Lewis Hamilton urges team to finally sign diversity charter and urges F1 to ‘do more’ towards inclusivity, fan abuse

The charter, proposed by a committee set up by Lewis Hamilton, aims to encourage greater diversity and help underrepresented people join F1 and the nine teams signed on; Hamilton also addresses fan abuse from Austrian GP

Lewis Hamilton urges team to finally sign diversity charter and urges F1 to ‘do more’ towards fan inclusion and abuse

Lewis Hamilton says a team is stalling his diversity signing for Formula 1 and has called on the sport to “do more”.

The charter, proposed by a committee set up by Hamilton, aims to encourage more diversity and help underrepresented people in F1.

But Hamilton said on Thursday at the French GP: “We’ve come very close to getting this diversity inclusion charter implemented and I think it’s still a team, still a team, not ready to be involved. .

“We went back and forth with them and for some reason they didn’t want to, but all the other nine teams had it really encouraging.”

Hamilton declined to name the team, though Sports sky knew it was Williams. In response, the team said: “We last had a conversation with the Royal Academy of Engineering in March and we are awaiting further information from them on such an important topic, which We at Williams Racing have serious programs in place.

“We don’t know about the progress and who has and hasn’t signed up, as it’s been several months since we’ve received any communication from them.

“Once we have more information and a copy of the final charter, we can review it.”

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Hamilton hopes that in 10 years people of all backgrounds will be able to look at F1 and know it’s a sport in which they are welcome.

The Grove team has their own staff-led diversity and inclusion program.

“F1 needs to do more,” added Hamilton ahead of the French GP, calling for more action after fans were subjected to racist, sexist and homophobic abuse at the race. The last race in Austria.

“I’m doing the best I can, I don’t know what else I can do,” he said. “I think it’s all our responsibility to do something.”

Sergio Perez said of the fans involved in the offense: “We should definitely ban them for life. Don’t welcome them again, because they don’t represent us as a sport, and they don’t share our values.

“But at the same time we have great fans out there and with great values ​​and I think a few fans wouldn’t be able to even shame our sport like that.”