The delayed Formula 1 season will finally begin this week in Austria, and the defending world champion Mercedes team will have a very different look at the front of the field.
Mercedes, known as the “Silver Arrows,” have replaced their normal silver livery with a stunning black scheme as a part of a public pledge to stand against racism and discrimination.
Mercedes announced its new livery this week, which features the words “End Racism” on the halo just above where the drivers sit. Mercedes also acknowledged a lack of diversity in its workforce, noting that only 12 percent are women and only three percent identify as belonging to a minority. The team says that a “Diversity and Inclusion” program will be announced before the end of the season, which will work to “improve accessibility to our sport” for underrepresented groups, and provide “forensic analysis of our recruitment and development processes.”
Mercedes driver and six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton recently announced the launch of his own project, the Hamilton Commission, in a column for the Sunday Times. The Commission is “a research partnership dedicated to exploring how motorsport can be used as a vehicle to engage more young people from black backgrounds with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects and, ultimately, employ them on our teams or in other engineering sectors.”
