The problem with 'raising awareness' is that your actions have to be in proportion to the seriousness of the issue, otherwise you just look like a tosser paying lip service to it all. Wouldn't he have raised infinitely more awareness if he had done something significant? If he had refused to race in discriminatory countries, it would have cost him money (which he has loads of), but then Mercedes have a decision to make when their main man walks out, every other team has a decision to make depending on what Mercedes do, the sport has a decision to make based on what the teams do...

Muhammad Ali wouldn't have got within a hundred miles of a firefight had he joined the US Army, but he blew his career up to make a point, and people will remember it forever. Mercedes painting their car black (careful not to obscure the logo of the state-owned oil company of a country where homosexuality is banned) not so much.