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Hamilton lashes out at Marko: 'Completely unacceptable, but not surprised'
Lewis Hamilton has lashed out at Red Bull Racing advisor Helmut Marko. The Austrian made racist statements about his driver, Sergio Perez, by saying that Perez's "form fluctuations" were because of his "South American heritage". Hamilton finds Marko's statements unacceptable.
Hamilton responds to Marko's statements
"It's completely unacceptable what he said. And whilst we say there's no room for any type of discrimination within this sport, which there should be no room for it, to have leaders and people in these positions making comments like this," Hamilton began to speak to Sky Sports ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.
It is common knowledge that Hamilton is committed to fighting racism. "This is not good for us moving forward. So, I think it firstly highlights the work that still needs to be done. There are a lot of people in the background that really are trying to combat these sorts of things. But it's hard to manoeuvre when you have people that are at the top. If there are people at the top that have those sorts of mindsets, it just stops us from progressing. I'm not surprised, to be honest."
Hamilton finds it extraordinary that Marko has not been sacked
Previously, Red Bull acted harshly against discrimination when driver Juri Vips was sacked. So that is not the case with Marko. "I think there needs to be more done. I think teams, when they've had individuals, particularly drivers, make comments, but some individuals in the background are usually removed, or at least they put out a quote and say they don't support that sort of thing. So it is interesting that they haven't done so for this one. But it's not my team, and it's not how we move as a team," Hamilton says.
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