“If you’re not part of trying to encourage people to get out there and understand what the situation is, and why we’re in this situation, then for me that’s frustrating.
“That was calling to people within the industry for accountability. All the brands, they need to do more. The sport needs to do more. The FIA needs to do more. We all need to do more. That was really what the message was about.”
His message resulted in drivers such as Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo responding and releasing their own messages of anti-racism. Formula 1 announced the formation of its We Race As One initiative in the weeks afterward.
Mercedes unveiled a new livery that the team will run throughout the 2020 season, changing its colour from silver to black for the year as well as running the words “End Racism” on the Halo along with F1’s We Race As One rainbow logos.
A statement was also released by the team acknowledging that it still has work to do in improving its inclusivity. Mercedes will implement a diversity and inclusion programme aimed at improving representation for under-represented groups within the team.
“It’s an incredible time in the world, there’s so many problems but one that has been really close to my heart has been on diversity and anti-racism,” Hamilton continued.
“It’s been great to see the response from people. That there is now a real positive movement and it’s happening globally, I think there are a lot of positives to take from it.