Lewis Hamilton, the 7-time Formula One world champion, has opened another of his plant-based restaurants in Milan, Italy, together with Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio. Hamilton’s restaurant, which is part of the Neat Burger chain, opened on 15th of November in Milan inside the Merlata shopping centre. His vegan restaurant chain has already branches in several locations in London (Oxford Circus and Canary Wharf), Nolina in New York, and the Dubai Mall, but the one in Milan will be the first Hamilton and Co. have launched in Italy.

Lewis Hamilton, from the UK, is arguably one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time, having won seven world championships till now. Lewis competes under the British flag with Mercedes AMG F1. He has been vegan since 2017, and he often uses social media to campaign for vegan and animal protection issues. He once posted, “Every bit of meat, chicken, or fish you eat, every bit of leather or fur you wear, has come from an animal that has been tortured, pulled away from their families and brutally killed.” This shows that he is not just one of the many celebrities who are reported to be vegan, but they just follow a plant-based diet. Hamilton had urged his F1 employer, Mercedes, to ditch leather and move towards a vegan alternative.

When he became vegan he said to the BBC,  “The human race, what we are doing to the world … the pollution coming from the amount of cows that are being produced is incredible. The cruelty is horrible and I don’t necessarily want to support that and I want to live a healthier life.”

Hamilton was also listed as an executive producer on the hit vegan Netflix documentary The Game Changers. In 2019, it was announced that Hamilton had invested in a UK-based vegan fast food restaurant called Neat Burger.