Follow usThree-time Formula 1 world champion Nelson Piquet has received a fine worth five million Brazilian Reals (approximately one million dollars) for a racist and homophobic comment about Lewis Hamilton in 2021.
In an interview, the 70-year old, whose daughter Kelly Piquet is dating current world champion Max Verstappen, discussed the infamous crash between Hamilton and Verstappen, which occured at the 2021 British Grand Prix.
Piquet used the word “negro”, referring to Hamilton, though he later explained that “is one that has widely and historically been used colloquially in Brazilian Portuguese as a synonym for ‘guy’ or ‘person’ and was never intended to offend”.
In another interview, which surfaced later, Piquet could be heard using the same vocabulary, when discussing Hamilton missing out on the 2016 World Championship to Nico Rosberg.
Piquet later apologised for his unintended racial abuse, aimed at the 7-time world champion, but Hamilton immedietely called for “archaic minds” to be changed after the interview came out in the press.
The charges against Piquet were brought by four human rights groups, including Brazil’s National LGBT Alliance, which insisted on Piquet paying 10 million Brazilian Reals for alleged moral damages.
A Brazilian court ruled on Friday he must pay five million Brazilian Reals, with Judge Pedro Matos de Arrudo saying the amount of compensation was given “so that, as a society, we can someday be free from the pernicious acts that are racism and homophobia”.
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