Lewis Hamilton has opened up on his future beyond Formula 1 and whilst he has many career paths to follow given his love for fashion and music, the six-time F1 World Champion would also like to be a catalyst for change in the sport that he’s made his name in.
Hamilton became the first and only black driver to compete in F1 when he joined McLaren in 2007 and has gone on to become one of the most successful drivers, just one title shy of the all-time record seven achieved by the great Michael Schumacher.
Whilst many expect Hamilton to move on from F1 when he retires, given his passion for fashion and music, the 34-year-old says he would like to support young talent and help change the sport to encourage it to become more diverse.
“I want to build a company, I want to help some youngsters and I want to help change this sport somehow, to be an even more diverse sport,” said Hamilton. “I want to encourage teams to be more diverse. I want the sport to be more accessible to people.
“I was at the FIA Gala and came across an Asian family and I was like ‘jeez, I thought I was going to be the only brown person here’, because that’s how it normally is.
“It’s funny to laugh at that kind of thing, but I’m in a world where that kind of thing has been common for my entire life. So to see people of colour in the audience, whether its’s black, asian or whatever it may be, it’s great to see diversity slowly creeping in, because it is a world that’s open to everyone.
“I hope at some stage some powerful woman comes in and blows the field away…wouldn’t that be something special!”
