"It isn't something terrible that happens if you said that in Brazil"- Lewis Hamilton should brush aside Nelson Piquet's racial remarks, feels former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone

Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has defended three-time F1 world champion Nelson Piquet’s racial remarks towards Lewis Hamilton. He claimed that the latter should brush the comments aside since they weren’t really meant to be “meaning something bad”.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Ecclestone said:

“Well, it’s probably not appropriate with us. But probably it isn’t something terrible that happens if you said that in Brazil. He probably thinks lots of things he says which might upset us or might feel a little bit offensive... to him it’s nothing. It’s just part of conversation.”

He added, saying:

“I’ve known Nelson for an awful long time. I was with him a couple of weeks ago. It’s not the sort of thing Nelson would say meaning something bad.”

Last week, an old clip of Piquet using the N-word to refer to Lewis Hamilton on a Brazilian podcast was unearthed on social media, causing a widespread backlash against the 3-time world champion.

Hamilton himself reacted to the incident by saying that the sport should stop providing a platform to “older voices with archaic mindsets”. Subsequently, Piquet issued an apology over the language he used, but claimed that he didn’t have any racial intentions behind his remarks.

Ecclestone supported Piquet’s explanation and claimed that the Brazilian would never go out of his way to say anything bad. He added, saying:

“Nelson would never go out of his way to say anything bad, certainly. I think what probably happened, knowing Nelson as I know him, as his daughter is the girlfriend of Max Verstappen, probably after seeing the accident, he probably exploded and carried that forward.”

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Lewis Hamilton will overcome 2022 struggles to “rise again”

Lewis Hamilton has expressed confidence in being able to overcome his current struggles with Mercedes and “rise again” in the sport. The Briton claimed that giving up was not an option, however painful his current experience might be. Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the 2022 F1 British GP, he said:

“My dad put a value inside me about never giving up, and the easiest thing to do is to give up. But it’s not how you fall; it’s about how you get up.”

“In that moment for me, no matter how painful it was - and it was so, so painful - just knowing there would be a kid watching... me shaking his hand just shows there is strength within regardless and I’m going to rise again.”

The 2022 F1 season has been one of the worst in Lewis Hamilton’s nearly 15-year long career. The Briton currently sits at P6 in the drivers standings after coming close to winning a record-breaking eighth world championship last season.