Lewis Hamilton has hit out at Formula 1 and Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) Chairman Romain Grosjean over the lack of coordination ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton has led a pre-race Black Lives Matter protest by encouraging drivers to kneel before the national anthem.
The majority of drivers have participated – though some have chosen to stand – with time set aside at the first race of the season in Austria, however since then it has been rushed, which was particularly obvious in Hungary where there was little time to kneel before the anthem begun.
Hamilton hit out at Grosjean for failing to push the matter during Thursday’s drivers’ meeting and F1 for failing to include it in the schedule, despite their recent #WeRaceAsOne pledge.
“Well he [Grosjean] doesn’t think it’s important to do it so… he’s one of them that thinks it was done once and that’s all we need to do,” Hamilton said after winning the Hungarian GP.
“So I tried to speak to him about what the problem is and that it’s not going away and we have to continue to fight for it, but I think this time he didn’t mention anything in the drivers’ briefing and neither did Sebastian [Vettel].
“Sebastian and I messaged each other and he stressed as did I the importance that we continue to do it. Moving forward we need to speak to Formula 1, they’ve got to do a better job, it was such a rush, us getting out of the car, running over, quickly doing the knee, they need to do more.
“I don’t know why they’ve only done it for the first race, they did it at the start, they’ve not done it since then. They’ve come out saying they’re going to be fighting for diversity and end racism but they’re not giving us the platform to continue that.
“I think they can give us more time, so I’ll probably send an email over the next couple of days, and try and coordinate with them to create a better… they do want to do it I guess there’s not good enough communication.”
Hamilton remains hopeful he can convince the drivers it is a worthy cause and dreams of all 20 kneeling by the final race.
“With the other drivers there’s not a lot I can do. I gave a lot of energy in Austria to try and convince a couple of the drivers, and it’s a battle, but I think what’s important is the ones that are doing it, the understanding, it’s fantastic.
“My dream is that one day the other drivers come around to it and if we get to the last race and we’re all kneeling down and showing that we are united I think that would be beautiful.”
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