Friday, October 31, 2008

Bad losers

The FIA, motor racing's governing body have condemned a Spanish website which contains abuse aimed at Lewis Hamilton. The website, pinchalaruedadeHamilton, features a graphic on its home page in which nails, tin-tacks and hedgehogs are strewn on the Interlagos circuit, where he will attempt to win the world championship in the Brazilian grand prix on Sunday.

The site claims to have had more than 21,000 visitors, and continues the vendetta begun 18 months ago by supporters of Fernando Alonso, who joined the McLaren team as reigning world champion at the start of the 2007 season but found himself in a battle against Hamilton - formula one's first mixed-race driver.

Alonso's departure at the end of the season enraged his Spanish fans, and when the formula one teams went to Spain for pre-season testing Hamilton was greeted by racist insults and the sight of a group of Spanish fans with blackened faces wearing Afro wigs. The FIA's response was to fine the circuit and to institute an anti-racism campaign.

"The FIA's position is very clear," the governing body said in a statement yesterday, reacting to the content of the website. "Discrimination and prejudice can have no place in sport or society. Everyone in our sport will join us in condemning these abusive and hateful comments."

The domain name is registered to a company called Tequila Spain and a note on the website says the owners are not responsible for the comments it contains.

1 comment:

Pete said...

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this notion of Lewis Hamilton as the first 'mixed race' F1 driver, though I've seen it plastered everywhere.

F1 is such a huge international phenomenon with so many nations represented that it's hard to see where lines could be drawn on race.

We've had drivers from Colombia, Uraguay, Mexico, India, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Rhodesia, Thailand...and so many more. This isn't a sport about white European gentlemen anymore, and it hasn't been for thirty years.

It's horrible to see the Spanish fans reacting in this way though. Hate Hamilton because he's smug; hate him because he struggles to stay on the track; hate him because he's come straight into the sport in the fastest car on the grid, but why hate him because he's almost black?

Spain has much to be proud of in Fernando Alonso, and of course in the amazing achievements of Carlos Sainz in the world of rallying. With so much to be positive about there's no need to be negative.