Explained: Why Lewis Hamilton is facing backlash from F1 fans for his Perplexity partnership

Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton announced a partnership with Perplexity AI in May 2025. Ever since, the Briton has been facing backlash from the fans for his association with the AI company. But why is that? Let's have a deeper look into why the Ferrari star is facing backlash.

Hamilton took to social media platforms in May 2025 and uploaded a video, confirming his partnership with Perplexity AI. Since the partnership, the logo of Perplexity AI can be seen on the top of Briton's helmet.

Over the last year, the seven-time F1 champion has uploaded multiple posts in collaboration with the AI company on his social media, receiving backlash in the comments section. Lewis Hamilton recently took to Instagram and responded to Perplexity AI's tweet about the "Billion Dollar Build" competition, with the comments section again filled with backlash for Hamilton's Perplexity partnership.

Lewis Hamilton is an advocate for environmental sustainability and uses his platform to speak up about the issues going on around the world. The Ferrari star sold his private jet and turned vegan for environmental concerns.

However, fans have now come out and pointed at the Briton's partnership with Perplexity, detailing how the AI search engines use extensive resources to operate. The United Nations Environment Programme also acknowledged that AI has a major carbon footprint, producing electrical waste, with massive water consumption and energy demands.

While Hamilton advocates for environmental sustainability, his partnership with Perplexity has fans pointing out the hypocrisy.

Perplexity AI is an American-based AI search engine company that was founded in 2022. Over the last few years, Perplexity has become a well-known AI engine alongside the likes of OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Fans bash Lewis Hamilton for Perplexity AI partnership on latest social media post

Perplexity AI's official account on X uploaded a tweet about the Billion Dollar Build competition, which will last eight weeks. Lewis Hamilton responded to it as he quoted the post and wrote,

"I've been using Perplexity Computer and it's made me realize that anyone can build their idea. The Billion Dollar build is rewarding exactly this, with up to $1M on the line for whoever can build an entire business with Computer !!"

Fans took to the comments section and bashed Hamilton for the partnership as they commented,

"I genuinely don't get why you as someone who apparently cares about the environment and minorities would take an AI company as a personal sponsor, surely you already have enough money..."

"AI goes against everything you stand for" commented another

Another user mentioned, "Crazy that you've got all the money in the world but still want to promote things that aren't good for the environment for money."

This isn't the first time, as fans had taken to Hamilton's previous posts about Perplexity and bashed him in the comments section.