Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton has claimed FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s comments on swearing in Formula One had a ‘racial element’ to them.
Ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend, Ben Sulayem hit out at the use of swearing by drivers over team radios with children watching on.
The Emirati also went on to compare the over-the-top usage of ‘f***’ to that of ‘rap music’.
“I mean, we have to differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music,” he stated.
“We’re not rappers, you know. They say the F-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are [us].”
His comments irked Hamilton, who insisted the FIA chief’s words had a ‘racial element’ to them while he agreed overall with his statement.
“There are two segments to that because I’ve only heard of that today,” Hamilton said when ashed about the comments.
“On one side, when I was 22, I didn’t think of it as much and it was more your emotions are just firing and you’re just saying whatever comes to mind, not forgetting how many people and kids are listening.
“I agree in that sense that you listen to some of the younger drivers, and they’ve not got it yet, and at some stage, they probably will.
“I’m sure if you say there are penalties for it, people will stop. I don’t know whether that is needed, but I definitely think there is a little bit too much [swearing].
“With what he is saying, I don’t like how he expressed it. Saying it was rappers was very stereotypical, and if you think most rappers are black, it really points it towards, ‘We’re not like them’.
“So I think those were the wrong choice of words, and there is a racial element there, but as I said, I agree with cleaning it up a little bit.”
Fellow driver Max Verstappen was also not happy with Ben Sulayem’s comments, and said: “It’s just probably a bit the world that we live in, within the sport, but also [in] general, it seems like people are a bit more sensitive to stuff.
“That’s how it goes. I guess the world is changing a bit, but I think it already just starts with not broadcasting it, or not giving the option for people to hear it.
“Of course, a lot of apps where people can listen to radios and stuff, you have to probably limit this, or have a bit of a delay [so] that you can censor out a few things.
“That will help a lot more than putting bans on drivers. For example, I couldn’t even say the F-word. It’s not even that bad. The car was not working [in Baku]; the car is f*****.”
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