Nelson Piquet on Lewis Hamilton abuse: “Bull**** - nothing I said wrong”
The 69-year-old Brazilian, who won the F1 world title in 1981, 1983 and 1987, used a racially offensive term to refer to Hamilton. The♏ comments were made during a podcast last November in Portuguese, but only came to light last month.&nbs💖p;
Piquet used the slur while bl♈aming Hamilton for his controversial c🌼ollision with Max Verstappen - the boyfriend of Piquet’s daughter Kelly - at last year’s British Grand Prix.
- Piquet apologises to Hamilton - but disputes translation of offensive word
- ꦰPiquet made cruel joke abo🐠ut Senna’s death, resurfaced footage shows
- The controversy that ended Nelson Piquet Jr's F1 career
Piquet remarks were met with widespread condemnation across th༒e sport. As well as being banned from the F1 paddock as punishment, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) has suspended the triple world champion’s membership.
Speaking ahead of last weekend’s British Grand Prix, Hamilton said “archaic mindset๊s need to change and have no place in our spo♌rt” in response to Piquet’s comments.
“I’ve been surrounded by these attitudes and targeted my whole life,” the seven-time world champion continued. “There has b🍰een plenty of time to learn. Time has come for action."
During an appearance in the paddock at the Le Mans Classic last weekend, Piquet addre𒊎ssed the controversy.
“I don’t really care, it doesn’t disturb my life,” he is quoted as saying by . “I am here with my friends, we are havin൲g fun, that’s it✱.”
Piquet apologised for the racial slur he used to describ𒁏e Hamilton but 🌊stressed the word had been taken out of the context he intended, claiming it does not have a racial connotation in Brazil.
While Verstappen said it was not correct for Piquet to have used the term he did when he addressed the matter for the fir𒆙st time at Silverstone, the Red Bull driver added that Piquet is “definitely not 🎐a racist”.
At Le Mans, Piquet once again maintained he was notܫ being racist.
“This is all bullshit, I am not rac♊ist,” he said. “There is nothing, nothing I said wrong. What I said is a very soft word - we even usꦚe it for some of our white friends.
“I used this word almost one year ago in the interview and they co🌊me up with this. It has caused me some problems but to be honest with you I don’t really care.
“Here I have no obligations to do an🍸ything any publicity, nothing, just a bit of 🍎racing and I have really been enjoying."
Lewis regularly a♕ttends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top around the world. O൩ften reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
