Mercedes Driver and six-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton made announcement Earlier this year, to set up a commission to help increase diversity in motorsport and uncover the causes behind the lack of diversity in our industry.
Announcement turned into reality now, The Hamilton Commission has been set up in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Board of Commissioners have now been announced for the same. Former Mclaren CEO and Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh is part of Board.
Mercedes released official statement on their website regarding Latest developments on that front.
“The independent group of experts and industry leaders will work to identify the key barriers to recruitment and progression of Black people in UK motorsport, and provide actionable recommendations on how to overcome these barriers.
“Lewis will co-chair the Hamilton Commission alongside Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
“14 people will make up the Board of Commissioners, representing a range of perspectives and a variety of expertise from critical areas including motorsport, engineering, schools, colleagues and universities, community/youth groups and major UK political parties.
“The first Board of Commissioners meeting took place earlier in the month and will meet quarterly to discuss and inform on the latest Commission research.”
Lewis on Commission :
“Since I began my professional racing career in Formula One, 14 years ago, I was the first driver of colour and to this day, sadly that is still the case. However, what is more concerning is that there are still very few people of colour across the sport as a whole.
“In F1, our teams are much bigger than the athletes that front them, but representation is insufficient across every skill set – from the garage to the engineers in the factories and design departments. Change isn’t coming quickly enough, and we need to know why.
“This is why I wanted to set up the Commission and I’m proud to be working with the Royal Academy of Engineering and our incredible Board of Commissioners to identify the barriers facing young Black people to take up STEM careers in motorsport. We are dedicated to this cause and together, we will make a change.”
The Board of Commissioners:
- Karen Chouhan, Lead Equality Officer with a specialism in race policy for the National Education Union
- Jeremy Crook OBE, Chief Executive of the Black Training and Enterprise Group
- Tracey Crouch MP, former Sports Minister and British Conservative Party politician
- Dr Nike Folayan MBE, Co-Founder and Chair of the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers, AFBE-UK
- Professor Alice Gast FREng, President of Imperial College London
- Mark Hamlin, Chair of Project 44
- Dr Zubaida Haque, Former Interim Director of the Runnymede Trust
- Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, Co-Founder of Stemettes and Trustee at the Institute for the Future of Work
- George Imafidon, Co-Founder of Motivez, One Young World Ambassador and Royal Academy of Engineering Scholar
- Glen Lambert, Head of School of Construction, Science and Engineering at College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London
- Professor David MBA, Pro-Vice Chancellor Research and Enterprise, and Dean of the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Media at De Montfort University
- Izzy Obeng, Managing Director at Foundervine and Non-Executive Director for Capital Enterprise
- Chi Onwurah MP, British Member of Parliament representing Newcastle upon Tyne Central and also Shadow Minister Digital, Science & Technology
- Martin Whitmarsh, Former CEO of the McLaren Formula One Team, Member of the Global Advisory Board of Formula E, Chair of the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership Limited and Chairman of BAR Technologies Limited
