Nelson Piquet apologizes for calling Lewis Hamilton a racial slur, banned from F1 paddock – Yahoo Sports
Former Formula 1 champion Nelson Piquet has apologized for calling Lewis Hamilton a racial slur on a podcast last year that resurfaced this year. His use of the slur has since caused him to be banned from the F1 paddock indefinitely, according to ESPN.
Piquet called Hamilton the slur while discussing an incident between the seven-time F1 champion and Max Verstappen, who is dating Piquet’s daughter Kelly, at the 2021 British Grand Prix. Hamilton and Verstappen had made contact on the first lap, resulting in Verstappen crashing out of the race while his rival went on to win.
While criticizing Hamilton’s driving, the Brazilian Piquet used a racially insensitive Portugese term. In his statement of apology, Piquet apologized to Hamilton while insisting the term is widely used in his language as a harmless term for a man.
His apology, via ESPN:
“I would like to clear the stories circulating in the media about a comment I made in an interview last year.
“What I said was ill thought out, and I make no defence for it, but I will clarify that the term used is one that has widely and historically been used in Brazilian Portuguese for a synonym for ‘guy’ or ‘person’ and was never intended to offend. I would never use the word I have been accused of in some translations.
“I strongly condemn any suggestion that the word was used by me with the aim of belittling a driver because of his skin colour. I apologise wholeheartedly to anyone that was affected, including Lewis, who is an incredible driver, but the translation in some media that is now circulating on social media is not correct. Discrimination has no place in F1 or society and I am happy to clarify my thoughts in that respect.”
Discovery of the podcast on Monday led to a swift condemnation from Hamilton, Mercedes, Formula 1 and a litany of other drivers and figures.
It’s more than language. These archaic mindsets need to change and have no place in our sport. I’ve been surrounded by these attitudes and targeted my whole life. There has been plenty of time to learn. Time has come for action.
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) June 28, 2022
Huge respect to LH. He has done more for the sport than any driver in history, not just on track but off it. The fact that he and so many others are STILL having to deal with this behaviour is unacceptable. We all need to stand together against discrimination of any kind. https://t.co/E4c1jFQKtf
— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) June 28, 2022
Daniel Ricciardo throws his support behind Lewis Hamilton after today’s events. Praises Hamilton for dealing with repeated racist insults like this with “maturity, positivity and educating the world on how we should act” pic.twitter.com/AoHm7tFYhp
— Nate Saunders (@natesaundersF1) June 28, 2022
Piquet has a significant history of distasteful comments, most notably an insistence on calling the late Ayrton Senna gay as recently as 2020.