Amsterdam, Netherlands – The summer hiatus for Formula One gives the paddock a 14-day break to recover. While some go to the beach with their buddies, others visit relatives.
In a similar vein, Lewis Hamilton began his holiday by spending time with his family in Turkey before spending a portion of it touring Africa. Going “straight from the airport into events, history museums and just cultural experiences in each of the numerous nations I traveled to,” he claimed he made the most of his time there.
After making an initial stop in Morocco, Hamilton traveled to Senegal and Gorée Island, which is located off the coast of Dakar and was once a major French slave trading hub until 1848. Later in the journey, Hamilton met refugees at the Maratane Refugee Settlement in northern Mozambique. According to the UNHCR, the country is home to over 33,000 refugees, the most of whom are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda.
“There’s so much to take from it,” Hamilton said Thursday in Zandvoort, Netherlands, ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend. “I’m still digesting the trip and going to a refugee camp and seeing the work being done there and how people are displaced.”
Hamilton shared how “it’s one thing reading about it and seeing it on the news, but actually seeing it and speaking to kids who have 10 kilometers to get to school to have an education and then 10 kilometers back and not having school meals, not able to eat during the day.” He said children and women seemed most affected and that he noticed not many men were around the camp “because they’re either killed or taken in different conflict areas.”
“That was really heavy to see and experience and then in Senegal and seeing the slave areas just to see what the country has been through, and it’s such a beautiful place. Through all those experience, it’s adding to my compass of what I want to do going forward.”
These experiences got his mind working, he said at Zandvoort. “It’s great to see organizations doing amazing work, and what can I do to get on board, how can I help?”
Discussions about bringing Formula One back to Africa are still prevalent, given the continent is the only one (apart from Antarctica) without a race and has not hosted a grand prix since 1993. Hamilton stated on Thursday that he has “been doing a lot of work in the background and spoken to individuals in South Africa and Rwanda,” with Rwanda being one of the locations.” The current Concorde Agreement allows for 25 races a year, and F1 continues to expand the calendar, recently adding two more grands prix in the United States (Miami in 2022 and Las Vegas in 2023). The Mercedes driver said that the current reason for not competing in Africa is because a track isn’t ready; however, as Hamilton pointed out, “there is at least one track that’s ready” — Kyalami in South Africa, where the 1993 race was held.
“We can’t be adding races in other locations and continue to ignore Africa, which the rest of the world takes from. No one gives anything to Africa,” Hamilton said. “There is an enormous amount of work that has to be completed. I believe that many people who have not visited the area are unaware of its grandeur and beauty.
“I think having a grand prix there would really be able to highlight how great the place is and bring in tourism and all sorts of things so why are we not on that continent?”
Hamilton and race engineer Pete Bonnington have ten races left together. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
With or without you: Hamilton prepares for life after Bono
Pete Bonnington, Hamilton’s longtime race engineer, has been elevated to head of race engineering at Mercedes, the team said ahead of this weekend’s race at Zandvoort.
Bonnington, often known as Bono, ended speculation that he may follow Hamilton to Ferrari the following season by pledging his future to Mercedes. He will continue to serve as Hamilton’s racing engineer for the remainder of the 2024 campaign and as an engineer for a Mercedes driver the following year.
Asked by The Athletic about Bonnington’s decision, Hamilton said he “would have loved to have continued with Bono” next year, saying he was “like a brother.” The pair have worked together for six of Hamilton’s seven world championships, making Bonnington the longest-serving engineer in the Mercedes driver’s 17-year F1 career.
Hamilton expressed his happiness for Bonnington by saying, “Really, really, really thrilled,” and acknowledged that it would be challenging for him to switch to Ferrari as well.
“I knew it would be an unlikely scenario that he would go with me because it’s such a drastic change within his life,” Hamilton said. “But I’m really happy the team have acknowledged and made changes so he can grow more with it.
“I think he’ll now be able to show even more of the great things that he’s been doing. But either way, we’re going to be family forever. We’ve spoken about it.
“We just want to make sure we finish on a high.”
Hamilton will not learn the identity of his new race engineer at Ferrari until January when he officially starts on the team, which he admitted was “tough.”
“That makes it really difficult,” Hamilton said. “I think it’s probably the same for anyone moving into a new office. It’s not until you go. It’ll be very heavy-loaded at the start of next year.”
Top photo: JOHN THYS/AFP via Getty Images
