Lewis Hamilton will stay focused on increasing diversity in F1 when he joins Ferrari next year

Lewis Hamilton will continue to push for more diversity within Formula 1 when the seven‐time champion moves to Ferrari next year.

Hamilton, the only Black driver in F1, said Friday at preseason testing that he was proud of the legacy he would leave with Mer‐ cedes after he and the team de‐ veloped diversity initiatives together, and that it would be a priority in his work with Ferrari.

"I'm immensely proud of the work that we've done within Mercedes. Since 2020 we've made some really great strides in improving diversity within the team," he said.

"I think we are ahead of every other team in that respect, and there's still a huge amount of work within the whole sport. I'm speaking to (F1 chief executive) Stefano (Domenicali) constantly and looking to work more with F1."

"And of course you look at Fer‐ rari, they have a lot of work to do, so I've already made that a priority in speaking with (Fer‐ rari executive chairman) John (Elkann) and they're super ex‐ cited to get on and work on it also."

Hamilton won six of his seven world titles with the Mercedes team after joining in 2013, and his decision to leave Ferrari — a move he's said will be a "child‐ hood dream" come true — shocked the sport.

During his time at Mercedes, Hamilton set up a commission to investigate ways to improve di‐ versity in the motorsports in‐ dustry and in the STEM subjects — science, technology, engi‐ neering and mathematics.

Hamilton and Mercedes also jointly created the Ignite part‐ nership, which provides finan‐ cial grants to organizations which promote diversity and in‐ clusivity in motorsports and STEM.