Lewis Hamilton has often spoken of the racism he suffered during his rise in motorsport. The seven-time F1 world champion reveals he was already being bullied and attacked because of his skin color as a 6-year-old at school. A traumatic episode for the driving ace.
On the On Purpose podcast, posted online on Monday, the 38-year-old Métis champion, who grew up in a small town near London, said: “For me, school was the most traumatic and difficult part of my life”. “I started being bullied when I was six years old. In my school, I was one of only three colored kids and bigger, stronger guys bullied me very often,” he said. he recalled: “Beatings all the time, things thrown at me, like bananas, and people who used the “N-word” (nigger) in peace, people who called me half- blood, and not knowing what my place was: for me, it was very difficult”.
A committed driver
But, Hamilton continues, “I didn’t feel like coming home and telling my parents that those kids were calling me a nigger, or that I’d been bullied or beaten up at school. I didn’t want my father thinks I was not strong”.
Considered one of the greatest drivers of all time, Hamilton remains the only black F1 driver to this day. He created the Mission 44 foundation and the Ignite organization, which aim for one to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, and for the other more specifically to promote drivers among these young people, in partnership with Mercedes.