F1: Nelson Piquet Clarifies & Apologises For Racist Comments Against Lewis Hamilton

Under fire 3-time F1 world champion, Nelson Piquet Sr has issued a statement apologising for the racist comments he made in a podcast against Lewis Hamilton. His comments were from a podcast in December 2021, but they received global coverage only recently as F1 approaches the British GP weekend. His comments were regarding Hamilton's crash with Verstappen at last year's British GP which caused the Dutchman to be hospitalised and turned the championship battle to be extremely acrimonious. 

He wanted to "clear up the stories circulating in the media about a comment I made in an interview last year." He added that the comment was "was ill thought out, and I make no defence for it." That being said he also clarified that he had no racial intent as the word he used is colloquially used in Brazilian Portuguese as a synonym for guy or person. 

The 7-time world champion is the only black driver in the history of the sport 

"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," said the 3-time world champion whose daughter Kelly Piquet is dating Max Verstappen, Hamilton's chief rival in the 2021 title fight. 

"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," he said. 

His comments come after he was critiqued by F1, the FIA, the Mercedes F1 team, Ferrari and Aston Martin. Apart from Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo also came forward and commented that there was no place for racism in the sport. There were calls to have the paddock access revoked for the 69-year-old.