Hamilton 'supportive' of protesters, but not on the track

Lewis Hamilton says protesters and activists supporting a worthy cause can spark change, but not when their outcries are expressed on an active race track.

Last years' British Grand Prix at Silverstone was partially disrupted when seven people belonging to the Just Stop Oil climate activist group gained access to the track and staged a protest.

The demonstrators had jumped the barrier near the bridge on Wellington Straight during the race's opening lap and were walking along the side of the track as the cars appeared in sight.

Fortunately, the race had been red flagged moments earlier due to the massive start-line crash involving Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu, which meant that the cars were no longer at full speed by the time they reached the site of the on-track demonstration, which helped ensure that no one was put in harm's way.

Looking ahead at next weekend's race at Silverstone, Hamilton hoped that common sense would prevail and that protesters would not choose to target the event.

"I welcome protesters… activists I mean," Hamilton said. "Always pushing positive change.

"We just don’t want to see them on track and putting themselves in harm’s way. That sparks conversation, that sparks dialogue and it often, if done the right way, sparks change and we need more change.

"We need to become more sustainable, we need to become more inclusive.

"There’s all these things we need to do more of and it’s moving at such a fast pace in the industry that sometimes some of those things fall off and they need to be sparked up again by conversation.

"I hope we don’t have the same scenario we had last race but I’m always supportive of peaceful protesters."

• Read also: Hamilton 'brushes off' Austrian GP disappointment

McLaren's Lando Norris, speaking on Monday a Woking at the unveiling of the special livery his team's cars will sport at Silverstone, is also hoping that this year's race will be free of any on-track protests.

"It's a stupid thing to do to put your life in danger with cars driving around," Norris said, referring to last year's events.

"It's a very selfish thing to do at the same time because of the consequences it has on the person driving a car if something happened.

"It's not my area of expertise, but everyone has the right to do such a thing. I guess there are good ways of doing it and worse ways," said Norris.

"I saw Lewis [Hamilton] saying he supports protest and people standing up for what they think is right, as long as it's done in the right way. That's the most important thing.

"I don't want to think about it as a concern. I feel Silverstone will do the best job they can to stop these kinds of things. I hope people are smart enough to not do it again.

"There are plenty of other, much safer ways to get just as much attention. I support it as long as they do it in the right way."

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter