In an interview with broadcaster Sky News, Aidan Louw said he was treated by racist and homophobic nicknames by co-workers after he was hired last February to work as a laminator by a team supplier while working on Sebastian Vettel's car
Days after the scandal involving Nelson Piquet and Lewis Hamilton, Formula One is once again embroiled in a case of discrimination. In an interview with Sky News, a former employee of an Aston Martin supplier has revealed that he suffered racial and sexual orientation discrimination while working for Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll's team.
Aidan Louw, 25, was hired by an Aston Martin supplier as a laminator to work on Vettel's car last February, but claims that he was immediately subjected to racist nicknames because of his skin tone.
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"Before I even got into my work environment, I was told, 'Look, if you have a problem with the way we talk here, it's just the way we talk,'" Louw told broadcaster Sky News in an interview. "I went from brunette to dark. They didn't refer to me with Aidy or anything like that. They called me n* and darky. That's how they referred to me. It was towards the end of that period that I finally processed what was happening," he followed.
"I went into a cycle of shift after shift, a cycle of abuse after abuse, with words ranging from n* to darkie to totally blackie, which is where I drew a line and said no," he recounted.
Bearing dual citizenship from the UK and also from South Africa, Aidan says the abuse also included an insult from the period of Apartheid, the racial segregation regime that marked the South African country.the racial segregation regime that marked the South African country between 1948 and 1994, which promoted a series of privileges for the white part of the population and was internationally condemned.
The insults, according to Aidan, however, 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. In a matter of seconds, everything changed," he recounted. "As soon as they found out that information, they started trying to bring me down as a man, as an individual, and as a human being," he stressed.
In contact with the British broadcaster, Aston Martin claimed that Aidan's contract was terminated due to "poor performance" and "poor time management" and unrelated to the discrimination he faced. Louw admits that performance and punctuality left something to be desired, but believes that both factors are related to the abuse he suffered.
"AMR and its suppliers operate a zero tolerance policy towards racism, homophobia and all types of discrimination," Aston Martin said in a statement forwarded to the broadcaster. "We deal with all allegations of this unacceptable behavior in a very serious manner, including through an investigation of such allegations and with sanctions for individuals who do not meet our standards," it continued.
"In this case, the complainant was properly accredited, we acted immediately on his complaints and took appropriate action in line with our zero tolerance policy. We are in discussion with him" he closed.
The British broadcaster says it believes that those involved in the racist and homophobic attacks are no longer part of the Aston Martin workforce.
In recent weeks, the issue of racial discrimination has been in the spotlight in the world of motorsports. In addition to the case involving Piquet, at the end of last month Red Bull terminated Jüri Vips' contract as a Formula 1 test driver because of racist and homophobic comments during a broadcast on Twitch. Still, the New Zealander kept his post in the young driver program. Last week, the topic was also back on the agenda because of the aggression against spectators in the stands at the Red Bull Ring during the Austrian Grand Prix.