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Lewis Hamilton has called out FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem for a comment referring to rappers when discussing the broadcast of swearing in Formula One races – saying they had a “racial element” to them.
Ben Sulayem, head of F1’s governing body, says he has asked Formula 1 to limit the amount of swearing – usually from drivers over team radio – on TV coverage of races. Swear words are currently bleeped out before being broadcast.
The 62-year-old Emirati executive said: “We have to differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music. We’re not rappers, you know. They say the F-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are [us].”
Hamilton, though admitting the sport could “clean up” foul language in broadcasts, was unimpressed with the connotations from Ben Sulayem’s remarks.
“I don’t like how he’s expressed it,” Hamilton, the sport’s only black driver, said ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.
“Saying ‘rappers’ is very stereotypical and if you think about it, most rappers are black. So really pointed it towards we’re not like them.
“So I think that was the wrong choice of words. There’s a racial element there.”
It is not the first time Hamilton and Ben Sulayem, a former rally champion, have clashed. In 2022, Hamilton was critical of new measures imposed regarding the wearing of jewellery in his Mercedes cockpit.
Hamilton was forced to remove his nose stud ahead of the 2022 British Grand Prix before he was afforded an FIA medical exemption to wear the piercings following “concerns about disfigurement” the following season.
Ben Sulayem also fined the seven-time world champion £42,000 for failing to attend the FIA’s prize-giving gala in the days after his defeat to Max Verstappen in the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Ben Sulayem’s comments, in conversation with Autosport, were as follows: “We have to differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music. We’re not rappers, you know. They say the F-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are [us].
“I know, I was a driver. In the heat of the moment, when you think you are upset because another driver came to you and pushed you…when I used to drive in the dust [and something like that happened], I would get upset.
“But also, we have to be careful with our conduct. We need to be responsible people and now with technology, everything is going live and everything is going to be recorded. At the end of the day, we have to study that to see: do we minimise what is being said publicly?
“Because imagine you are sitting with your children and watching the race and then someone is saying all of this dirty language. I mean, what would your children or grandchildren say? What would you teach them if that is your sport?”
Three-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen has come under fire, particularly after a series of angry outbursts in Budapest in July, for his conduct over team radio before.
When asked about the broadcasting of foul language, Verstappen said in Singapore on Thursday: “A lot of people say a lot of bad things when they are full of adrenaline in other sports, it just doesn’t get picked up.
“I couldn’t even say the f-word… it’s not even that bad. What are we 5 year olds, 6 year olds?”
Verstappen was urged by the FIA moderator during the official press conference to preview Sunday’s race to watch his language after he said his car was “f*****” at the previous round in Azerbaijan.
Additional reporting by PA
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