Hamilton wants to raise awareness for human rights in Grand Prix countries

Lewis Hamilton has spoken out more and more emphatically on social issues in recent years. In doing so, he first focused on the climate, last year mainly on racism, and now he also wants to draw attention to human rights in general.

"There are many organisations in the world that turn a blind eye to a lot of things and they will use the excuse that it is 'political'", Hamilton said in an interview with Mark Webber after winning the world title in Turkey. "Human rights is not a political thing. Human rights must be the same for everyone and we go to countries where that is a problem".

Hamilton wants to encourage change

Although he does not mention any countries by name, this statement probably does not come out of the blue either. Earlier that week it was announced that Formula 1 will travel to Saudi Arabia next year and Hamilton's first reaction to that was that he does not know much about the situation there.

That is not to say that he doesn't think it is an important issue and hopes that the presence of Formula 1 in those countries will change things. "We do not need to close off those areas. We need to find out how we can do more, how we can really use this platform to encourage and stimulate change".