FIA to launch 'Racing Against Racism'

'Racing Against Racism' is being spearheaded by motor racing's governing body to drive home the message that racism will not be tolerated at any level of the sport.

It comes in the wake of the outrage that was caused when Lewis Hamilton was taunted with racist abuse during Formula One testing at Barcelona earlier this month.

All the stakeholders in F1 and international motorsport, which includes drivers, teams, circuits and national sporting authorities, will be invited to participate in the new campaign. It is hoped that a sister campaign, 'Rallying Against Racism', will follow in due course.

Racing fans will also be able to pledge their support via a dedicated campaign website that will be set up prior to the official launch of 'Racing Against Racism'.

An FIA spokesman confirmed that the campaign would call on all of motor racing's participants to back the move.

"The FIA was appalled by the scenes of racist abuse targeted at Lewis Hamilton," he told autosport.com. "Such behaviour runs counter to the fundamental principles of equality enshrined in the FIA's statutes.

"Formula One is a global, multi-cultural sport and has never encountered such scenes before and will not tolerate them in future.

"International motor sport can reach a huge global audience to send out positive messages of racial and sporting equality. We will be encouraging all those involved in motor sport to support our new campaign, from recent world champions to the next generation of potential champions at the grass roots of our sport."

The FIA adopted a hard-line stance against the Spanish motor racing authorities after the controversy at the Circuit de Catalunya, and threatened to remove the country's two grands prix if measures were not put in place to ensure that would be no repeat of the racist abuse.