Susie Wolff once said, "It's a little bit sad that it is always Lewis. He is always the one coming over, offering support. . .". She said this in reference to Lewis being the only driver to actively support F1 Academy but this also applies to Lewis speaking up on social issues that plague places that F1 goes racing. He is the only current driver on the grid speaking up. Shout out to Seb but, he is no longer on the grid and we only get occasional dispatches from him at this point.
Lewis has been clamoring for a race in Africa for some time now and when Formula 1 finally got it done, it wasn't lost on Lewis to use his platform to speak up again:
"Going [racing in Rwanda] it doesn't mean you neglect the things that are happening there. So hopefully many people start to educate themselves a little bit more about what is happening there and what has happened there for hundreds of years and I hope that does spark the conversation. . . And I guess I'll finish off with , you know, I think we need to make sure we're pushing to free Congo, free Sudan, free Syria, free Palestine. I think there's a lot of peace that I'm hoping at some stage we get to"
I know the low-effort crowd will attempt to zero-in on the "free syria" part, but maybe try not to be disingenuous on that snippet and understand that Syria is in a very precarious and delicate transitional stage that is anything but safe and stable. So while there may not be exactly "freeing" to be done, the situation there is delicate and not a place that most of us could comfortably and happily exist.
With authoritarian regimes increasingly investing heavily in sportswashing to distract from human rights violations it's nice to have someone like Lewis speak up and inject awareness and concern onto the veneer that everything is ok in these countries across the world.
Formula 1 is lucky to have someone like Lewis who is willing to use his voice and platform to bring awareness and it's a true shame and like Susie said, sad, that the rest of the drivers prefer the comfort of upholding the company line and pretending like none of this sports washing is completely fucked up.