The 33-year-old F1 ace shared a video with his 8.9 million Instagram yesterday in which he sent out “positive energy” to his fans while speaking out on his remarks. “I wanted to take a second to send a message to people back in the UK but also to people in Stevenage where I grew up, somewhere I’m incredibly proud of coming from and still love to this day,” Lewis Hamilton said. “Please, if you have any feelings about a mistake that I made on stage, don’t bother with it, throw it to the side it’s negative energy you don’t need to hold. I’m super proud of where I’ve come from and I hope that you know that I represent in the best way that I can, always,” he continued.
“Nobody’s perfect and I definitely make mistakes quite often,” Lewis admitted. “Particularly when you’re on stage in front of a crowd trying to find the right words to express the long journey that you’ve had in life.
“I chose the wrong words but I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said.
“Those of you who know me know that I mean love, so God bless you, have a great day.”
In the video, he explained he had “chosen the wrong words” during his speech but did not say sorry for referring to Stevenage as “the slums”.
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He faced a huge backlash after he said at the bash: “It’s been a really long journey, a dream for us all, as a family, to do something different, to get out of the slums.
“Well, we should say it’s not the slums, but just come out of somewhere and do something,” he added quickly.
“We all set our goals very high but we did it as a team.”
Lewis came under fire from fans and residents of Stevenage who took to social media to criticise the comments.
“Lewis Hamilton thinks our shared hometown #Stevenage is a slum. He has a point,” one said. “The only things we had growing up were housing, education, health services, open spaces, job opportunities and fast transport links to London <wipes tears>.”
“What makes me sad is that he’s in a position to be an inspiration to the people that live here. But instead he chooses to run #Stevenage down. His arrogance is more of a blight to this town than anything else,” another tweeted.
A third wrote: “Lewis Hamilton talking last night on #SPOTY2018 saying how it’s been a long journey from the Stevenage slums… What a ridiculous thing to say, I mean when he was in these slums I wonder how far he had to walk each day for water… Oh yeah to the tap. #Wally.”
Stevenage councillor Sharon Taylor also told the BBC: “It is disappointing that Lewis Hamilton referred to Stevenage as ‘the slums’ at such a high-profile event.
“He clearly realised what he had said and tried to correct it but sadly the people of our town, many of whom admire and support him, felt offended.”
However, some social media users defended Lewis, with one saying: “To be fair, he’s got a point.”
Another insisted the F1 star “just misspoke” while a third added: “Lewis Hamilton was wrong when he said #Stevenage is a slum he should have used s**t hole instead.”
Lewis was one of the six finalists nominated for Sports Personality of the Year 2018, with cyclist Geraint Thomas, 32, winning.