – something we are all united in wanting to beat. It also means they can get away with slightly fluffy language about ‘unity’, rather than an aggressive stance on challenging racism and the blatant lack of diversity through all levels of the sport. The rainbow also is a strange one. I realise that in the UK at least it has been a sign of support and respect for the NHS and key workers during the pandemic, but as a global symbol is more widely associated with pride and the LGBTQ+ community. It seems odd to me that no one thought twice about placing the rainbow at the forefront of the movement during Pride Month. Only right at the end of their posts on Instagram and their website do they clarify that diversity and discrimination cover gender, ethnicity, sexuality and disability. This could have been better woven into the announcement as a whole, but again I feel that whilst the sport 100% needs to diversify so it is not only populated by straight, able-bodied men, it is a separate issue to confronting racism. Shoehorning this issue along with Corona into this particular initiative only serves to further water down its anti-racist stance.
It is well known that F1 is an extremely pricey sport to get into, and requires a great amount of input, both in terms of time and money, from families, with little guarantee of great professional success. To an extent the lack of racial diversity in F1 can be seen as reflective of the racist structures that restrict people of colour socio-economically. Money needs to be invested into giving young, black talent the financial aid they need to make it into the sport. Critics of the push for diversity have stated that drivers should make it based on their talent alone and that F1 is a sport for the best of the best, regardless of the colour of their skin. I have to laugh at this argument, as it ignores the fact that if not everybody is given the opportunity to show their talent, if black people do not have the platform to show their talent, how can the sport be showcasing the best drivers in the world? They are ignoring a giant sector of society! If the sons of billionaires are able to access the sport through their parents’ money, people of colour should be able to access the sport through their talent. A certain degree of positive discrimination is necessary, from the grassroots up.
Lewis Hamilton, as the sport’s only black driver, has been a key driving force behind the sport’s pledge to diversify and put an end to racism. Lewis’s importance as a black driver cannot be understated, as people can only imagine themselves in positions or jobs where they see themselves represented, and hence he is a beacon of hope for young black people with a love of Formula 1. But the movement should not solely be on his shoulders. It should not be the responsibility of black people to educate white people on their own trauma and the effects of racism. I read something over the weekend addressing the actions taken by the drivers to display their opposition to racism, which for some involved taking the knee. The journalist asked in response to Verstappen saying the drivers were all talking about the best way to fight racism why they didn’t just ask Hamilton what to do and then do it? No! Whilst Hamilton’s voice is significant and should undoubtedly be listened to, it shouldn’t be his responsibility to educate his peers and colleagues. As grown men they should be able to educate themselves, and the sport should establish a figure to act as an authority on these matters, whose job doesn’t also involve being its star driver!
Formula 1 is a global and international sport. It is completely unique in that there are no national leagues or factions, just the best competitors from any and every country competing together. It travels all across the world, uniting fans from every continent. This is what I love about it, being a small part of a global community of fans that is powered by pure passion for the drivers and teams. There are 14 different nationalities represented on the 2020 F1 grid. Over the course of its 70-year history, 775 drivers of 39 different nationalities have competed. Yet there has only ever been one black driver – Lewis Hamilton. For a sport that has such a humungous global reach, its lack of racial diversity is disappointing, shameful and needs to change.
