"I think Lewis realised that a peaceful, silent protest hasn’t changed anything"

“Lewis has been for some time one of the leading, most recognised people within F1. There are not a lot of personalities even near that", Wolff is quoted by The Guardian. The fact that Hamilton also dares to express his opinion makes him special. "He is like a lightning rod, because he wears his heart on his sleeve and voices his opinion. We need exactly that, we need character, we need opinions.”

How Hamilton thinks about certain topics sometimes causes a lot of discussion and stir between different groups. "If you express your opinion and you are a public persona you will always polarise. Lewis has been at the helm of this sport for more than 10 years. When you are out there and have been abused or criticised, you cope with it much better after a while. He takes the criticism on board and learns from it, but he is not letting it anywhere close to his soul", says the team boss of the German race team.

Mercedes fully supports Hamilton

Wolff then goes on to say how important the whole situation is to Hamilton. "If you are a child eight years old being racially abused on a go-kart track, imagine the scars that leaves. We as middle-aged white men can never put ourselves in a situation of someone who has been racially abused. So I was always very open to his opinion and judgment. I think he realised that a peaceful, silent protest hasn’t changed anything in the last 60 years. So maybe it’s time to utilise your voice in a more polarising and confrontational way with the hope that he can trigger change."