Hamilton: F1 ‘needs to do more’ on human rights in host nations

Lewis Hamilton says F1 “needs to do more” to try to improve a human rights issues in some of nations hosting the Motorsport League. 30 United Kingdom MPs on, Wednesday pointed out the concerns of human rights violations linked to Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Hamilton said he had received letters from rights groups upon arriving in Bahrain and would “take some time to digest them”.

“It is very important for all sports to use the platform they have to push for change,” the seven-time champion said.

“The human rights issue in so many of the places we go to is a massive problem.

“We are one of the few sports that go to so many different countries and I do believe as a sport we need to do more.

“We have taken a step in the right direction but we can always do more.

“They have put some steps in place for the places we go to but it is important to make sure they are implemented in the right way and that we see some action taken.

“That is going to take some work but it’s all in the background.”

Bahrain is just one of Formula 1’s host countries about which serious human rights concerns have raised by the people. Azerbaijan, Russian, Turkey, UAE, Saudi Arabia (making its debut in the next year) and China are the other host countries alleged for the rights violations.

The British driver who became the most successful Champion in history after winning the last race in Turkey equalizing Michael Schumacher’s tally of 7 titles having already broken German’s record of race victories.

The Mercedes man talking about his achievement, said: “I don’t think it has sunk in yet, probably because we’re still racing and you’ve got to keep one eye on the job.”

But the Briton, 35, said he was determined to keep winning in the upcoming three season-end races on consecutive weekends, two in Bahrain followed by one in Abu Dhabi.

“That’s what we exist to do,” he said. “It’s what we all work to do, what every single person in the team works towards.

“We still have work to do, we have incremental improvements to work on. Every opportunity we get to be on track, we are still challenged and learning and developing, we’re on a constant journey to try to improve.

“It is not easy to do when we have had the success we have had. But we all love that challenge and I love how it unifies us all. We are constantly evolving in how we work as a team.

“It is in my DNA. It is how I’m wired. I love that challenge, coming to another race where the pressure is different and the focus is on getting the best out of this weekend. How can we extract more, learn more, almost use them as test races, so we can apply what we learned this year into next year’s car?”

And he said it has been “surreal” to know that his achievements echoed in Parliament.