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F1 News

Hamilton concerned by lack of young, working class racers

Hamilton concerned by lack of young, working class racers

02-08-2018 16:00

Lewis Hamilton’s story is well documented, with his father Anthony juggling several jobs to make his son’s dream a reality. Now Lewis is fearing that the days of young drivers from working class families could be over, given the cost of go karting.

The Hamiltons used second hand equipment to struggle through the karting scenes over 20 years ago, and fortunately it has paid off in a big way for them, with Lewis signing a deal to make him the highest paid F1 driver in history last month, to extend his stay with F1’s current top team in Mercedes.

Sadly however, it seems families are not taking the risk these days, with every driver coming through being from wealthy families.

Hamilton said: “It goes to the fundamentals of how the sport is governed. There are so many aspects that are not being tackled. There are only wealthy kids coming through. There are not kids from working-class families.”

Hamilton’s former McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso owns a kart track and academy in Spain, and Hamilton reveals that he has plans to create something similar in England.

“I guess I’ve got to speak to Jean [Todt] or whoever is above or around him just to try to work something out because there are definitely some improvements they can do about what they do with the younger generation.

“If that discussion then leads into finance and all that kind of stuff we’ll cover that at the time but at the moment I’m not going to just to put money over there without a plan.

“It would be cool to help young kids but how you go about it is the question. There’s all these different championships below that are owned by different people.”