'Ben Sulayem is not racist, his comment had nothing to do with skin colour'

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F1 Steiner believes Ben Sulayem is not a racist despite hamilton remark
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  • Ludo van Denderen

Lewis Hamilton could not suppress being annoyed. The seven-time world champion was irritated by a remark made by FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem ahead of the Singapore GP, where he declared drivers should not swear because 'they are not rappers'. According to Hamilton, there was 'a racist element' in the aforementioned statement, however, Guenther Steiner believes that was not Ben Sulayem's intention.

"I don't think that he's (Ben Sulayem) a racist," Steiner said in an exclusive interview with GPblog. "I mean to his defence, because I don't think he said it's like rapping, that has nothing to do with race. I don't think so. You know rapping obviously it's more black people doing it than white people, but he didn't want to go there, he was at the language, not at the person."

Are British media deliberately targeting Ben Sulayem?

Ben Sulayem not only complained about swearing drivers, but also about - especially British - media, as he believes he is a target for them. "What are they doing to him? I mean, if somebody's got a different opinion, that doesn't mean that he's against you. We are entitled to opinions and freedom of speech, I'm a big supporter of that one," Steiner says.

"I can have an opinion, maybe you have a different opinion, but I cannot critique you for that. I cannot tell you because you don't think like me you're wrong, no. You're entitled to your opinion," Steiner continued, who thus disagrees with Ben Sulayem's comments about being targeted.


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