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F1 LIVE: Lewis Hamilton reveals horrific racist abuse suffered at school
Lewis Hamilton said he had bananas thrown at him and was repeatedly called the “n-word” at school.
The seven time Formula One world champion, who was born and educated in Stevenage, detailed the racial abuse in the On Purpose podcast, released on Monday. The 38-year-old, who is preparing for his 17th season in F1, said: “For me, school was the most traumatising and most difficult part of my life.
“I was already being bullied at the age of six. At that particular school I was one of three kids of colour and just bigger, stronger, bullying kids were throwing me around a lot of the time.
“And the constant jabs, the things that are either thrown at you, like bananas, or people that would use the n-word just so relaxed. People calling you half-caste and not knowing where you fit in. That for me was difficult.”
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F1 NEWS AND UPDATES
Lewis Hamilton has detailed in a podcast the horrific racist abuse he suffered at school
F1 chiefs slam FIA boss Mohammed Ben Sulayem over ‘unacceptable’ claims
F1 Drive to Survive: Season 5 release date and everything we know
F1 news: F1 chiefs slam FIA boss Mohammed Ben Sulayem over ‘unacceptable’ claims
14:02 , Kieran Jackson
F1 chiefs have hit back at FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s claims that a reported £16bn price tag the sport’s commercial rights is “inflated”.
A report in Bloomberg over the weekend suggested the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) - chaired by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman - have tabled an offer over $20bn (£16bn) to F1 owners Liberty Media for the commercial rights of the sport.
Ben Sulayem, head of the sport’s governing body, took to social media to publicise his views, insisting the alleged price tag was “inflated” and any potential buyer needs to “apply common sense... not just a lot of money.”
Now, in the latest example of F1 and the sport’s governing body being at loggerheads, a letter seen by Sky News sent by F1 legal supremo Sacha Woodward Hill and Renee Wilm, chief legal and administrative officer of Liberty Media Corporation, has accused the FIA and its president of “interfering with our [commercial] rights in an unacceptable manner.”
The letter, sent to F1 teams including Ferrari and Mercedes according to the Sky report, states that: “Formula 1 has the exclusive right to exploit the commercial rights in the FIA Formula One World Championship.
“Further, the FIA has given unequivocal undertakings that it will not do anything to prejudice the ownership, management and/or exploitation of those rights. We consider that those comments, made from the FIA president’s official social media account, interfere with those rights in an unacceptable manner.”
The letter goes on to insist that Ben Sulayem had “overstepped the bounds of the FIA’s remit”, adding the notion that “any potential purchaser of the Formula 1 business is required to consult with the FIA is wrong”.
F1 chiefs slam FIA boss Mohammed Ben Sulayem over ‘unacceptable’ claims
F1 news: Sky Sports axe popular presenters ahead of new season
13:45 , Kieran Jackson
Sky Sports have confirmed that they will be axing popular F1 pundit Johnny Herbert, as well as Paul di Resta, from their coverage ahead of the 2023 season.
Former driver Herbert has been a staple of Sky’s coverage since it picked up the rights in 2012 but has been chopped as part of a shake-up.
A Sky spokesperson said: “Johnny has been an integral part of our Formula 1 team since the very first season on Sky Sports in 2012.
“We will miss his humour and big personality and thank him for his energy and enthusiasm over the last 11 years. Everyone wishes him all the best for the future.”
F1 news: When are F1 teams launching their 2023 cars?
13:28 , Kieran Jackson
The 2023 Formula 1 season starts on 5 March in Bahrain - and preparations are well underway ahead of the new campaign.
All 10 teams have had more than two months since the final race of 2022 in Abu Dhabi and are set to reveal their new cars in the next few weeks, with pre-season testing taking place at the Bahrain International Circuit from 23-25 February.
Red Bull will be the first team to reveal their 2023 design next month, in New York City no less, while all eyes will be on Mercedes’ W14 car after their bouncing and porpoising problems in 2022.
Meanwhile, Ferrari will be looking to produce a car capable of race wins once again as they launch their 2023 model, while the likes of McLaren, Alpine and Aston Martin are all striving for improvements this season.
Here are the 2023 car launch dates in chronological order:
Haas - Tuesday 31 January (Livery launch only)
Red Bull - Friday 3 February (New York)
Williams - Monday 6 February (Livery launch, online)
Alfa Romeo - Tuesday 7 February (Zurich)
AlphaTauri - Saturday 11 February (Livery launch, New York)
Aston Martin - Monday 13 February (Silverstone)
McLaren - Monday 13 February (location TBC)
Ferrari - Tuesday 14 February (location TBC)
Mercedes - Wednesday 15 February (Silverstone)
Alpine - Thursday 16 February (London)
F1 news: Mercedes boss Toto Wolff sends warning to rivals ahead of new Formula 1 season
13:16 , Kieran Jackson
Toto Wolff insists his Mercedes team should not be written off ahead of the new Formula 1 season.
Having won eight constructors’ titles in a row from 2014-2021, the Silver Arrows struggled last year with an underperforming car, coming home third in the Championship behind Red Bull and Ferrari.
Despite issues early on in the season with bouncing and porpoising, Mercedes did manage to secure a win in the penultimate race of the season and optimism is high that Wolff’s team can challenge for the title once more in 2023.
“Do not write us off,” Wolff told The Times last week. “In this life, you never stop giving it everything.”
On last year’s car, Wolff added: “We got the physics wrong,. It’s no myth. We misinterpreted some of the regulations. We put too much emphasis on seeking performance in a car that was supposed to run on the ground, very low.
“But you can’t run it so low, because it [the floor of the car] was hitting the ground. So we had to lift it up, which changed things again. It sounds like a trivial explanation, but this is the reality.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff sends warning to rivals ahead of new F1 season
F1 news: Just Stop Oil protest posed risk of ‘serious harm’ to F1 drivers at Silverstone, court told
13:00 , Kieran Jackson
Just Stop Oil protestors caused “an immediate risk of serious harm” to Formula One drivers and race marshals by invading the track during last year’s British Grand Prix, prosecutors have claimed.
A jury at Northampton Crown Court was shown in-car footage of drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon passing three men and two women who were sitting on and being dragged off Silverstone’s Wellington Straight last July.
Video recorded by Lewis Hamilton’s car passing protesters shortly before the track invasion was also shown during the Crown’s opening speech – along with video statements issued by five of six defendants who are on trial.
David Baldwin, 47, Emily Brocklebank, 24, Alasdair Gibson, 22, Louis McKechnie, 22, Bethany Mogie, 40, and Joshua Smith, 29, all deny causing a public nuisance at the Northamptonshire circuit in July last year.
Brocklebank, of Yeadon, Leeds; Gibson, from Aberdeen; Mogie, from St Albans; McKechnie, from Manchester; and Smith, from Lees in Oldham, went on to the race circuit during the protest.
Baldwin, of Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, was found in a car park along with glue, cable ties and a Just Stop Oil banner and is said by the Crown to have been “in it together” with his co-defendants.
Just Stop Oil protest posed risk of ‘serious harm’ to F1 drivers, court told
F1 news: ‘I had bananas thrown at me’: Lewis Hamilton details racist abuse suffered at school
12:29 , Kieran Jackson
Lewis Hamilton said he had bananas thrown at him and was repeatedly called the “n-word” at school.
The seven time Formula One world champion, who was born and educated in Stevenage, detailed the racial abuse in the On Purpose podcast, released on Monday. The 38-year-old, who is preparing for his 17th season in F1, said: “For me, school was the most traumatising and most difficult part of my life.
“I was already being bullied at the age of six. At that particular school I was one of three kids of colour and just bigger, stronger, bullying kids were throwing me around a lot of the time.
“And the constant jabs, the things that are either thrown at you, like bananas, or people that would use the n-word just so relaxed. People calling you half-caste and not knowing where you fit in. That for me was difficult.
“In my (secondary) school there were six or seven black kids out of 1,200 kids and three of us were put outside the headmasters’ office all the time. The headmaster just had it out for us – and particularly me.”
‘I had bananas thrown at me’: Lewis Hamilton details racist abuse suffered at school
F1 news: Sky Sports axe popular presenters ahead of new season
12:16 , Kieran Jackson
Sky Sports have confirmed that they will be axing popular F1 pundit Johnny Herbert, as well as Paul di Resta, from their coverage ahead of the 2023 season.
Former driver Herbert has been a staple of Sky’s coverage since it picked up the rights in 2012 but has been chopped as part of a shake-up.
A Sky spokesperson said: “Johnny has been an integral part of our Formula 1 team since the very first season on Sky Sports in 2012.
“We will miss his humour and big personality and thank him for his energy and enthusiasm over the last 11 years. Everyone wishes him all the best for the future.”
F1 news: What are the driver line-ups for 2023?
11:45 , Kieran Jackson
RED BULL
Max Verstappen
Sergio Perez
FERRARI
Charles Leclerc
Carlos Sainz
MERCEDES
Lewis Hamilton
George Russell
ALPINE
Esteban Ocon
Pierre Gasly
McLAREN
Lando Norris
Oscar Piastri
ALFA ROMEO
Valtteri Bottas
Zhou Guanyu
ASTON MARTIN
Fernando Alonso
Lance Stroll
HAAS
Kevin Magnussen
Nico Hulkenberg
ALPHATAURI
Yuki Tsunoda
Nyck de Vries
WILLIAMS
Alex Albon
Logan Sargeant
*italics represents new addition to the grid/change of team
F1 news: Former F1 driver Pascal Wehrlein on why he ditched social media
11:28 , Kieran Jackson
Exclusive interview by Kieran Jackson
Upon being asked why an Instagram profile with 145,000 followers – and Twitter following standing at over 80k – had not seen any updates since June 2022, Pascal Wehrlein pauses. Even stutters. Speaking ahead of his fifth season in Formula E as a new era starts tomorrow in Mexico City, the German driver has to this point spoken without hesitance. Why the uncharacteristic stumble? Has a nerve been touched?
Yet, truth be told, the start of this interview had looked much different at first draft. Because after eloquently vocalising his thoughts on social media and his lack of usage, what did the 28-year-old do two days before the start of season nine – and two days after this interview? Post an Instagram, of course.
It might be jumping the gun to suggest Wehrlein felt alerted by his online stiff-arm solely because of The Independent’s line of questioning – inflated ego alert! – but nevertheless, his overarching viewpoint still stands: online popularity does not automatically translate to real-life pleasure.
“Well let’s say… I really enjoy privacy,” Wehrlein explains, donning his Porsche team colours, over a Zoom call. “I don’t like posting a lot of stuff to do with my personal life and therefore simply I don’t post too much on social media. I really like to separate my private life and my job.”
Pressed further on whether he uses the Instagram or Twitter apps at all, there’s that pause again. “Not so much anymore. It’s difficult to find the right words. I think you can quite easily be distracted by social media. And as I’m getting older, I just realise there are more important things in life.”
More below:
‘I like to live in the moment’: Pascal Wehrlein on why he ditched social media
F1 news: Silverstone look to expand British Grand Prix to four-day event
10:54 , Kieran Jackson
Silverstone are looking to expand the British Grand Prix as appetite for one of the Formula 1 season’s most famous races continues to grow.
More than 400,000 attended over the course of the week last year - a record - which culminated in Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz taking a first career victory in Sunday’s race. F1 weekends take in Friday, Saturday and Sunday and while that would remain the same under any new calibration the Thursday could be used for other classes to compete.
“We’re looking to extend the weekend,” the track’s managing director, Stuart Pringle, said at Autosport International in Birmingham on Thursday.
“I’m working hard on Formula 1. I believe they need to change the format of the weekend. They say: ‘Oh well it’s the FIA, they’ve got to do the systems test and stuff’ - well, do them a day earlier.”
Silverstone look to expand British Grand Prix to four-day event
As Formula E enters new era, can the sporting product match the investment and the idea?
10:21 , Kieran Jackson
Feature by Kieran Jackson
In a manner typical of his loved-or-loathed eccentricity, Italian motorsport giant Flavio Briatore has a habit of cutting through the noise and, rather starkly, hitting the nail on the head. Never short of an assertive opinion, the former Renault F1 boss was recently speaking to Formula E chairman Alejandro Agag about the all-electric series’ new Gen3 car, which made its competitive debut in Mexico City over the weekend.
Previously unflattering in his assessment of Formula E, upon seeing the fresh model, Briatore seemed converted. “Finally, you have a car which looks like a racecar,” he quipped. Spanish businessman Agag, telling the world’s media at the first race of the 2023 season, interrupted a colleague speaking on stage to tell the tale, with a look of justification writ large over his face.
Formula E’s latest venture – in creating their quickest, lightest and most sustainable car to date – is four years in the making and marks the start of a new era for the sport, in its ninth season, as it looks to take a step up in performance amid motorsport’s worldwide boom predominantly caused by Formula 1’s exponential surge in popularity.
In essence, Briatore’s statement points towards the juggling act which Formula E has grappled with since its inception in 2014. Three years earlier, the single-seater electric concept was signed and sealed between Agag and then-FIA president Jean Todt on a napkin at a dinner in Paris. Now, with the 2023 campaign set to host more races and cities than ever before, one question lingers: can the sporting product match the investment and the idea?
Because beyond any marketing spree, what lures new fans into any sport is the appeal of the action itself. The drama. The racing. Compared to F1 – and other staple racing series’ such as IndyCar and the World Endurance Championship – Formula E has struggled to capture the imagination with its sporting spectacle. It is a point not lost on Jamie Reigle, Formula E’s CEO since 2019. Yet, as anyone in the paddock points out, FE has no interest in riding on the coattails of F1. It is its own entity.
As Formula E enters new era, can sporting product match the investment and the idea?
F1 news: F1 chiefs slam FIA boss Mohammed Ben Sulayem over ‘unacceptable’ claims
09:52 , Kieran Jackson
F1 chiefs have hit back at FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s claims that a reported £16bn price tag the sport’s commercial rights is “inflated”.
A report in Bloomberg over the weekend suggested the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) - chaired by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman - have tabled an offer over $20bn (£16bn) to F1 owners Liberty Media for the commercial rights of the sport.
Ben Sulayem, head of the sport’s governing body, took to social media to publicise his views, insisting the alleged price tag was “inflated” and any potential buyer needs to “apply common sense... not just a lot of money.”
Now, in the latest example of F1 and the sport’s governing body being at loggerheads, a letter seen by Sky News sent by F1 legal supremo Sacha Woodward Hill and Renee Wilm, chief legal and administrative officer of Liberty Media Corporation, has accused the FIA and its president of “interfering with our [commercial] rights in an unacceptable manner.”
The letter, sent to F1 teams including Ferrari and Mercedes according to the Sky report, states that: “Formula 1 has the exclusive right to exploit the commercial rights in the FIA Formula One World Championship.
“Further, the FIA has given unequivocal undertakings that it will not do anything to prejudice the ownership, management and/or exploitation of those rights. We consider that those comments, made from the FIA president’s official social media account, interfere with those rights in an unacceptable manner.”
The letter goes on to insist that Ben Sulayem had “overstepped the bounds of the FIA’s remit”, adding the notion that “any potential purchaser of the Formula 1 business is required to consult with the FIA is wrong”.
F1 chiefs slam FIA boss Mohammed Ben Sulayem over ‘unacceptable’ claims
F1 news: Mercedes boss Toto Wolff sends warning to rivals ahead of new Formula 1 season
09:27 , Kieran Jackson
Toto Wolff insists his Mercedes team should not be written off ahead of the new Formula 1 season.
Having won eight constructors’ titles in a row from 2014-2021, the Silver Arrows struggled last year with an underperforming car, coming home third in the Championship behind Red Bull and Ferrari.
Despite issues early on in the season with bouncing and porpoising, Mercedes did manage to secure a win in the penultimate race of the season and optimism is high that Wolff’s team can challenge for the title once more in 2023.
“Do not write us off,” Wolff told The Times last week. “In this life, you never stop giving it everything.”
On last year’s car, Wolff added: “We got the physics wrong,. It’s no myth. We misinterpreted some of the regulations. We put too much emphasis on seeking performance in a car that was supposed to run on the ground, very low.
“But you can’t run it so low, because it [the floor of the car] was hitting the ground. So we had to lift it up, which changed things again. It sounds like a trivial explanation, but this is the reality.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff sends warning to rivals ahead of new F1 season
F1 news: Just Stop Oil protest posed risk of ‘serious harm’ to F1 drivers at Silverstone, court told
08:57 , Kieran Jackson
Just Stop Oil protestors caused “an immediate risk of serious harm” to Formula One drivers and race marshals by invading the track during last year’s British Grand Prix, prosecutors have claimed.
A jury at Northampton Crown Court was shown in-car footage of drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon passing three men and two women who were sitting on and being dragged off Silverstone’s Wellington Straight last July.
Video recorded by Lewis Hamilton’s car passing protesters shortly before the track invasion was also shown during the Crown’s opening speech – along with video statements issued by five of six defendants who are on trial.
David Baldwin, 47, Emily Brocklebank, 24, Alasdair Gibson, 22, Louis McKechnie, 22, Bethany Mogie, 40, and Joshua Smith, 29, all deny causing a public nuisance at the Northamptonshire circuit in July last year.
Brocklebank, of Yeadon, Leeds; Gibson, from Aberdeen; Mogie, from St Albans; McKechnie, from Manchester; and Smith, from Lees in Oldham, went on to the race circuit during the protest.
Baldwin, of Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, was found in a car park along with glue, cable ties and a Just Stop Oil banner and is said by the Crown to have been “in it together” with his co-defendants.
Just Stop Oil protest posed risk of ‘serious harm’ to F1 drivers, court told
F1 news: When are F1 teams launching their 2023 cars?
08:45 , Kieran Jackson
The 2023 Formula 1 season starts on 5 March in Bahrain - and preparations are well underway ahead of the new campaign.
All 10 teams have had more than two months since the final race of 2022 in Abu Dhabi and are set to reveal their new cars in the next few weeks, with pre-season testing taking place at the Bahrain International Circuit from 23-25 February.
Red Bull will be the first team to reveal their 2023 design next month, in New York City no less, while all eyes will be on Mercedes’ W14 car after their bouncing and porpoising problems in 2022.
Meanwhile, Ferrari will be looking to produce a car capable of race wins once again as they launch their 2023 model, while the likes of McLaren, Alpine and Aston Martin are all striving for improvements this season.
Here are the 2023 car launch dates in chronological order:
Haas - Tuesday 31 January (Livery launch only)
Red Bull - Friday 3 February (New York)
Williams - Monday 6 February (Livery launch, online)
Alfa Romeo - Tuesday 7 February (Zurich)
AlphaTauri - Saturday 11 February (Livery launch, New York)
Aston Martin - Monday 13 February (Silverstone)
McLaren - Monday 13 February (location TBC)
Ferrari - Tuesday 14 February (location TBC)
Mercedes - Wednesday 15 February (Silverstone)
Alpine - Thursday 16 February (London)
F1 news: ‘I had bananas thrown at me’: Lewis Hamilton details racist abuse suffered at school
08:30 , Kieran Jackson
Lewis Hamilton said he had bananas thrown at him and was repeatedly called the “n-word” at school.
The seven time Formula One world champion, who was born and educated in Stevenage, detailed the racial abuse in the On Purpose podcast, released on Monday. The 38-year-old, who is preparing for his 17th season in F1, said: “For me, school was the most traumatising and most difficult part of my life.
“I was already being bullied at the age of six. At that particular school I was one of three kids of colour and just bigger, stronger, bullying kids were throwing me around a lot of the time.
“And the constant jabs, the things that are either thrown at you, like bananas, or people that would use the n-word just so relaxed. People calling you half-caste and not knowing where you fit in. That for me was difficult.
“In my (secondary) school there were six or seven black kids out of 1,200 kids and three of us were put outside the headmasters’ office all the time. The headmaster just had it out for us – and particularly me.”
‘I had bananas thrown at me’: Lewis Hamilton details racist abuse suffered at school
