Talk:Lewis Hamilton

"The first black driver"

Hamilton is not black. He is of mixed-ethnicity. Why does it say black? His mother is white. His father black, makes him of mixed-ethnicity. Plus he is british.

Found in the "racism" sector.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.186.94.74 (talk) 08:13, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

Firstly, being British is completely irrelevant to being black. Secondly this article calls him the first black driver because reliable, secondry sources call him black and further he identifies as being black, the fact that he is mix-raced but self identifies as black is explained in the first sentenance of Early life and education. We only reflect what the sources say. Finally, I fail to see how this is racism.
SSSB (talk) 08:19, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

It's irrelevant what he identifies as since it's a fact he's mixed-ethnicity and that can't be changed. It's also irrelevant what your so-called sources say since he is mixed-ethnicity as a fact? (Personal attack removed)— Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.24.171.177 (talk) 14:37, 12 July 2020 (UTC)

Agreed, Hamilton is not black and Wikipedia should not spread false information. 82.203.166.133 (talk) 14:24, 10 September 2020 (UTC)

The instances (two which I found) where Hamilton is referred to as being black now come with a footnote explaining that he is actually mixed race but is commonly referred to as black as a attempted compromise. We still need to follow what the sources say. Also please refrain from personal attacks. They will be retracted.
SSSB (talk) 16:45, 10 September 2020 (UTC)

We call him the first black driver because all the reliable sources call him the first black driver. If they called him "the first mixed-race driver", then we'd do that, too. Lev!vich 04:08, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

"Music Appearance as XDNA"

He made an appearance on Christina Aguileras' record "Liberation". Track 13, Pipe, under the stage name "XDNA" Worth putting in somehow? — Preceding unsigned comment added by CCharlieH (talk • contribs) 02:21, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

@CCharlieH: first we are going to need a reliable source to confirm this, then we can start considering it. Can this be provided?
SSSB (talk) 07:35, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Maybe this? Corvus tristis (talk) 18:09, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

We'll need someone with an Instagram account. He said so there, though I'm not sure that's enough. CCharlieH (talk) 18:20, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Not sure why it's blown up lately, as it is old news... [1] Bretonbanquet (talk) 18:40, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 11 September 2020

Lewis Hamilton was born in Hitchin Maternity Hospital and brought up in Stevenage. The Lister Hospital in Stevenage didn’t have a maternity ward at that time and used Hitchin. 2A00:23C6:6881:201:D9E4:AFAF:99C2:F400 (talk) 01:30, 11 September 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made.

Also, the source says "Born January 7 1985 in Stevenage". (CC) Tbhotch^™ 01:46, 11 September 2020 (UTC)

Most wins at home Grand Prix - incorrect

Hamilton won the 2008 GP but not the 2007 GP. The text is wrong but the link is correct.

Could someone change it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.49.224.156 (talk) 20:59, 13 September 2020 (UTC)

 Done
SSSB (talk) 09:23, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

screwy sentence

"This later resulted in a Formula One drive with McLaren in 2007, meaning Hamilton is considered to be the first and only black driver to race in the sport."

how does the first part IN ANY WAY mean the second?!

suggest change to

"This later resulted in a Formula One drive with McLaren in 2007, making Hamilton the sport's first and only black driver."

still not great, but as a quick fix at least.

also, i would add "to date" in that last part. "...the sport's first and, to date, only black driver." 66.30.47.138 (talk) 07:07, 14 September 2020 (UTC)

 Done
SSSB (talk) 09:24, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Bizarre use of square brackets in quotations

"[m]usic has been a huge passion ... "[a]s the human race, what we are doing...

What on earth was the person thinking that contributed those two (and possibly more) quotes into the page? You put things into square brackets in a quote when the reader needs context adding to what was said. For example - "He [Nico Rosberg] won the championship in 2016". The words said just used "he" and the editor added some context by letting us know who the "he" was. I'd love to know if in those sentences above that I quoted Lewis missed out the first letter when he spoke. Did he really say "usic has been a huge passion" ? and "s the human race" ? It sounds highly unlikely to me.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:A61:51FE:2B01:7C8F:4AFF:122F:DC0D (talk) 15:29, 20 September 2020 (UTC)

My guess is that the original quotes used capital letters, i.e. "Music has been a huge passion ..." and "As the human race, what we are doing..." and the square brackets were used to indicate that the text included in the article isn't exactly the same as the original quotes, i.e. because lower case has been used instead of capitals. DH85868993 (talk) 02:43, 21 September 2020 (UTC)

This may be true but, I have to agree that it's strange and unnecessary. The words are the same and therefore (my understanding is that) the square brackets are unnecessary in this case.
SSSB (talk) 12:21, 22 September 2020 (UTC)

[Original questioner here] - I'd rather see the capital letter there than the square brackets. I certainly wouldn't be thinking "why on earth is that letter there capitalized?". It would seem completely normal to me.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:A61:51FE:2B01:694E:8E97:2AE7:10DE (talk) 14:42, 23 September 2020 (UTC)

Using capitals would be fine with me. I was just trying to explain how the brackets probably came to be there; I wasn't defending their use. DH85868993 (talk) 00:10, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

I can't speak for the above quote, but I have definitely used square brackets when writing some parts of this article, as is common academic practice to change an uppercase to a lowercase when embedding a quote starting with a capital when it would otherwise be grammatically/syntactically incorrect. I'm very surprised that the original posting user has never seen that before, it is a widely used and, in many fields, encouraged practice (see here for an example). I, personally, find it far more natural seeing an appropriately used square bracket than out of place capital letters. —Ave (talk) 18:21, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

After reading the quote, I agree more context would help the reader understand why it was included in the article. However, I agree with Ave, using brackets is appropriate and proper when trying to clarify upper/lower case in a quote. Jurisdicta (talk) 01:28, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

It's not bizarre. Some style guides require the use of brackets when changing capitalization ("Music"/"[m]usic"), such as MLA [2], while other style guides do not require it, such as APA [3]. MOS:BRACKETS doesn't appear to address it. Personally I think it's better without brackets. Lev!vich 04:06, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Early Life & Education

The sentence "Being the only Black child racing at his club, Hamilton experienced racism from a young age" implies he experienced racism because he was the only Black child. Could this be written as "Lewis was the only Black child racing at his club. He experienced racial abuse from a young age." ." as per reference note 15.  florrie  14:24, 30 October 2020 (UTC)