Mercedes switch to black livery for 2020
The reigning world champion team Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport has announced today that it will run an all-black base livery for the 2020 Formula One World Championship season.
The decision has been made after the Black Lives Matter movement had shone a searching light on how much the world needs to find new measures and actions in the fight against racism and all forms of discrimination.
The team has revealed that it listened to the perspectives of its team members to learn and to reflect on the structure of the organisation. In Mercedes’ organisation, just three per cent of the workforce identify as belonging to minority ethnic groups and only 12% of employees are women, The team has promised that it will find new approaches to attract talent from many areas of society.
Apart from switching to the all-black livery, the call to ‘End Racism’ will feature on the halo of both cars, and the united F1 initiative #WeRaceAsOne will be featured on the mirrors of the W11.
The team has also announced that it will introduce a Diversity and Inclusion programme before the end of the season. The initiative will have different aims, including, „listen to and raise the awareness of our team members; forensic analysis of our recruitment and development processes; collaboration with the sport’s key stakeholders to improve accessibility to our sport; and targeted education initiatives to encourage and support talented people from under-represented backgrounds who aspire to reach F1,” read the statement.
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff said: „Racism and discrimination have no place in our society, our sport or our team: this is a core belief of Mercedes. But having the right beliefs and the right mindset isn’t enough if we remain silent.”
The Austrian stressed that Mercedes wants to promote diversity and inclusion. “We wish to use our voice and our global platform to speak up for respect and equality, and the Silver Arrow will race in black for the entire 2020 season to show our commitment to greater diversity within our team and our sport.”
“We will not shy away from our weaknesses in this area, nor from the progress we must still make; our livery is our public pledge to take positive action,” continued Wolff. “We intend to find and attract the very best talents from the broadest possible range of backgrounds, and to creative credible pathways for them to reach our sport, in order to build a stronger and more diverse team in the future,” he concluded.
