Formula One: Lewis Hamilton alone in a ‘racist’ sport?
Formula 1 has been nearly six decades old now. The question is, for a sport subjected to such ever present hype and worldwide popularity, why is the memory foggy when it comes to black drivers?
The sport is lined with a lot of drivers inducted from all over the world, leaving their marks in the pages of history. The obvious query is, why can’t one remember a prominent, or rather ANY black driver to take the wheel?
Michael Schumacher from Germany, Ayrton Senna from Brazil, Alain Prost from France, Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Räikkönen from Finland and Fernando Alonso from Spain are just some of the noticeable personalities that one can think. The one thing common about all these diverse individuals; none of them are black.
Lewis Hamilton hit the stage in 2006. There was increased hype due to his skin colour - McLaren Mercedes signing in a black driver? A seat occupied by Kimi Raikkonen before heading to Ferrari. Who was this guy? The driver, like the constructors, had British roots but was it a merit move? Did Bernie Ecclestone have anything to do with it? There is no secret as to the pressure he was already in, with environmentalists already on his back, demanding a cleaner sport. Idealists often knocking the door accusing F1 to be a waste of precious resources, the money pumped in for a one and a half hour feature when verily, the same amount could feed millions in Africa or other third-world countries – It wouldn’t be a surprise, if he was ever accused of running a ‘racist’ sport.
However, those that believed that Lewis’ ethnicity had anything to do with his appointment, before his successes in F1 obviously never witnessed his GP2 career. With his sheer speed at the Nurburgring, Silverstone and Istanbul Park in 2006, he literally grabbed the race with the scruff of its neck.
Finishing a last minute 2nd in his debut season, Lewis went on to win the 2007 championships, and became the youngest Formula One champion in history, breaking the record set by Fernando Alonso in his Renault in 2005.
However, there is still a common misconception. People consider the McLaren ace to be the first black Formula 1 driver that the sport has been ‘linked’ to. That unique place in the pages of history belongs to the American William Theodore Ribbs Jr., more commonly known as Williy T. Ribbs.
Witty T. was a naturally gifted driver, and did well in lower formulae. He had a couple of starts in the Indy 500 with an underfunded team partly backed by the famous comedian Bill Cosby. In the mid-to-late-80s, it was hoped that F1 might widen its driver profile based on ethnicity, as a number of American drivers had F1 tests. However, the ‘showdowns’ proved to be largely publicity events, as F1 teams had no intention whatsoever of hiring an American driver. As Al Jr. noted, American drivers expect to be paid to drive, not to pay to drive someone else's car. Others who tested during this time period were Al Unser Jr. (Williams), Rick Mears (Brabham), and Paul Tracy (Canadian - Benetton). Unser, Mears and Tracy were all fast (Mears was quicker than Piquet at the test); Willy T. not so much. Willy's career went downhill, primarily because he shot off his mouth too much and tended to use what Tracy deemed the "chrome horn" a lot. The driver could also be related from the 1990 CART season when he was involved in a collision at the Vancouver street circuit in which a Race Marshall lost his life. The American finally hung his driving gloves in 2000. So he tested, yes, but unless you also call everyone who has ever tested a F1 car, a F1 driver (for example Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves and Sarah Fischer), Willy never made it into F1 as a contracted driver on any level.
Therefore, Hamilton could be considered the First black, ‘contracted’ driver in Formula One. Seeing his accomplishments in such a short span of time, it is still rather surprising that the multimillion dollar sport remains to be quite poor in terms of numbers from the particular ethnicity.
(The write up basically reflects particular stats. Irrespective of colour; it all comes down to sheer performance in the end. Therefore, the writer concedes that ethnicity could never replace merit in any sport for that matter.)
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