Lewis Hamilton didn’t hold back in his assessment of Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s words ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, suggesting that the FIA president’s comments had a ‘racial element’ to them.
Ben Sulayem sat down with Motorsport.com ahead of the race in Singapore to discuss the use of colourful language by drivers, and the impact that this has when broadcast to an audience of all ages. However, in doing so he made some eyebrow-raising comments about “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].”
These comments, along with Ben Sulayem’s calls for reduced driver audio on the FOM broadcast, were put to Hamilton on media day in Singapore. “There are two segments to that because I’ve only heard of that today,” he replied.
“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].”
He then continued: “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.”
Hamilton wasn’t the only driver to take issue with Ben Sulayem’s comments. “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,” said Max Verstappen when asked for his opinion on the debate.
“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*****.”
