Hamilton welcomes Nélson Piquet’s fine: Homophobia and racism have no place in our society!

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton weighed in on the subject of the $21 million fine for Brazilian Nélson Piquet in an interview in Melbourne, Australia, on Thursday. The British driver welcomes his punishment, as he has racially abused him in the past.

Former Formula One driver Nélson Piquet was fined £780,000 (roughly 21 million crowns) by a Brazilian court last week for comments he made in November 2021 in response to a clash between Hamilton and Max Verstappen during the 2021 British GP.

In his comments, he used the word “neguinho”, a colloquial expression commonly used in Brazilian Portuguese and historically used as a synonym for the words man or human. According to Piquet’s statement at the time, it was certainly not meant to offend anyone.

The problem was, however, that if one uses this term to refer to a stranger, it already contains a racist context.

“The little ne** just sent the car in, hit Max and then drove off. Senna would never do that,” Piquet said in the above interview. He then used the word in question once more in the context of the collision.

Shortly after his remarks had indeed provoked a number of negative reactions, the former Brazilian champion apologised for his remarks and admitted that they were wrong and ill-conceived.

However, last week the matter went to court, with Piquet being sued by four groups, including Brazil’s National LGBT+ Alliance. And the verdict of a civil court in Brasilia came down in their favour.

We should not give space to people who are full of hate

On Thursday, ahead of the start of the race weekend in Melbourne, Australia, where Formula One will run its third race of the season, Hamilton was asked by reporters about the situation.

“I think by the time it happened, I had already commented on it. And I still think we shouldn’t give space to people who are full of hate, ” Hamilton said, as quoted by Autosport.

“I would like to praise the Brazilian government. It’s quite amazing what they’ve done to hold somebody accountable and show people that it’s not tolerated. Racism and homophobia are not acceptable and have no place in our society. So I like that they showed that they stand for something,” he added.

Sources