Firstly, no he didn't call Marko a grade A racist or anything like that. What he said was:mikeyg123 wrote:It absolutely doesn't have to be a big deal but Hamilton pretty much called Marko a grade A racist and broadcasted that to his 18 million Instagram followers. In this day and age that's a really serious allegation. He needs to correct that mistake because most people who saw it will still think Marko said those words.Alienturnedhuman wrote:To be clear, I am not accusing you of this (especially as you have including the word probably) - but I have seen so much outrage on Twitter who are whipping up such a frenzy about Hamilton's comment, it's as if the biggest crime from the whole George Floyd incident is Hamilton believing a widely circulated story that appeared to be sourced.mikeyg123 wrote:Anyone been following whats been going on on Instagram today with Hamilton and Marko? Hamilton should probably apologise.
It came across my radar before Hamilton posted about it as Google Now was showing the story, I suspect that is probably where Hamilton saw it too.
I'm sure that Hamilton will apologise to Marko, if he hasn't already, but those in the public eye know this happens all the time. Just about every race a driver makes a throwaway comment about a competitor and the reporters reword it and take it out of context to try and provoke the other one. The whole F1 circus is used to this as it happens all the time. People managing to turn BLM into 'poor old Marko' (the person they usually treat as the pantomime villain of F1) just goes to show where they really stand on the issue...
He appears, for some reason, to be reluctant to do that. Sometimes if you're going to be a leader you do have to own up to your mistakes.
"Helmut, it deeply saddens me that you consider fighting for equal treatment of black people and people of colour a distraction. I'm actually quote offended. A distraction for me was fans showing up in black face to taunt my family on race weekends. A distraction for me was the unnecessary and additional adversity and unfair treatment I faced as a child, teen and even now, due to the colour of my skin. I hope this speaks volumes to the few people of colour you do have on your team, about your priorities and how you view them. Wake up. This sport needs to change."
And secondly, Marko has publicly spoken about it and has said that Hamilton's reaction to the fake news was completely understandable. He puts 100% of the blame with the tweet and website that reported the tweet as a fact. He also stated he has been in contact with Hamilton and the matter is resolved.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mark ... a/4808588/