Not bad is he?! 😃#F1 @LewisHamilton pic.twitter.com/5QkMwgbSds
— Formula 1 (@F1) February 8, 2021
However Hamilton has now extended his stay with his Mercedes, the team he joined in 2013 after leaving McLaren.
“I am excited to be heading into my ninth season with my Mercedes team-mates,” said Hamilton.
“Our team has achieved incredible things together and we look forward to building on our success even further, while continuously looking to improve, both on and off the track.”
Hamilton, who was at the forefront of Formula One’s involvement with the Black Lives Matter campaign, continued: “I’m equally determined to continue the journey we started to make motorsport more diverse for future generations and I am grateful that Mercedes has been extremely supportive of my call to address this issue.
“I’m proud to say we are taking that effort further this year by launching a foundation dedicated to diversity and inclusion in the sport. I am inspired by all that we can build together and can’t wait to get back on the track in March.”
More “F1 NEWS” For You
Lewis Hamilton’s New One-Year Contract With Mercedes F1 Demands More Diversity Within Team
“The new agreement includes the formation of a joint charitable foundation to promote greater diversity and inclusion”.
It was announced on Monday morning that Lewis Hamilton has, at long last, re-signed with Mercedes-AMG for the 2021 Formula 1 season. The seven-time World Champion has been technically unemployed since the end of 2020 and the seat that was assumed to be his was the last unaccounted for on this year’s grid. Having held out so long in negotiations, the single-season contract will now technically run for less time than it took to be secured over the prior year.
There were rumors (including from 1996 F1 champion Damon Hill) that the delay was due to Hamilton wanting a veto over who would be his teammate, which Mercedes categorically denied today. The team announced that Lewis’ new contract does include a new, joint commitment—in financial and in operational terms—to diversity, saying “A significant part of the new agreement builds upon the joint commitment to greater diversity and inclusion in motorsport that was made last year by Lewis and Mercedes. This will take the form of a joint charitable foundation, which will have the mission of supporting greater diversity and inclusion in all its forms in motorsport.”
Hamilton last entered contract negotiations in 2017, when he signed with the team for three more seasons at an allegedly eye-watering expense to them. However, last year he started making it clear that he was thinking about life beyond F1, saying there was no guarantee that he’d return unless he could find a better balance of life in the sport. Being forced to miss the Sakhir Grand Prix after testing positive for COVID seemed to reignite Hamilton’s feelings about F1, after he found it ‘painful’ to see George Russell driving his car as a stand-in.
Hamilton’s social activism increased massively during 2020, in particular campaigning against racism and in support of Black Lives Matter. He attended several protests and petitioned the FIA and FOM to include a demonstration against racism at the start of each Grand Prix, with mixed reaction from his fellow drivers but full support from the Mercedes team. When the FIA adjusted rules to prevent Hamilton from repeating a protest on the podium (wearing a shirt with “arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor” printed on it) the team printed Black Lives Matter on their official face mask for him, to circumvent the restriction to only wearing team gear and after testing, both Mercedes cars were repainted black to show their support to Hamilton’s cause.
Mercedes and Hamilton have been working on diversity initiatives across STEM in schools and a commitment to fully diversifying their organization by 2025, alongside Hamilton’s own Commission to investigate what can be done to promote greater diversity across all aspects of motorsport. His new contract, however, takes that further with the commitment to a new, joint charitable foundation.
As part of the announcement, Hamilton said that he saw that as just as important as continuing Formula One’s most successful partnership between driver and team. “I’m equally determined to continue the journey we started to make motorsport more diverse for future generations and I am grateful that Mercedes has been extremely supportive of my call to address this issue. I’m proud to say we are taking that effort further this year by launching a foundation dedicated to diversity and inclusion in the sport. I am inspired by all that we can build together and can’t wait to get back on the track in March.”
Hamilton isn’t only supported by his team in that. Newly appointed Formula One boss Stefano Domenicali has praised Hamilton’s commitment to diversity and role as a voice of the sport, saying he not only wants diversity efforts to continue in the 2021 season, but for it to be expanded. For drivers like PR-unfriendly Haas signing Nikita Mazepin, Domenicali is determined to drill home that Hamilton’s approach is the desired one, saying he intends to summon the drivers together at the earliest possible opportunity to tell them they have to be role models and leaders for the sport.
WHO IS LEWIS HAMILTON
Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton MBE HonFREng (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver, activist, fashion designer and musician. He currently competes in Formula One for Mercedes, having previously driven for McLaren from 2007 to 2012. In Formula One, Hamilton has won a joint-record seven World Drivers’ Championship titles (tied with Michael Schumacher), while he holds the outright records for the most wins (95), pole positions (98) and podium finishes (165), amongst others.
Born and raised in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, Hamilton was signed to the McLaren young driver programme in 1998. This later resulted in a Formula One drive with McLaren in 2007, making Hamilton the first black driver to race in the sport. That season, Hamilton set numerous records as he finished runner-up to Kimi Räikkönen by one point. The following season, he won his maiden title in dramatic fashion—making a crucial overtake on the last corner of the last lap in the last race of the season—to become the then-youngest Formula One World Champion in history. After four more years with McLaren, Hamilton signed with Mercedes in 2013.
Changes to the regulations for 2014 mandating the use of turbo-hybrid engines came at the start of a highly successful period for Hamilton, during which he has won six further drivers’ titles. Hamilton won consecutive titles in 2014 and 2015 during an intense rivalry with teammate Nico Rosberg to match his hero Ayrton Senna‘s three World Championships. Following Rosberg’s retirement, Ferrari‘s Sebastian Vettel became Hamilton’s closest rival in two intense championship battles, and Hamilton twice overturned mid-season points deficits to claim consecutive titles again in 2017 and 2018. Hamilton won his third and fourth titles in a row in 2019 and 2020, respectively, equalling Schumacher’s record of seven drivers’ titles.
Hamilton has been credited with furthering Formula One’s global following by appealing to a broader audience outside the sport, in part due to his high-profile lifestyle, environmental and social activism and his exploits in music and fashion. He has become a prominent advocate in support of activism to combat racism and push for increased diversity in motorsport. Hamilton was listed in the 2020 issue of Time as one of the 100 most influential people globally and was knighted in the 2021 New Year Honours.
