18:47 – The FIA is looking into whether Lewis Hamilton violated regulations at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Tuscany by wearing a t-shirt that raised police brutality. The Mercedes world champion wore a t-shirt about the murder of a black American woman before and after the race.
Hamilton’s t-shirt read, “Arrest the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor.” Taylor was an African American woman from Kentucky who was shot dead at home by police earlier this year. Police raided Taylor’s home without ringing the bell as part of a drug case. Her boyfriend shot the officers because he thought they were burglars. The officers fired back, killing Taylor, who was hit by eight bullets. It is investigated whether the officers used excessive force or acted solely in self-defense.
Taylor’s death is one of many things that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, a movement actively supported by Hamilton. According to critics, Hamilton’s t-shirt crossed the line because political messages are not allowed in F1. That refutes his team Mercedes. “We are not bringing politics into F1, these are human rights issues that we are trying to highlight. There is a big difference,” said a spokesman.
The FIA allows the drivers to campaign against racism before the start, but political messages are not allowed. In the past, the latter mainly applied to stunts on stage. In 2006, organizers of the Turkish Grand Prix were fined $ 5 million for inviting Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat to present the trophy for the winner. Talat has been presented as the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a state that recognizes only Turkey itself. Jerez also ran into problems in the 1990s for inviting a local mayor to the podium ceremony without getting it approved in advance. Jerez then disappeared from the calendar.
The FIA is now looking into whether Hamilton went too far, although it is not a formal investigation into the six-time world champion. The statutes of the FIA state that the FIA must remain neutral and that teams are not allowed to put political messages on the car. That is why American Formula 2 driver Santino Ferrucci was not allowed to put “Make America Great Again” on his car two years ago, the slogan of US President Donald Trump.
However, the statutes do not state anything about clothing or other peripheral matters that have nothing to do with the car. Even if Hamilton’s t-shirt were politically motivated, which doesn’t seem to be the case, the Briton probably hasn’t broken any rules.
Hamilton himself stated that he had wanted to wear the t-shirt before, but only recently got hold of it. “It took a long time to get that t-shirt, I wanted to wear it earlier to raise the issue of people being killed in the street and even someone being shot in the house,” Hamilton said. “The perpetrators just go free. We have to keep bringing this to the fore.”
–
