Formula 1 is launching an initiative to combat racism and encourage more diversity within the flagship series of motor racing.
F1 said in a statement that “WeRaceAsOne” will also address issues of inequality, sustainability and the coronavirus pandemic, which has resulted in the cancellation of four championship races and postponed the start of the race season from mid-March to July.
F1 intends to send a strong message on equality when the season begins on July 3 at the Austrian Grand Prix, the first of eight European races scheduled until early September.
All the cars but also the screens and the panels on the circuits will welcome a rainbow made up of the colors of the 10 teams entered in the championship, with the keyword #WeRaceAsOne.
“We want our recovery to show that as a sports community, we remain united against racism and we will do more to fight against inequalities and promote diversity in F1,” F1 said in a statement.
The announcement comes after six-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton said he was setting up a commission to increase diversity in motorsport.
Hamilton is the only black driver in F1. He has spoken widely about racism in recent weeks after declaring that he felt so angry, sad and incredulous after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.
The Briton attended a protest march as part of the “Black Lives Matter” movement in London on Sunday. Hamilton had previously criticised F1 for keeping quiet about racism, prompting a wave of support on Twitter from F1 drivers such as Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo.
“I saw people I respected choose not to say anything and it broke my heart. That’s why I had to speak up, Hamilton wrote in the British newspaper The Sunday Times.
“The unchanged composition of the F1 community throughout my career gives the impression that only a certain type of person is really welcome in this sport, the one we look at in a certain way, comes from a certain environment, adapts to a particular mold and plays according to certain unwritten rules.” he added.
F1 President Chase Carey on the other hand, is committed to doing more and quickly improving equality in motorsport.
