Martin Brundle's live grid walk on ITV's pre-F1 shows may have become one of the most popular and entertaining elements to the broa🙈dcaster's grand prix coverage, but the former McLaren and Benetton ace has dropped himself in hot water after referring to track workers as 'pikeys' in the build-up to the race in Montreal at the weekend.

With fears over the durability of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve's surface - and drivers having variously described it as ♊'a joke' and 'a nightmare' during qualifying - Brundle said to the sport's chief executive Bernie Ecclestone prior to the off that: "There are some pikeys there at turn ten putting tarmac down - what do you think of𓄧 that?"

That re🔯mark has noꦫw been slated by racial equality watchdog the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

A spokesman is quoted by the Daily Telegraph as havi🍌ng said: "This word has been used on television in the past and is highly dꦯerogatory. They have caused much offence in the past."

An ITV spokesm🌞an has since issued an apology for Brundle's remark, adding that it was too soon to say if any compl👍aints had been registered about it.

'Pikey' is as a slang term🃏 traditionally useﷺd to refer to gypsies or travellers, but has now been coined as a general term for anyone living with no fixed abode.

According to the Telegraph, last December a Sussex gardener is believed to have made legal history when he was convicted of racial🔥ly aggr💮avated harassment for using the word.

Lee Coleman also repeatedly uttered 'pikey' during a drunken outburst over a nightclub entrance fee - for which he received a twelve-month community order and 200 hours of unpaid work - whilst celebrity chef Marco Pierre-White has also been censured for using the expression 'pikey's picnic' on ITV reality show Hell's Kitchen.