Lewis Hamilton will be working with a South African engineer in 2022

Lewis Hamilton’s effort to bring more diversity to F1 is showing initial results. Mercedes has hired a black South African engineer to work on its powertrains.

Shau ​​Mafuna has joined Mercedes HPP (High-Performance Powertrains), which supplies four F1 teams with engines. This includes working for the Mercedes-AMG F1 team – as a mechanical engineer.

As reported by the Sunday Times, Mafuna, who has dual Belgian and South African citizenship, was offered his new position in November 2020. Previously, he worked with the team as a product engineer in the Work Experience Academy (WEA) program.

Mafuna was one of many invited to work with the F1 team in 2020 as part of the WEA program. He was quoted by the Sunday Times as describing his job as “one of his wildest dreams.”

In addition, Mafuna described his experiences with motorsport and his new job at Mercedes in his LinkedIn profile:

“I am an experienced qualified engineer with a strong passion and experience in the motorsport industry. After having competed at different levels of the car race for several years, I take my passion even further into the technical side of vehicle dynamics and performance engineering. ”# F1: Lewis Hamilton will be working with a South African engineer in the coming season.

According to the Sunday Times, Shau Mafuna joined the Mercedes Benz High Performance Powertrains team, which works behind the Formula 1 racing outfit, as a mechanical engineer.

# F1: Lewis Hamilton will be working with a South African engineer in the coming season. According to the Sunday Times, Shau Mafuna has joined the Mercedes Benz High Performance Powertrains team, the mechanical engineer behind the Formula 1 racing team. Https: / /t.co/OKpDCyw73M

Lewis Hamilton has spoken often about the lack of diversity in motorsport, especially in Formula 1. As the only mixed race driver in the premier class of motorsport, Hamilton can use his position to bring about positive change.

After the George Floyd incident in mid-2020, Mercedes decided to show solidarity with the black community by switching from their traditional silver livery to a black livery.

” Mercedes has long supported my ambition to improve diversity and inclusion within the motorsport industry. “I am delighted that through Ignite we can formally work together to achieve this.” .

In addition, they have launched several initiatives in collaboration with Lewis Hamilton to bring more diversity to motorsport. It also helped them achieve greater racial, gender, and ethnic diversity within the F1 team.

The WEA program is one such initiative. With more than $ 1 million in funding, it is designed to encourage children of all backgrounds to get into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) areas.

Lewis Hamilton wants to see more “raw talent” in Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton wants more “raw talent” from humble backgrounds to show up in F1. The seven-time F1 world champion believes that every child deserves the same opportunities and hopes that the sport will become even more diverse in the future.

Speaking to BBC Sport in 2020, Hamilton said:

“We all bleed the same blood; we all need the same opportunities. There are currently 40,000 jobs in the motorsport industry and only one percent has a black background. ”

In addition to being the only black driver in F1, Hamilton is also one of the only two drivers (along with Esteban Ocon) on the grid who came from humble backgrounds.

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Despite the discrimination in his junior career, Lewis Hamilton managed to overcome these adversities. Now he wants to help the next generation take up the sport and fight their way through, much like he did.

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