Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton says any question marks over his commitment to F1 are misplaced, saying he remains fully committed to the sport. The reigning World Champion recently signed a contract extension to remain with Mercedes for 2021 but raised eyebrows as the new deal only extends to the end of the current season.
With just a one year deal taking Hamilton to the end of the current regulations before the pecking order might be mixed up in 2022, he spoke about his commitment to the sport still remaining intact.
“I’m fully invested in in this season and in delivering – I still love what I do.”
“I’m just generally in a fortunate position that I don’t have to commit to multiple years. So I chose to have a one year deal. So then I can see how the year goes and where we’re at mid year, or towards the end of the year, who knows whether we will be in the pandemic. But it doesn’t mean I’m not committed, I’m still very, very committed to the sport.”
Part of Hamilton’s new deal saw Mercedes double down on their commitment to helping with diversity in motorsport and within Formula 1. This push for increasing diversity, such as helping people coming from different racial backgrounds into STEM subjects within motorsport, was a critical detail in Hamilton’s contract.
“What I’m really focused on is trying to make sure that in last year, I think there was a lot of great discussion around this diversity issue.” said Hamilton. “And it still remains an issue to this day, and it’s not going to change overnight, but it was really important is to make sure that we are actually delivering and actually taking action.”
“And I’m really, really proud of, of my team here who I’m already seeing steps that were that we started taking last year toward particularly towards the end of the year, and starting to see that progress, you know, little by little, and it just takes one step at a time, of course. So that’s kind of my driving force this year to, to make sure that we continue to push for accountability. And, and and on top of that, hopefully I can do some good performances!”
“I’m very, very proud of Mercedes for being open minded to change and really not just taking the smallest of steps really taking a step back saying what we can do that we’ve done a real deep dive into what we can do here at the not only at the factories but back at Mercedes Benz and so for them to be open to, to putting a foundation together and really putting some money towards pushing for real systematic change within our own organisation i think is fantastic.”
“And and if we really do, do what we’re planning to do, I really think we’re going to create an open up pathways for young minorities to get into STEM subjects and I’m really hopeful that in the future, we see it just being more diverse because it just works out better for everyone.”
