Quote:
Originally Posted by WillyHeckaslike
Not sure F1 got this one right, 6 of the drivers deserve respect for sticking their heads above the current trench of the day. People in general watch F1 to see F1, if they wanted to view politics they can and would go elsewhere. 
 Personally I don't agree with Hamilton's recent view of Bernie E. In the the early 90's I lived for a time in Middlesex. Racism was obvious, as were the perpetrators and their victims.  |
I agree with you. It was difficult to watch and listen to. Added to Hamilton's 'necklace', made it worse and detracted, for me, from the issue. It made it look like a fashion statement. Racism and slavery are two different subjects (the slavery statement of the necklace is at odds with the history of his team - but I believe that Mercedes we know now, should be judged in the now and their practices in the future, as with every company).
I find it difficult to believe that there is widespread discrimination within the teams. Be it gender, race or nationality. Every team would love to have a female as a driver, as generally women tend to be lighter, and have a narrower frame to a male, so logically, they would make for a faster car. Likewise, when it comes to engineers, they will take the best, regardless of gender, race etc.
This takes it back to education or accessibility (for the actual racing). The education is not the concern of F1, but of the governments and their departments responsible for it. Once you introduce involvement of F1 or any institution, you run the risk of introducing positive discrimination - they supply encouragement or funding, but you can only apply if you are from the minority already present. In terms of discrimination, if we stop talking about it, it will go away............... eventually.(at all levels, from within the family, to govt. - I know it is easier said than done, Morgan Freeman, among others, makes some great points about it in
THIS video, another video, with
Denzel Washington,it is culture).
As far as accessibility goes, this is where F1 can make a difference. In terms of getting a drive, they can draw from feeder series, who can draw from their feeder series. This though of course brings it back to accessibility again (teams cannot afford to pay for a driver, so have to resort to having a pay driver). But this ultimately is where the budget caps are coming into play. Sadly I do not think it is enough, and F1 has become so rich, it would be difficult for it to give all that up to try to find that purity of 60s and 70s. I do not think there is a quick fix for the accessibility without a complete abandonment of the current formulae.
But all of this talk, I think detracts from the original post, I apologise to the OP for this.