Hamilton has been one of the most vocal F1 drivers over the last few years, voicing his opinion on a range of topics from racism, discrimination and climate change.
With Sebastian Vettel retiring at the end of 2022, Hamilton is F1’s prominent voice, often taking a stance when many other drivers don’t.
Hamilton’s action has been a hot topic as of late with the FIA banning F1 drivers from making “political statements” before clarifying their stance on it.
Speaking on the new F1 podcast The Fast and the Curious, Hamilton explained how he feels a “huge responsibility” given his platform as a leading F1 driver.
“For me, I always say that we need more empathy and compassion in the world,” Hamilton said. “We’re all human beings and there are all these things that people are finding challenging within different countries through governments, people with opinions, social media, all these different things.
“We have this platform and I just feel a huge responsibility. I’m not just a Formula 1 driver and I can’t just, you know, have success and just go about my life. This is a platform to spark change, spark conversation. Sparking those uncomfortable conversations and then holding people accountable who have been happy with the status quo in the past, which has held people down and has made people feel not included.”
Hamilton believes F1 should be doing more to be more “diverse” and that “so many different things” need to be “challenged”.
“That frustrates me,’ he added. “We can make change and I want to be a part of making people feel more included. Our sport, motor sport, or any sport or business shouldn’t be able to continue with not being diverse.
“There’s so many different things we need to challenge and fix. We’re also going to a lot of countries where they have these challenging human rights issues, where humans just are not treated as human beings. And in the past people just brushed by it.
“It is so important someone speaks out in it. I don’t care if I don’t win another race – I’m going speak on those things and whether people like it or not.”
