“I started being bullied when I was six years old.
In my school, I was one of only three colored kids, and bigger, stronger guys bullied me all the time.
Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has revealed he suffered racial slurs and bullying at school as a child, making this time "the most traumatic" of his life for him.
On the On Purpose podcast, posted online on Monday, the 38-year-old Métis champion, who grew up in a small town near London, said: "For me, school was the most traumatic and difficult part of my life ".
“Beatings all the time, things thrown at me, like bananas, and people who used
the N-word
(
nigger
) quietly, people who called me half-blood, and not knowing what my place was: for me, it was very difficult.
»
But, Hamilton continues, “I didn't feel like coming home and telling my parents that those kids called me a nigger, or that I'd been bullied or beaten up at school.
I didn't want my dad to think I wasn't strong.
»
Only active black F1 driver
Considered one of the greatest drivers of all time, Hamilton remains the only active black F1 driver to this day (Willy T. Ribbs was the first black in the 80s).
He created the Mission 44 foundation and the Ignite organization, which aim for one to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, and for the other more specifically to promote drivers among these young people, in partnership with Mercedes.
