The grand prix season ends in Abu Dhabi this weekend. The sport needs to rethink its partnerships with oppressive regimes
For Formula One fans around the world, the news that world champion Lewis Hamilton has recovered from coronavirus and will be fit to race in Abu Dhabi this weekend will be met with jubilation. F1’s management, on the other hand, might be feeling ambivalent.
Over the course of a season marred by Covid-19, Hamilton’s increasingly firm stance on social justice, sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement, has frequently overshadowed the racing. And last month, before the Bahrain Grand Prix, he made the incendiary claim that F1 has a “consistent and massive problem” with human rights abuses in the places it visits. Chase Carey, the head of F1, hit back, saying “we are very proud of our partnership here in Bahrain”, but this has done little to quell the uproar.
