Ex-employee reveals racist, homophobic attacks inside Aston Martin

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Days after the scandal involving Nelson Beckett and Lewis Hamilton, Formula 1 once again finds itself embroiled in a discrimination case. In an interview with Sky News, a former employee of an Aston Martin supplier revealed that he had experienced racial discrimination and sexual orientation during his time with Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll’s team.

Aidan Louw, 25, was hired by an Aston Martin supplier as a wrapper to work on the Vettel last February, but claims he, on the spot, became something of a racist nickname because of the color of his skin.

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Aidan denounced if he was a victim of racism and homophobia within Aston Martin (Image: Reproduction/Sky News)

“Before I entered my workplace, I was told, ‘Look, if you have a problem with the way we talk here, that’s just the way we talk,'” Lu told Sky News. “I went from dark to dark. They didn’t refer to me as hands or anything. They called me n*e dark. This is how they referred to me. And at the end of that period, I finally addressed what was going on on. “, Follow.

“I went into turn-by-shift cycle, abuse-by-abuse cycle, with words ranging from n* to brunette to completely black, where I drew a line and said no,” he said.

Holder of dual citizenship, from the United Kingdom and also from South Africa, Aidan claims that the abuses also included an insult from the apartheid period, the apartheid regime that characterized the South African country between 1948 and 1994 and which promoted a series of privileges for the white part of the population that were made internationally condemned.

But the insults, according to Idan, were not limited to race. The former employee claims that homophobia was also present in the attacks.

“I revealed to someone that I had a boyfriend in my youth and that was it. Within seconds, everything changed,” he said. “As soon as they found out this information, they started trying to take me down as a man, as an individual and as a human being,” he said.

In a contact with the BBC, Aston Martin claimed that Aidan’s contract had been terminated due to “poor performance” and “poor time management” and unrelated to the discrimination he faced. Low admits performance and punctuality left something to be desired, but he believes both factors are related to the abuse she experienced.

“AMR and its suppliers operate with a zero-tolerance policy towards racism, homophobia and all forms of discrimination,” Aston Martin said in a statement sent to the network. “We take all allegations of this unacceptable behavior very seriously, including by investigating such allegations and sanctioning individuals who do not meet our criteria,” he continued.

He concluded: “In this case, the complainant was duly approved, we immediately acted on his complaints and took appropriate action in line with our zero-tolerance policy. We are discussing with him.”

The English radio says it believes those involved in racist and homophobic attacks are no longer part of Aston Martin’s staff.

In recent weeks, the issue of racial discrimination has been in the spotlight in the world of motorsports. In addition to the Pique case, Red Bull at the end of last month terminated Jüri Vips’ contract as a Formula 1 test driver due to racist and homophobic comments during a Twitch broadcast. However, the New Zealander retained his position in the Young Pilots Program. Last week, the topic also returned to the agenda due to the attacks on spectators in the stands of the Red Bull Circuit during the Austrian Grand Prix.

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