62 2GM Friday July 31 2020 | the times
Sport
Hamilton wants more
diversity in his sportLewis Hamilton has said that he aims to
continue in Formula One for “at least
another three years” and indicted that
he would like to see drivers
emerging from more diverse
backgrounds into the sport
before he retires.
Hamilton, 35, is aim-
ing to equal Michael
Schumacher’s record of
seven world titles this
season and, after win-
ning two of the first
three races of the season,
he will be aiming for a
hat-trick of victories in the
British Grand Prix behind closed
doors on Sunday.
Hamilton is out of contract with
Mercedes at the end of the season but
both parties have said they would like
to extend their partnership and give
Hamilton the chance to surpass
Hamilton: Three years before I’d consider retiring
Hungary, Hamilton has used his
platform to persuade F1 manage-
ment to reschedule time for a driv-
ers’ anti-racism protest before
the British Grand Prix. The
drivers staged a coordinat-
ed protest before the
season’s opening race in
Austria — wearing “End
Racism” T-shirts, while
Hamilton’s slogan read
“Black Lives Matter” and
some drivers took the knee —
but their attempts to stage a
reprise at the following two ra-
ces were hurried and gave some
drivers insufficient time to pro-
test. Hamilton called the situa-
tion “embarrassing” and took
the matter up with the sport’s
authorities.
“I spent time talking to Jean[Todt, president of the FIA], to Chase
[Carey, executive chairman of F1] and
Ross [Brawn, F1 managing director] to
make sure they know we’re all on the
same team here,” he said. “By giving us
that extra time before the race, we can
show how united we are as a sport,
because other sports have done a better
job at consistently doing that. I believe
there has been some pushback from
some teams. But it’s a work in progress.”
Hamilton had also been critical in
Budapest of Romain Grosjean, a direct-
or of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Associa-
tion, saying that the French driver
“doesn’t think it’s important” to con-
tinue the protests. Grosjean said yester-
day that he had been speaking for the
“seven or eight drivers that don’t want
to carry on” and he has subsequently
cleared the air with Hamilton.
“I was impressed with the conversa-
tion, I knew that we were working to-
wards a common goal,” Hamilton said.
“It needs to continue through the year.”Schumacher’s record. Having recent-
ly launched his own commission to
increase diversity in the sport, as a
“shy, working-class black kid from
Stevenage”, he also reiterated
his desire to see drivers from
a broader range of
backgrounds given
opportunities.
“I’m going to
be here for the
foreseeable
future, I see my-
self going for at
least another three
years,” Hamilton said
at Silverstone yester-
day. “Obviously there’s a
point at which physicality and
the mental side tail off. We’re also in
a period where there’s not another
driver from my background com-
ing at the moment. I’m conscious of
that as well.”
Since the previous race inRussians told:
Pay £4.5m
fine or face
expulsion
Athletics
Matt Lawton
Chief Sports CorrespondentThe Russian Athletics Federation will
be expelled from track and field if
it fails to pay fines totalling more
than £4.5 million for anti-doping
offences by August 15, World Athletics
has warned.
This month it emerged that the
federation, known as Rusaf, which has
been suspended since 2015, could face
the ultimate sanction after missing the
July 1 deadline to pay a $5 million
(about £3.8 million) fine, plus an
additional $1.31 million in reinstatement
costs.
The federation, which admitted to
assisting an athlete in trying to avoid a
doping sanction, claimed the financial
impact of Covid-19 meant that it did not
have the money.
World Athletics responded to that
by immediately suspending the
programme for enabling some Russian
track stars, subject to the Doping
Review Board, to compete as an
“authorised neutral athlete”.
The situation could mean that no
Russian athletes, even under a neutral
banner, compete at next year’s Olympic
Games in Tokyo.
The World Athletics Council met
yesterday and in a statement said: “The
World Athletics Council has decided to
expel the Russian Federation from
membership of World Athletics if it
does not make the outstanding
payments of a $5 million fine and
$1.31 million in costs before August 15.
“The Council, meeting by tele-
conference due to the ongoing global
Covid-19 pandemic, agreed to follow
the recommendations of the taskforce,
delivered by chairperson Rune Anders-
en in his report today.
“Addressing the Council, Andersen
expressed his disappointment that the
taskforce had seen ‘very little in terms
of changing the culture of Russian
athletics’ in the past five years.
“He said the taskforce had spent an
enormous amount of time and effort
trying to help Rusaf reform itself and
Russian athletics, for the benefit of all
clean Russian athletes, but the
response had been inadequate.”
World Athletics has received a letter
from the Russian minister of sport,
Oleg Matytsin, in which he promises
that the payment will be made by
August 15.
However, the taskforce has intro-
duced other conditions that need to be
met by the Russians if they are to avoid
expulsion.
These include the Rusaf Reinstate-
ment Commission providing a draft
plan detailing reforms to the taskforce
before August 31 2020, with “any
changes required by the taskforce to
the draft plan to be incorporated to the
taskforce’s satisfaction on or before
September 30 2020”.
Meanwhile, World Athletics has
proposed adding a mixed-gender cross
country relay race to the 2024 Olympic
Games in Paris. The event would
include two men and two women per
nation, each running two legs of a
2.5km course.
Lord Coe, the president of World
Athletics, had previously suggested
including cross country running in the
Winter Olympics programme. Cross
country running was last included in
the summer Olympics programme in
1924, also in Paris, with the event being
won by Finland’s Paavo Nurmi.CHRIS PUTNAM/REX/SHUTTERSTOCKJohn Westerby
British
Grand Prix
Silverstone
Sunday, 2.10pmTV: Channel 4, Sky Sports
Main Event.
Radio: BBC 5 LivePérez, a driver for Racing Point, is self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19
but officials said the British Grand Prix at Silverstone will go ahead as scheduledFormula One officials insisted last
night that the British Grand Prix at
Silverstone would go ahead on Sunday,
despite Sergio Pérez, the Racing Point
driver, testing positive for coronavirus.
Pérez returned a test that was
deemed “inconclusive” yesterday,
forcing him to self-isolate and miss the
drivers’ press conference. A second test
then forced him to withdraw from the
race, but officials are confident that the
track-and-trace protocols in place in
the biosecure environment at Silver-
stone will enable them to contain the
incident, with a small number of people
with whom he had come into close
contact also going into quarantine.
“Pérez has entered self-quarantine in
accordance with the instructions of the
relevant public health authorities, and
will continue to follow the procedure
mandated by those authorities,” a
statement issued by Formula One and
the FIA, said.
“With assistance of the local organis-
er of the British Grand Prix, local health
authorities and the FIA Covid-19 dele-
gate, a full track-and-trace initiative has
been undertaken and all close contacts
have been quarantined. The proce-
dures set out by the FIA and F1 have
provided for swift containment of an
incident that will have no wider impact
on this weekend’s event.”
The Racing Point team has indicated
its intention to still race two cars in the
event, starting with practice today, and
an agreement allows them to use
Mercedes’ reserve drivers, so Pérez
could be replaced by either Stoffel
Vandoorne or Esteban Gutiérrez. A
statement from Racing Point read:
“Sergio is physically well and in good
spirits, but he will continue to
Silverstone
to go ahead
despite Pérez
positive test
self-isolate under the guidelines of the
relevant public health authorities, with
safety the ultimate priority for the team
and the sport.”
There had been two positive results
from about 13,000 tests undertaken
over the first three races of the season,
two in Austria and one in Hungary, as
the revamped F1 season began behind
closed doors in a carefully controlled
biosecure environment. Only those
who had tested negative were allowed
to enter the environment and teams are
expected to remain in their own social
bubble while at a circuit.
The original F1 season schedule was
aborted following the cancellation of
the Australian Grand Prix, brought
about when a McLaren engineer tested
positive two days before the race in
Melbourne in March. F1 officials are
confident that no drastic action is
required following Pérez’s positive test
at Silverstone, given the rigorous
protocols that have been introduced in
order to allow a revised calendar of
races to be gradually assembled.
It was announced last week that the
“American swing” of four races had
been cancelled due to the high volume
of positive cases in the United States,
with grands prix in Texas, Mexico,
Brazil and Canada falling by the
wayside. A programme of 13 races has
now been confirmed — all of them in
Europe — and further races in the
Middle East are expected to conclude
the season, with two events in Bahrain
and one in Abu Dhabi.
The British Grand Prix last year was
attended by more than 300,000 people
across three days, but Northampton-
shire police have previously stated
that “any uncontrolled gatherings of
people in the area would not only
compromise the event but the entire
Formula One season”.Formula One
John Westerby