Ecclestone way off the mark on Hamilton abuse

It seems that Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has never been the victim of racial abuse because his comments on the recent treatment of Lewis Hamilton are woefully wide of the mark.

Hamilton was subjected to vile abuse by a small section of the Spanish crowd during testing with McLaren last month.

And Ecclestone has claimed that the FIA's launch of an anti-racism campaign is unnecessary.

"All it does is give attention to people who want attention," he told the BBC.

"I don't think they're fans, and I don't think they were supporting [Fernando] Alonso in particular. They just like to abuse people."

Ecclestone did claim, however, that if the incident occurred again than launching an official campaign would be worthwhile.

But why should Hamilton have to accept such treatment as "an isolated incident".

The unsavoury scenario is unfortunately common across Europe's sporting arenas, with the black players of both England and England under-21 football team subjected to taunts, as well as Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o.

This would never be allowed to stand in other aspects of modern living, such as the workplace, so why should our sports stars be expected to just shrug it off.

It is only when we firmly tackle racists that they will begin to understand that their behaviour is unacceptable.