Mercedes-AMG F1 Team Blacks Out Silver Arrows in Stand Against Racism
Much like Bubba Wallace and Richard Petty Motorsports, Mercedes-AMG and Lewis Hamilton are taking a stance.
As made clear by the microcosm of society that is the racing community, racism has no place in a civilized world. While NASCAR and the developers of the Forza franchise clean ethno-nationalist dog whistles from motorsport both real and digitized, Formula 1 will chip away at the social inequalities in its own way. And at the forefront of F1's pro-equality initiative will be six-time consecutive Constructors' champion Mercedes-AMG, whose famous Silver Arrows will instead wear black for the 2020 season.
Debuting its redesigned livery on Monday morning, Mercedes-AMG stated that its W11s' updated regalia symbolizes its support for global racial equality, and the Black Lives Matter movement that injected the issue into mainstream political discourse. The team emphasized that the livery is also symbolic of its interest in sourcing top-tier racing talents from a broader pool of ethnic and gender demographics—an initiative to which its bitter rival Scuderia Ferrari has also committed.
"We are proud of our culture and our values. We prize the contribution of every individual, and our team members tell us that the experience within our team is an inclusive one," commented the team in a blog post.
"But in our organization, just three percent of our workforce identify as belonging to minority ethnic groups and only 12 percent of our employees are women. This lack of diversity shows that we need to find new approaches to attract talent from many areas of society we do not currently reach. We know that our team will be stronger if we can attract talents from the broadest possible pool and we are committed to achieving this through positive action."
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