22/10/2020
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton has questioned the appointment of former Lotus driver, Vitaly Petrov as a race steward when told of comments the Russian had previously made regarding the Briton's T-Shirt protest at Mugello.
Following the Tuscan Grand Prix, during the post-race interviews and during the podium ceremony, the world champion wore a T-Shirt declaring "arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor".
At today's press conference, a Sun journalist repeated comments Petrov made in reaction to the T-Shirt, while asking Hamilton is he thought it appropriate that the man who made them should be appointed as an FIA steward.
"For me, this t-shirt, on top of calling for everyone to kneel, was too much," Sun journalist, Ben Hunt quoted the Russian as saying. "It is a personal matter for every adult.
"You have the right to speak out on social media or give interviews, but I think the US government is well aware of these problems already.
"But to call on that in Formula One itself, I think half of the spectators didn't even know what the shirt was about until it was explained to them.
"And let's say a driver admits to being gay, will they come out with a rainbow flag and urge everyone to become gay as well? I think the FIA will no longer allow such behaviours."
Reacting to the comments, Hamilton said: "I've not seen all of the quotes, but obviously you've just recited some of them so yes of course I would say that's a surprise that they would be hiring someone that has those beliefs and is so vocal about things that we're trying to fight against.
"So you should take it up with them really," he added, referring to the FIA, "there's nothing that I can particularly do about it.
"But we should definitely be including people here who are with the times, who are understanding of the times that we are living in and sensitive to the matters that are surrounding us.
"So I don't really understand what their goal is or why particularly he's here because it's not like they don't have any other good options."
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