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AFP
Paris
Even though he deleted the pro-vegan post that started the trouble, Lewis Hamilton continued to be the centre of social media debate on Thursday. It isn’t the first time.
The Formula One world champion declared on Instagram on Wednesday that he worried about the “extinction of our race” if humans keep eating animals.
“I’m sad right now with the thought of where this world is going,” wrote the 32-year-old.
If a long list of previous controversies are any indication, the social-media furore around his post – with many strongly supportive and many violently opposed – is unlikely to deflect the Mercedes driver.
Others in Formula One were, perhaps understandably, reluctant to wade into a debate on the environment, though one former world champion posted a response that saw both sides.
“Lewis will get no end of flack for this, being a jet setting F1 star. We are all hypocritical to greater or lesser degrees,” wrote Damon Hill, now a pundit. “But if people like him don’t speak out then we all carry on in the same vein and don’t even try to change. Its not that bad, eating carrots #f1 #carrots”
Hamilton is used to flak.
In November 2015, he drew the ire of animals rights groups for posts on Twitter and Facebook that he felt expressed his love of cute, furry animals.
The Facebook photos showed him cuddling a jaguar cub and a new-born lion at the Black Jaguar White Tiger Foundation in Mexico, with hashtags including #cutestthingever and #animallover. A Twitter video showed him creeping up on a larger tiger and scaring it.
The posts drew ferocious criticism on social media.
In 2011, complaining on the BBC that he was being victimised by stewards, Hamilton jokingly borrowed a line from British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen: “Maybe it’s because I’m black, I don’t know. That’s what Ali G says...”
Hamilton had to write a letter of apology to Jean Todt, the president of the governing body of motor sports.
Paris
Even though he deleted the pro-vegan post that started the trouble, Lewis Hamilton continued to be the centre of social media debate on Thursday. It isn’t the first time.
The Formula One world champion declared on Instagram on Wednesday that he worried about the “extinction of our race” if humans keep eating animals.
“I’m sad right now with the thought of where this world is going,” wrote the 32-year-old.
If a long list of previous controversies are any indication, the social-media furore around his post – with many strongly supportive and many violently opposed – is unlikely to deflect the Mercedes driver.
Others in Formula One were, perhaps understandably, reluctant to wade into a debate on the environment, though one former world champion posted a response that saw both sides.
“Lewis will get no end of flack for this, being a jet setting F1 star. We are all hypocritical to greater or lesser degrees,” wrote Damon Hill, now a pundit. “But if people like him don’t speak out then we all carry on in the same vein and don’t even try to change. Its not that bad, eating carrots #f1 #carrots”
Hamilton is used to flak.
In November 2015, he drew the ire of animals rights groups for posts on Twitter and Facebook that he felt expressed his love of cute, furry animals.
The Facebook photos showed him cuddling a jaguar cub and a new-born lion at the Black Jaguar White Tiger Foundation in Mexico, with hashtags including #cutestthingever and #animallover. A Twitter video showed him creeping up on a larger tiger and scaring it.
The posts drew ferocious criticism on social media.
In 2011, complaining on the BBC that he was being victimised by stewards, Hamilton jokingly borrowed a line from British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen: “Maybe it’s because I’m black, I don’t know. That’s what Ali G says...”
Hamilton had to write a letter of apology to Jean Todt, the president of the governing body of motor sports.
