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Lewis Hamilton says the backlash tennis star Naomi Osaka has received following her withdrawal from the French Open is “ridiculous”.
He added that the response from the tennis authorities to Osaka was “not cool”.
And Hamilton said most athletes were “not prepared” for success and that the pressures of fame “weigh heavily on you”.
“It can be daunting still standing behind a camera,” he said.
“It is not the easiest, particularly if you are an introvert and you do struggle to be under those pressures.”
Hamilton was talking before this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of a week in which the sporting headlines have been dominated by Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open.
The Japanese world number two initially refused to do media commitments at the tournament, to “protect her mental health”.
She then pulled out of the tournament on Monday, a day after the organisers of the four Grand Slam tournaments threatened to expel her for not talking to the media. The incident has opened up a debate about the relationship between sports stars and the media, especially in the context of mental health.
Seven-time champion Hamilton said: “She is an incredible athlete and human being and her activism has been just so impactful. But at such a young age, there is so much weight on her shoulders it is inevitable.
“The fact is, when you are young, you are thrown into the limelight and the spotlight, and it weighs heavily on you. Most of us are not prepared.
“When I came into F1, the team had PR. I was never prepared for being thrown in front of a camera. I was never guided as to what to look out for and helped to navigate through that, so I sort of learned through mistakes.
“But when I was young, I was thrown into the pit and wasn’t given any guidance or support.”
Hamilton said Osaka had been “incredibly brave” to take her stance and called on the tennis authorities to reconsider their response.
“It is now asking those in power and putting them in question and making them have to think about how they react, because the way they reacted was not good — with the fine,” he said.
“Someone talking about their personal mental health and then being fined for it — that was not cool.
“They could have definitely handled it better, and I hope they will take a deep dive into it and find a way to navigate it better in the future.
As athletes, we are pushing ourselves to the limit, we are on the edge and we are only human beings.” — BBC Sport
Online Reporter