One top sportsman this household has a lot of respect for is the 22 years old Marcus Rashford who put the Government on the ropes with lunch vouchers for kids.
Off pitchā¦out of āuniformā. What a lad. Thatās the way to do itā¦how to win friends & influence people. Lessons to be learned. 
It can be done. We can see him as a major influencer later in life. A lovely chap who overcame a life of abject poverty, and a humble professional true Brit.
Meanwhile ( cough) the FIA have stepped away from an official investigation. Probably the wise choice given the potential toxicity involved. Pretty much as I expected really.
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Sport and politics are very close bedfellows. Does anybody seriously believe Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi have a long held interest in motor sport ? The fact that apart from a few ex -pats only a handful of locals and a stray dog turn up to their not very Grands Prix suggests otherwise . More people go to BTCC at Brands Hatch. And does Putin show his face at Sochi because heās interested in pit stop strategies?
Why on earth should somebody in the public eye not express a political opinion ? Worked for Seb Coe, and Mohammed Ali . ( David Icke ? Maybe not so much ). Crikey , even uber lad Botham got a seat in the Lords as a reward for his stance on the ā¦errā¦subject that dare not speak its name
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Iāll make no further comments.
Itās pointless.
I just did!
I can imagine one or two other drivers doing something similar if they were so minded. The sainted Senna for a start. And Hunt, and Lauda.
If he did it every time - and I hope he doesnāt - it would wear out, but to do it once for something he feels very strongly about, no problem for me. He will have to deal with the contractual issues but he has committed no crime nor has he incited any.
I rather like Hamilton, in so far as it is possible to like somebody one doesnāt know. He is brilliant at his job, and has some hinterland. Heās earned the right to the odd ad lib.
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Looking at it another way, if he didnāt use his unique position as multi world champion at the top of his game to lever his views, he would be considered spineless and only āin it for the moneyā.
He puts his credibility and reputation on the line by standing up for what he believes in. I totally respect this.
Should Jackie Stewart have kept his mouth shut when he was winning world championships and someone needed to push for improved safety? No, he made a lot of enemies and was alienated for campaigning. He is now recognised as a hero for his actions back then.
If he or Hamilton had waited until they were no longer āthe main manā they would have missed the opportunity to maximise the impact of their message.
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Heās not electioneering. Human rights are of concern to everybody and whilst itās reasonable to expect sportspeople not to mess up the events themselves, I think itās unreasonable to say they must stay in their boxes. Free speech applies to all.
I donāt see Hamiltonās actions as self-indulgent, quite the opposite. He knows there will be a cost to him, that the haters will seize on them as another stick to beat him with and that others including some of his peers will be very critical of him. Ultimately if he is seen as detracting from his value to sponsors or harming vested interests then it could cost him large amounts of money.
Incidentally I see Toto Wolff has come out in support and says the team will back him. So we might see more of this - I hope Hamilton doesnāt overdo it as it will reduce the impact, but I respect his wish to do it.
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Finally, from me and I take no side whatsoever and believe we should all just get on and be nice to each other and let the authorities deal with any incidents and do the jobs that they are paid to do without outside influence/media.
Something that perhaps sums up what a āgreat dealā of people are thinking and saying about causing division, where letās be honest there wasnāt until recent events. (Not my quote, but copied).
Happy motoring all 
āIf you can catch about 100 red fire ants that live in the Southwestern desert and also about 100 of those large black ants that live there and drop them all into the same jar, not much will happenā¦until you shake the jar vigorously and dump them on the ground. The red ants will attack the black ants and the black ants will attack the red ants and theāll devastate each other. The thing is, the red ants think the enemy is the black ants and the black ants think the enemy is the redants. All those ants put together never do figure out that the real enemy is the guy who shook the jarā.
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