Lewis Hamilton endured a frustrating final stint as he encountered radio issues with the Mercedes pit wall.
A recently-released list compiled by Forbes of the best-paid sportspeople in the world featured 100 men and no women. Lewis Hamilton, who arrives at this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix defending the lead of the Formula One world championship, said the omission of tennis legend Serena Williams showed how far sport still needs to come.
« Serena is in the top three of the greatest athletes of all time, above a lot of, if not all, the people on that list, so it is a big question, » he said. « Women rule the world. I don’t understand.
« It just shows you we are still in the stone age. That needs to change. When will it change? I don’t know. »
Hamilton does not think the issue is restricted solely to gender. The Englishman remains the only black driver to have raced in Formula One and he believes racial equality is another ongoing battle society is still a long way from rectifying properly.
« Serena has already spoken of how difficult it is. She has been up against Maria Sharapova and she had more results than Maria but Maria — and not just her but particularly white players she was playing against — were earning more money than her. Yet her results were higher.
« That is still the fight we have in society today. It is going to take some time to change it. »
Williams had been 57th in the 2017 list, but a lack of playing time over the last 12 months — due to pregnancy and birth of her first child — saw her drop out of this year’s edition. Hamilton, who is currently negotiating a new contract with Mercedes, was the highest F1 driver on the list, ranked at 12th. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel (18th) and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso (39th) also featured.
http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/23731813/lewis-hamilton-thinks-society-the-stone-age-terms-women-pay-rights-racial-equality-sport
