Lewis Hamilton breaks silence on FIA’s ‘political statement’ ban which ‘targets’ him

The FIA have banned drivers from making unapproved 'political, religious or personal' statements. But for Lewis Hamilton, "nothing changes".

Lewis Hamilton breaks silence on FIA’s ‘political statement’ ban which ‘targets’ him

Lewis Hamilton

The FIA have recently brought out a rule, which bans drivers from making ‘political, religious or personal’ statements without prior permission. As expected, it’s provoked controversy and polarized reactions. They were even accused of targeting Lewis Hamilton with it. Of course, Hamilton isn’t the only driver that the rule affects. Some of them have spoken against the rule.

Sergio Perez and Lando Norris have both spoken against enforcing such a rule. Alex Albon asked the FIA for ‘clarity’ over the rule, which he felt moves away from Formula 1’s ‘We Race as One’ initiative. Now, Hamilton has also spoken about the rule. He had earlier said on the Jay Shetty Podcast that he doesn’t care if sponsors drop him for making a statement. He isn’t fazed by the FIA’s ban either.

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As per BBC Sport, he said: “Nothing will stop me from speaking on the things I am passionate about. The sport has a responsibility to speak out and create awareness on important topics, particularly as we are traveling to different places. So nothing changes.” and added: “It would be silly to say I would want to get penalty points for speaking out on things but I am still going to be speaking my mind. We still have this platform. The support of Stefano has been amazing and all the drivers have been very much aligned on freedom of speech.”

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Read More: Lewis Hamilton asked to fight FIA ban on ‘unapproved statements’ by Bahrain political prisoner

Lewis Hamilton was earlier asked to fight the FIA’s ban

Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton doesn’t seem too keen on following the FIA’s rule, which the governing body has said it will clarify. Earlier, he had spoken out against the ‘terrifying’ laws concerning the LGBTQ+ community in Saudi Arabia (while he was present there), just before the race weekend got underway. He also raced with a helmet featuring the Progress Pride flag. It remains to be seen if he’ll ‘break’ this rule, no matter what the consequences may be.

He has been asked to ‘fight’ this policy earlier by a prisoner in Bahrain, Ali Al-Hajee, who felt Hamilton was the ‘primary target’ of such a policy. He had said: “I would like to share with you the disappointment I felt after learning that political and religious statements were banned by the FIA; a decision that, in my opinion, perpetuates a policy which muzzles drivers and who makes you its primary target. I therefore ask you to fight this policy.”

Al-Hajee further added that Hamilton’s ‘words and actions’ gave him and other ‘prisoners of conscience’ in Bahrain a glimmer of hope. The Briton’s recent statement reaffirms that he will continue to ‘speak his mind’. Whatever that may entail, it will be interesting to see how the FIA will react if he does end up breaching the said rule.

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