Sir Lewis Hamilton is a name that needs no introduction. The "Billion Dollar Man" as fans have so affectionately dubbed him, is currently the most successful Formula 1 driver to ever live, with 7 championships and 104 race wins to his name. His success is something that should never be doubted, and yet it is. Why is that?
One huge thing about Lewis that must be noted is that he remains the only ever black man to compete in Formula 1, which since his now iconic debut season in 2007, has led to exactly what one would expect. Even as recent as late last year, fellow championship winner Nelson Piquet was filmed calling Hamilton a racist slur in his native Portugese in an interview. A comment which was defended by Former F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone (Himself no stranger to racist remarks).
Paul Gilroy is a black media theorist, who proposed the idea that our media is constructed on racist ideas from hundreds of years ago, using binary oppositions. For example, an idea of earned success vs blind luck. This is an argument constantly used against Hamilton, usually stemming from him moving to the team Mercedes at just the right time and that he only won because of his car, not because of his talent.
As well as this, Gilroy states that the media, perticularly British media, still clings to colonial discourses to inform its attitudes towards race. It has been a long-speculated rumor that Hamilton's rookie season in 2007 was rigged against his favour by Ecclestone and CEO of the FIA at the time, Max Mosley, to prevent a black, working-class raised man standing atop an extremely white, upper-class, privelidged sport. F1 is a sport that ties closely with Britain, as the world championship officially started just south of Northampton, so it makes sense it would also be attached to the very British idea of clinging to colonialism. As well as, as previously mentioned, being a symbol of what bored, rich, white men did at the weekend. Hamilton winning would be a binary opposition in itself, so he did it 6 more times.
Even now, fans constantly put down Hamilton's talents and hurl racist remarks at him. The Dutch crowds in 2021 were perticularly bad for this due to the close championship battle with Dutchman Max Verstappen. British crowds tend to be more accepting. Well, until Lewis makes his stances on civil rights known, then we're right back to the 1950s. Sadly, not a rare occurance in sport with F1 being no exception.
Gilroy's theories fit Hamilton's story very well. He was a man of colour coming into the world's most expensive and privelidged sport. The post-colonial hangover was going to be in full swing from the very beginning. Hence why he's told to just "brush off" racist remqrks and get on with it by higher-ups. Because Lewis doesn't look like the rest, he is an other. An outsider. And outsiders should never win. But they do it anyway.
Of course, one could make the argument that Lewis' backlash is simply due to a hatred of domination by F1 fans. This is indeed true to an extent. Just look at Sebastian Vettel throughout the early 2010s. However, there is an extra layer to the hate Lewis recieves. And that extra layer is usually aimed at his race (Or fans calling him gay for being "woke", but that's a tale for another time) After all, former champions weren't calling Seb racial slurs, were they? So, is Lewis Hamilton overrated? Of course not! The man almost won in his first ever season! Why is he called overrated? Because he's a black winner in a white man's game, so he must have cheated. Obviously.
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