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[headless]

I am sure Lewis Hamilton is not the first black F1 driver. What about Narain Karthikeyan.
Check out these web pages and compare.

Narain Karthikeyan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narain_Karthikeyan

Hamilton:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hamilton

[Martin]

I think that thats a fair point, Karthekeyen does predate L.H. However, does it matter what skin colour a driver has? L.H. is English, and NK is Indian, which is more relevant to me, but even then not much.
I'm not being all PC about this, but why is there interest in the first black driver?
Has there been interest in the first Austrailian, or the first Dutchhman or whatever?
Not really so why should we focuss on skin colour?
I dont think that either LH or NK are actually black, they are brown and a person from, say, Botswana is more likely to be black (or nearly). I'm not a white man, I'm a delicate shade of pinky / browny sort of colour.

LH is another British driver and NK is the 1st Indian.
Lets just concern ourselves with how good a driver is.

I think that all teams would love to have the first (competitive) woman driver, the PR from that would be enormous, and I am sure that it will happen one day. But again, the gender or colour of the driver is not relevant.
Its a shame, that, in most teams, the only team members generaly known to the public are the drivers and the team principles. The other team members are extremely important to the success or failier of the team and yet no-one knows their name, let alone which country they come from or what colour they are. I am sure that there are plentiy of 'black' team members.

[bud]

Black is the racial term mostly in America to identify those of African decent. the term was adopted after Negro became a derogitory term towards the African Americans.

Yes Karti has dark skin probably darker than Lewis who is half black half white but Karti doesnt have African heritage

[darwin dali]

Nice one Martin!

[Martin]

Black is the racial term mostly in America to identify those of African decent. the term was adopted after Negro became a derogitory term towards the African Americans.

Yes Karti has dark skin probably darker than Lewis who is half black half white but Karti doesnt have African heritage

Yes thats right Bud. I wonder what would happen if an Aborigine from your country got an F1 drive? Would he be billed as the first 'Abo' or another Aussie?

[bud]

Na he would be labelled as the first Aboriginal F1 driver!
ive yet to see one compete in any motorsport over here though, to be fair the majority do come from a poor background so motoracing would be a hard sport to get into even Karting isnt cheap! the only sport they play is Australian Rules Football which they are very good at.

[certom]

the first formula 1 black driver was someone (who, ehm.. don't remember) who tested for williams, but never took part to a GP..

[texasmr2]

The first black F1 driver to compete in a F1 point's race is LH but he is not the first black man to have an impact on F1. For the record the very first African American to drive a F1 chassis was 'Willy T. Ribbs' in 1985 for Brabham when Bernie still owned the team.

[juggles]

I think that all teams would love to have the first (competitive) woman driver, the PR from that would be enormous, and I am sure that it will happen one day. But again, the gender or colour of the driver is not relevant.
Its a shame, that, in most teams, the only team members generaly known to the public are the drivers and the team principles. The other team members are extremely important to the success or failier of the team and yet no-one knows their name, let alone which country they come from or what colour they are. I am sure that there are plentiy of 'black' team members.

There need to be figureheads for F1, and particularly the drivers are the most obvious people to choose. So I think it IS relevant that we are seeing the first black driver in F1.

And the gender or colour of a driver clearly is relevant, exactly because of your 'all teams would love to have the first woman driver' point. I think by the media making a big thing out of the first black driver, it's going to make it more and more likely that women drivers have a fair chance of getting into the sport at the highest level.

[certom]

The first black F1 driver to compete in a F1 point's race is LH but he is not the first black man to have an impact on F1. For the record the very first African American to drive a F1 chassis was 'Willy T. Ribbs' in 1985 for Brabham when Bernie still owned the team.

oh yes, he is! hasn't he tested for williams?!

[headless]

I know it has nothing to do with how good the driver is, i not bothered what colour they are.
i just wanted to clear things up.
i was sure he was not the first black driver.

[racechick]

I guess when most people say first black driver, they mean first successful one.