Formula One World champion, Lewis Hamilton is set to launch a commission to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to engage more and drive diversity in motorsport. Hamilton worked with the Royal Academy of Engineering to create a research partnership, the Hamilton Commission.
The commission will explore how motorsport can be a vehicle to engage more young people from black backgrounds with science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects. It will also consider the lack of role models, the barriers to people from more diverse backgrounds and “problematic hiring practices” that mean fewer black graduates go into engineering professions. I hope The Hamilton Commission enables real, tangible and measurable change,” said Hamilton.
Despite his own success, the Formula One’s first black champion spoke about how he faced racism throughout his career. “The institutional barriers that have kept F1 highly exclusive persist. It is not enough to point to me, or to a single new black hire, as a meaningful example of progress. Thousands of people are employed across this industry and that group needs to be more representative of society,” he said.
Hamilton has also been outspoken in support of recent Black Lives Matter protests, he added that education was “the key to unlocking a more equal society. Winning championships is great, but I want to be remembered for my work creating a more equal society through education. That’s what drives me. When I look back in 20 years, I want to see the sport that gave a shy, working-class black kid from Stevenage so much opportunity become as diverse as the complex and multicultural world we live in,” said Hamilton.
