Racist abuse is unacceptable and must be stopped right away
As those who read this blog regularly may see, I am not the biggest fan of Lewis Hamilton. I do not have much against him but simply there are other drivers I like better. But what has happened in Barcelona last weekend goes beyond the liking or not liking. The expressions of hate mixed up with racial abuse are totally unacceptable. You can just click on the image on the right that links to an Pitpass article to see how disgusting some “fans” were. If these people keep presenting themselves as fans of Fernando Alonso, then Fernando has to come out and distance himself from them, and do it pretty quickly.
The FIA has to clamp down on this right now and tough. To their credit they were quick to come out with a strong warning:
“The FIA is surprised and disappointed at the abuse directed at Lewis Hamilton. Abuse of this kind is a clear breach of the principles enshrined in the FIA statutes and any repetition will result in serious sanctions.”
The important thing is, that the serious action will indeed follow should the same happen again. I am not saying that because of few idiots F1 should now leave Spain, absolutely not. That would be total over reaction. The passions following last season are still high especially in Spain and they die down sooner or later. The sanctions should first of all be aimed at these “fans” … As a warning all these “people” caught on many of the pictures that circulate around the web should be identified and banned for ever from entering any F1 venue. This is the kind of “fans” F1 does not need and FIA needs to make it clear. Instead of threatining the tracks with loosing F1, FIA needs to sit down with organizers of the tests and races and work together on making sure that these now isolated incidents do not appear again…
Isn’t it better to express the allegiances this way:
tags: Tags: Barcelona, FIA, formula 1, racism, sanctions
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February 4th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
wow i dont like hamilton but he doesn’t deserve this
February 5th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Saw this on the news this morning, disgraceful behaviour from a minority of so called “fans”. Hopefully this won’t be repeated.
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February 5th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Pretty sad when support turns into Racism
February 5th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Let’s hope that FIA and the managements of all the tracks, not only in Spain, will find a way to tackle this problem…
February 8th, 2008 at 11:03 am
you have to be very careful by accusing ppl too quickly. The journalist were very quick to pick on Fans and accuse someone coz this is going to make the headlines and sell.
The Racist abuse was definetly very bad and this guys should be punished and banned as they can. The others who “diguise” themselves as the “Hamilton Familly” were merely having fun ! people dress up at every race I’ve been without a problem.
The racist abuse just like in football is a definite NO-NO ! but unfortunatly there are idiots all over the world ! let’s keep the sports clean from racial abuse .
Bruno’s last blog post..Fan Denies Being a Racist - Spain incident
February 8th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Hi Bruno, I agree that media picked up on this issue quickly, but in this particular case I think it was the right thing to do as it prompted bot FIA and Spanish authorities and the track owners to act …
I read your post on your blog and well, perhaps those 4 monkeys meant no racial offence. But thanks to their ignorance that was exactly what they achieved … The other bunch though, shouting the “black something” chants on Hamilton, they would have difficult job explaining they did not meant what they did