While sharing his wishes to race in Africa, Lewis Hamilton had a much stronger message about his feelings for the continent.
Per ESPN, Hamilton, Formula One’s first Black racer, told reporters in Melbourne, Australia, that he wants African leaders to reclaim its control from their former European colonial powers.
“That’s what I want to see. Take it back from the French, take it back from the Spanish, take it back from the Portuguese and the British,” Hamilton said. “It’s so important for the future of that continent. They have all the resources to be the greatest and most powerful place in the world, and that’s probably why they are being controlled the way they are.”
The British racer was born in a town in Hertfordshire called Stevenage to a white British mother and a Black Grenadian father. He said he has roots in West African countries like Togo and Benin, and that he is “proud of that part of the world.”
“I think it is the most beautiful part of the world, and I don’t like that the rest of the world owns so much of it and takes so much from it and no one speaks about it,” he said. “I’m really hoping that the people that are running those different countries all unite and come together and take Africa back.”
Hamilton shared that his ultimate goal is to get F1 to host a grand prix in an African country before he retires from the sport, telling reporters that he has been “fighting in the background” and lobbying stakeholders for the last six or seven years to try to make it happen.
“I don’t want to leave the sport without having a grand prix there, without getting to race there, so I’m chasing them. They’re setting certain dates; I’m like, ‘Damn, I could be running out of time,’ so I’m going to be here for a while until that happens. That would be amazing, given that I’m half African.”
No African country has hosted a grand prix since ones were held in South Africa in 1992 and 1993, following the end of Apartheid.
On countries he’d like to see an F1 race in, Hamilton mentioned Rwanda and South Africa as potential options. He also shouted out Kenya, though he said he did not think there would be a grand prix there.
