F1 news: Nelson Piquet slugged with monster fine over racist slurs aimed at Lewis Hamilton
Former Formula One champion Nelson Piquet has been ordered to pay a monster fine over his racist comments directed at current star Lewis Hamilton.
Formula One great Nelson Piquet has been ordered to pay nearly $1.5m (5 million Brazilian reals) for the racist, homophobic slurs aimed at British F1 champion Lewis Hamilton.
Speaking in Portuguese in a podcast interview about the 2021 British Grand Prix, Piquet twice referred to Hamilton as the “n-----” when describing his crash with Max Verstappen on the opening lap.
Verstappen is dating Piquet’s daughter, Kelly.
Hamilton called for action to change “archaic mindsets” after footage of the interview surfaced on social media last June.
The Brit legend wrote on Twitter at the time: “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.”
Piquet then issued a grovelling apology to Hamilton.
He said that his comments had been mistranslated.
In another clip which surfaced later, Piquet used racist and homophobic language against Hamilton in a podcast interview when describing how Hamilton missed out on the 2016 championship to Nico Rosberg.
And a Brazilian court has ruled Piquet must pay over $1.43m in moral damages.
Hamilton, who was awarded honorary Brazilian citizenship last June, is F1’s only Black driver.
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The charges were brought by four human rights groups, including Brazil’s National LGBT+ Alliance, which wanted Piquet to pay £1.6million for alleged moral damages.
In his decision, Judge Pedro Matos de Arrudo said the amount of compensation was given “in the sense that one should not only appreciate the reparative function of civil liability but also (and perhaps mainly) the punitive function so that, as a society, we can someday be free from the pernicious acts that are racism and homophobia”.
Piquet himself is a three-time F1 world champion.
Originally published as F1 news: Nelson Piquet slugged with monster fine over racist slurs aimed at Lewis Hamilton
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