With F1 star Hamilton back on social media, fans can breathe again

I was going to lament the fact that Lewis Hamilton had not said a peep on social media since the final race of Formula 1 last year, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Not a word, not a tweet, not congratulations, not one thing.

And then one evening, looking very casual against the backdrop of adventurous terrain, Hamilton talked to the world. He said that he’s back. I proceeded to lose my mind.

There’s a lot of context behind Hamilton’s return to social media. In a world where most announcements and major life changes ranging from pregnancies, fires, firings and hirings to political action and intellectual or farcical debate are made on Twitter, Hamilton’s proof of life is a positive sign that we who have been in limbo about Formula 1 since last year can breathe again.

Why are we in limbo? Well, for one thing, Hamilton won the last grand prix, and it was definitively and resoundingly taken from him. The follow-through has looked like the relevant associations meeting to deliberate about whether the win is valid, and if it is, how to avoid another situation where the win and the rules are so fraught that the entire motorsports community is torn in half over it.

We all anticipated that Hamilton would come back after this. The race itself was a demon on the nerves: both contenders went in at even points, and the lead was snatched and returned at various instances, until the very end when this very association changed something at the last minute (literally the last lap) to hand Max Verstappen his first championship win.

Personally, I was torn about whether to watch Formula 1 again. That kind of clear malpractice, dare I say, can break a man, and can break his fans.

On top of that, Formula 1 is a startlingly white sport, to put it plainly – no other man has done what Hamilton has done for it, including but not limited to the fact that no black man has ever held that trophy that many times; no black man has advocated for black people in the same way, to the extent that Stephanie Travers made history as the first black woman on an F1 podium (the Zimbabwean Stephanie is a trackside fluid engineer for the team).

A black man at the top of this sport – undisputedly leading it – makes everything about these discussions turn into not just a who is the best driver or a who is in the best car issue, but also every time Hamilton wins there is a vitriol online issue.

Not because we want it to be like that – but because in a white sport, there will definitely be a lot of white fans. And that’s where a lot of the online hate is from. Even when he doesn’t win. When he just breathes. When he leaves his house. When he makes Mercedes support Black Lives Matter.

This felt like a final straw for him, especially as we didn’t see hair or hide of him after. I was ready to throw in the towel, if he was ready to as well. I felt like Hamilton had done his part – that he had done what every black person has to do in a world that requires them to be 10 times better – or seven, at least – than everyone around them.

So much hatred based on who your parents are, I imagine, in the diaspora, is tiring, confusing and wears you down, regardless of the clear knowledge that you are the best.

Especially when the biases are so clear: Bernie Ecclestone, the former chief executive of Formula 1, went as far as to say that he was “‘surprised’ that Lewis Hamilton has not retired out of respect for Michael Schumacher’s record tally of Formula 1 world titles” – a standard no multiple championship driver has ever been told of or required to adhere to. It sounds, and is, crazy.

For now, now that Hamilton has returned (all this from one social media post!), it looks like we might be watching him go back to beating archaic records and taking all the names.

If he does choose to go back to Formula 1 and continue to break the stereotypes of a black man in a difficult sport, then of course I’ll be there to cheer him on. I like to be on the winning side (stolen championship aside, he has the seven under his belt already).

I want to watch him prove everyone wrong as definitively as they took that championship from him. Is it a losing battle in the face of imperialism? Maybe. Is it an essential one? One hundred percent.

I want there to be value in him taking part in Formula 1 – just so ‘they’ know we won’t watch it if he isn’t there, charting the path for those stellar black kids coming up after him who know they can take over the sport if they want to.

We can speak about it and write pieces on it, but we can also make our votes known with our eyes and our wallets. And that’s precisely what I intend to do.