Hamilton breaks silence to announce school initiative

Michelle Foster
Lewis Hamilton with his hand on his heart. Abu Dhabi December 2021

Lewis Hamilton with his hand on his heart. Abu Dhabi December 2021

Lewis Hamilton has, via a press release, spoken for the first time since the Abu Dhabi season finale.

No, he has not announced his retirement, nor has he confirmed he will be on this year’s Formula 1 grid.

Instead, he revealed a new initiative backed by the Sky Group aimed at keeping under-privileged children in schools.

Hamilton’s ‘Mission 44’ charitable foundation is seeking to create a more inclusive education system, with Sky pledging £1m over a two-year period.

“Understanding and addressing issues that lead to young people being excluded from school is really important to me,” said Hamilton.

“Having experienced unfair exclusions during my time at school, I understand how upsetting and stressful it can be.

“When we launched Mission 44 last year, implementing initiatives such as these was a personal priority and I am grateful to have the support of Sky to help Mission 44 take action.

“Through this partnership, I hope we can deliver meaningful change by arming schools with the proper strategies to support and empower young Black students instead of giving up on them.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, looking serious under the lights in Saudi Arabia. December 2021.

The seven-time former World Champion’s foundation aims to reduce school exclusion rates, prevent exclusions or improve trajectories of excluded students and discover what support learners need, while also creating career insight programmes.

Mission 44 CEO Jason Arthur added: “Preventing school exclusions is an issue of social justice.

“Excluded students often must contend with a range of complex social and economic challenges such as poverty, racism and mental ill-health that cause them to face both disadvantage and discrimination in our education system.

“I’m delighted Mission 44 will be working with Sky to transform the lives of some of the most vulnerable learners in our education system.”

Monday’s press release was the first the media has heard from Hamilton since he lost the 2021 World title to Max Verstappen at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

 

While there was initially a lot of talk that he could quit Formula 1 after the controversial manner in which he lost the title, as the 2022 season draws ever closer the consensus is moving more towards the Briton staying on.