Lewis Hamilton leads F1’s reaction after Ralf Schumacher comes out as gay

Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton believes Ralf Schumacher’s decision to come out as gay sends a “positive message” and is hopeful it “liberates others to be able to do the same”.

On Sunday, Schumacher announced that he’s in a same-sex relationship, posting an image arm-in-arm with his boyfriend.

Schumacher’s announcement means he’s only the third driver to race in F1’s history to be LGBTQ+.

Hamilton has been a big supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, sporting a rainbow flag on his racing helmet over the years in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal.

Speaking ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, where Crash.net are present in the paddock, Hamilton reacted to Schumacher’s news.

“I think clearly he’s not felt comfortable enough to say it in the past,” Hamilton said when asked why it took so long for Schumacher to make his sexuality public knowledge.

“But I think it just shows that we are in the time and finally can take that step and don’t have to fear. Hopefully people will say that. I think so far I’ve heard only positive feedback from people.

“And I think that’s because of the time we’re living in and the changes we are in. it all started from Seb [Vettel] and I standing on the grid here, fighting against what the government is doing here. When I was wearing a helmet in Saudi in Qatar, and I know Ralf said that it wasn’t a good idea to do those things.

“But after that he made a shift in his mind. And even him taking that step sends such a positive message. And liberates others to be able to do the same.”

While the sport has improved its inclusivity, thanks to drivers like Hamilton, he thinks F1 still has a “long way to go” to make sure “people feel comfortable”.

“I mean, we’re in this little bubble,” he added. “I think within sports, I think it still has a huge, a long way to go. There’s one thing saying that it’s inclusive, and there’s another thing actually making sure that people feel comfortable in the environment.

“I mean, this is a male-dominated space, and as far as I know, he’s one of the first to at least publicly be speaking in that respect.

“But we’re very inclusive within our team, but I think the sport does need to continue to do more to make people feel more comfortable, to make women feel more welcome in this space.

“Because I know that not all of them are treated well in this space, and so we have to do more of that.”

What can F1 do?

Hamilton has been a big advocate in making F1 more diverse - and there being more opportunities for people.

He launched Mission 44 - an organisation which focuses on helping younger people from unrepresented backgrounds.

The 39-year-old cited the need for conversations with the major players in F1 and then looking to tackle a variety of issues.

“At the top of my head, I would love to come up with a solution, but I don’t have the solution,” he explained. “I do know, more often than not, it is about conversation, it is about dialogue with the key stakeholders. It’s about analysing how the accessibility is getting information from people who do or don’t feel included or mis-engaged in the community.

“You could do a questionnaire for every single person that’s here and just have a few questions and just ask them enormously how they feel and what they feel has been done.

“There’s a lot that you could do, but it is firstly speaking about it rather than ignoring that it is an issue or having it at the bottom of the priority list. Actually bring it up and actually set some people a task of going about how can we make people feel.”