Lewis Hamilton has called for a wealth cap despite living in Monaco to avoid paying tax in the UK.
The F1 star, who is dating Kim Kardashian with a net worth of £1.27billion, feels the gap between the rich and the poor is growing.
“One of the things that I struggle with every day is that there is such a disparity between the wealthy and the poor,” Hamilton told Jay Shetty.
“When you drive around LA there’s still so many people living on the streets. You shouldn’t be able to have billions.
“I think there should be a limit to how much you can have because there’s enough to go around for everyone.”
Hamilton is one of the highest-paid athletes in sports, being worth an estimated £412million according to Celebrity Net Worth.
The F1 star’s comments have sparked backlash online, with people calling out his hypocrisy.
One user said: “Dude is worth $500M+ and lives in Monaco to avoid ever paying a penny in tax.”
Another wrote: “His lack of self-awareness is astounding.”
One other social media user said: “Both the amount of hypocrisy here and the lack of pushback is really something to behold.”
Hamilton’s comments come after a successful period with his Ferrari team, finishing second place in back-to-back races.
He offered his congratulations to Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes, who won the Monaco Grand Prix, describing them as “my old family”.
He said: “I have to start by congratulating Kimi and to the Mercedes team, my old family, they’ve done it again, they’ve created an amazing car.
“Kimi’s doing an incredible job, just delivering weekend in, weekend out. It’s great to see, and I’m really happy for them.”
Hamilton acknowledged that Ferrari have made strides in recent months but conceded the Scuderia remain some distance behind Mercedes’ current performance level.
“On our side, I think we’ve been progressing over the past months, and can’t quite keep up with them just yet, and it’s probably going to take a lot of work for us to get to their level,” he explained.
Despite the gap to the leaders, the British driver was satisfied with his result around the principality’s unforgiving streets.
“To get another second place is such a great feeling, especially in Monaco under the trickiest conditions; it was the hardest conditions out there! I’ll definitely take it,” Hamilton said.
Antonelli extended his winning streak to five consecutive races with a commanding performance around Formula One’s most iconic circuit.
