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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Giles Richards

Lewis Hamilton unhappy with ‘racial element’ of FIA president’s comments

Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton has had more than one run-in with Mohammed Ben Sulayem since he became the FIA president in 2021. Photograph: Edgar Su/Reuters

Lewis Hamilton has expressed disquiet at comments made by the president of Formula One’s governing body, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, that F1 drivers should not swear like rap artists, stating that he was unhappy at the “racial element” implied by Ben Sulayem’s choice of words.

Speaking in the buildup to this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, Ben Sulayem, the president of the FIA, had said he was concerned about drivers swearing on team radio, even though messages are broadcast on a delay so expletives are bleeped out. “We have to differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music,” he said. “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].”

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