"We shouldn't be giving these people a platform. They're talking about our sport, and we're looking to go in a completely different direction, it's not representative," said the seven-time F1 world champion, who is heavily involved in the fight against racism, in a press conference before the British Grand Prix this weekend.

Nelson Piquet, 69, a former three-time world champion in the 1980s, "wholeheartedly apologized" to Hamilton on Wednesday, saying the "translation" of the Brazilian word "neguinho" had not been "correct in a lot of media.

Interviewed at Silverstone on Thursday, Hamilton called on the media and the F1 world to look at "what we are as a sport today and where we want to go".

"If we want to develop in the United States and in other countries, in South Africa (where F1 plans to return, editor's note), increase our audience, we must look to the future and give young people, a platform more representative of the current era," he continued.

"I have for a long time been the object of racism and criticism, of negativity in archaic remarks (...) So there is nothing particularly new for me", he regretted, while emphasizing that it was a "global problem".

The Mercedes driver said he was "incredibly grateful" to everyone who supported him this week, "especially the drivers".

© 2022 AFP