Yahoo Sports Lewis Hamilton raises fist on podium after winning Styrian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton, the face of Formula 1, has his first victory of 2020.
The Mercedes driver won the Styrian Grand Prix on Sunday, leading from the start. His teammate Valtteri Bottas came in second, while both Ferrari drivers took themselves out of contention after colliding on Lap 1.
Hamilton, who is now just six wins shy of Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 91 F1 victories, raised his right fist in the Black power salute while he was on the podium. After the race, he spoke passionately about his continuing fight against racism.
“Racism is going to be here for longer than our time here,” Hamilton said after the race, via the Guardian. “People of color who are subject to racism don’t have time. We have to commit to push for equality and continue to raise awareness.
“A lot of work needs to go on in F1, the FIA need to be part of it, the drivers need to be a part of it. We are going to be fighting and pushing for it all year. For me this is going to be a lifelong thing.”
Hamilton, the only Black driver in F1, was part of the prerace demonstration against racism. Numerous drivers, wearing “End Racism” and “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts, took a knee on the grid in support of the movement. It was an impactful moment, which F1 — the controller of the cameras, not broadcaster SkySports — chose to highlight by cutting away from the kneeling drivers and focusing on Red Bull skydivers falling out of the sky.
Just catching up on how the F1 world feed handled the pre-race demonstrations against racism by drivers and … cutting to Red Bull skydivers in the middle of it ain’t great. pic.twitter.com/zvNIMHGvB7
— Nick Bromberg (@NickBromberg) July 12, 2020
Yeah, not the best look. Especially since SkySports’ lead F1 presenter, Simon Lazenby, was literally in the middle of talking about the vital importance of the End Racism campaign as the camera cut away. The awkwardness of that moment didn’t go unnoticed by the viewing public.
Fun to cut away from an anti-racism protest for a "look at how much money Red Bull have" demo, really shows an understanding of the issue #F1
— lookingspiffy 🇪🇺 (@lookingspiffy) July 12, 2020
Bit awkward of #F1 to not show the End Racism images of the drivers on the grid while Simon Lazenby describes how important it is not to let the message die.
— Laura Leslie (@LauraLeslieF1) July 12, 2020
F1 exemplify their solidarity with ending racism by showing a skydiver while everyone is kneeling. I'm really glad our sport has their stuff together.
— max | is proud of lando (@RattiaBinotto) July 12, 2020
Poor show on @F1 cutting away from the end racism message displayed by drivers.
— James Wharton (@jameswharton) July 12, 2020
Very poor directing for @F1's world feed to cut away from the drivers taking a knee against racism to show some Red Bull skydivers instead #F1 #AustrianGP #StyrianGP
— James Matthews (@james16matthews) July 12, 2020
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