Hamilton: "School was the most traumatic and difficult part of my life"

LONDON, 23 En. (dpa/EP) -

The British driver Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), seven-time Formula 1 world champion, has confessed that his time at school was "the most traumatic and difficult" of his life, revealing that they threw bananas at him, harassed him and repeatedly called him "black ".

"At the age of six I was already being bullied. At that school I was one of the three black children and the older, stronger children harassed me. They constantly hit me, they threw things at me, like bananas, and the people who used the word with 'n' -'nigger', that is, 'black'-, so calm. People call you a mulatto and you don't know where you fit in. It was difficult for me," he said in the podcast 'On Purpose', recorded in November but published this Monday.

Hamilton, who was born and educated in Stevenage, in south-east England, acknowledged that his school years had been the "most difficult" of his life. "For me, school was the most traumatizing and difficult part of my life. In my high school there were six or seven black children out of a total of 1,200, and three of us were locked out of the principal's office all the time. The principal told us He had a mania, especially me. I felt that the system was against me and that I was swimming against the current. I repressed many things," he revealed.

In this sense, he explained that he did not tell his parents about the abuse he suffered. "I didn't feel like going home and telling my parents that those kids kept saying the 'n' word to me, or that I was bullied or hit at school today, I didn't want my dad to think I wasn't strong. ", he stressed.

Hamilton remains the only black driver in F1 and has created Mission 44, which aims to improve the lives of people from underrepresented groups, and Ignite, a joint venture with his Mercedes team to improve diversity and inclusion in motorsport.

About his life after Formula 1, the British assured that it will be "very hard" to stop competing. "I've been doing it for 30 years. When you stop doing it, what's going to be the same? Nothing is going to equal being on a circuit, being in a race, being at the top of this sport and being in front of the grid and that emotion that I feel about it," he said.

"When I retire, there will be a big void, so I'm trying to focus and find things that can replace it and that are just as rewarding," he said. Hamilton will unveil his new Mercedes on February 15, ahead of the first test of the new season in Bahrain on March 5.