When he was a kid, Lewis Hamilton’s dad asked people if they wanted to ‘support the first Black F1 driver’ to try and attract sponsors

• Lewis Hamilton's dad tried to raise money by offering people the chance to sponsor the "first Black Formula One driver."
• F1 is notoriously expensive to break into and Hamilton came from a modest background for the sport.
• His dad's clever tactic failed, though Hamilton still managed to enter F1. The rest is history.

Lewis Hamilton's dad offered people the chance to sponsor the "first Black F1 driver" in a bid to raise the funds needed for his son to compete as an aspiring racer during his childhood.

Formula One is a notoriously difficult sport to break into, not only because of the prodigious talent needed, but also the prohibitively high costs associated with motor racing.

Many drivers on the grid are bankrolled by either massive sponsorships from wealthy donors, or through family money. On the current grid drivers including Aston Martin's Lance Stroll, whose father owns the team, and Nikita Mazepin, whose father founded the team's lead sponsor, are examples of the wealth needed to get into F1.

Hamilton, however, is famously not from such a wealthy background.

In the past, Hamilton has described the sport as a "billionaire boys' club" and said it would now be impossible for someone like him to break into Formula One.

When the now seven-time world champion first started, his dad Anthony worked three jobs just to ensure his son would have the chance to match his talent but even that was not guaranteed to be enough.

Hamilton's dad had to resort to other methods.

The seven-time world champion began his career like most Formula One drivers, by go-karting, but even that was a costly endeavor.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal Magazine, Hamilton said his dad adopted a novel approach to trying to gain sponsorship early in his career, asking possible collaborators the hypothetical question: "How would you like to support the first Black Formula 1 driver?"

Hamilton said it went nowhere, but while there were no takers, Hamilton did manage to break into the sport thanks to the efforts of his father, his huge talent, and the support of McLaren's young driver programme, of which he was one of the first participants.

Hamilton aiming to create pathway for Black children into F1 paddock

Now, Hamilton says he wants to make it easier for Black children to get on the road to Formula One.

He established the Hamilton Commission, which aims to find where the roadblocks for Black children are.

It showed that less than 1% of people working in the sport in any capacity are Black and that the reasons range from teams hiring from the same universities and problems within the British education systems.

Even Hamilton's contracts are geared towards getting more non-white people into the sport.

The Wall Street Journal Magazine reports his latest contract with Mercedes required diversity to be increased within the team, and included provisions to ensure the team's sponsors are also committed to diversity.

Speaking to the Journal, Hamilton relayed the story of a call he had with the CEO of Mercedes' longtime sponsor, Monster, an energy drink.

During the call, Hamilton said he asked the CEO questions like: "Where are you guys at [on diversity]?"

"How are you guys holding yourself accountable? How can we work together?"

If team sponsors aren't committed to increasing diversity, Hamilton said: "I won't be working with them."

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