Seven-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton has revealed he suffered racial slurs and bullying at school as a child, making it the “most traumatic” period of his life.
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Speaking on the On Purpose podcast, which was posted online on Monday, the 38-year-old mixed race champion, who grew up in a small town near London, said: “For me, school was the most traumatic and difficult part of my life .” .
“I was bullied when I was six years old. In my school I was one of only three black kids and bigger, stronger boys used to bully me a lot,” he recalls. “All the time punches, the things we threw at me like bananas, and people, who quietly used “the N-word”, people who called me half-blood and didn’t know where my place was: it was very difficult for me”.
But Hamilton continues: “I didn’t feel like coming home and telling my parents that those kids were calling me n**** or that I had been bullied or beaten at school. I didn’t want my dad to think I wasn’t strong.
Considered one of the greatest drivers of all time, Hamilton remains the only black driver in F1 to date. In partnership with Mercedes, he founded the Mission 44 foundation and the organization Ignite, whose aim is both to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and to specifically promote drivers among these young people.