Major blow to former F1 champion in a case for using racial and homophobic slurs against Lewis Hamilton

A Brazilian court has fined Nelson Piquet 5 million Brazilian Reals ($953,000) in 'moral damages' for using racial and homophobic slurs against Lewis Hamilton back in 2021.

In late June 2022, Nelson Piquet, a three-time Formula 1 world champion, was placed in controversy after an episode on a Brazilian podcast, Motorsport Talk, was heard by many. He used a racial slur to refer to Lewis Hamilton on the podcast, which got him into trouble almost a year later. Now, in 2023, he has been fined 5 million Brazilian Reals for the same.

Apparently, during the podcast, Piquet was talking about the British Grand Prix of 2021, analyzing the first-lap crash between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen (the duo was battling for the world championship). On the Copse Corner, the drivers made contact with each other, sending the Dutchman into the wall with a very high force.

According to Piquet, it was Hamilton's fault in the crash and called him out for the same. He allegedly said:

"The little n****r [Hamilton] put the car in and left because there was no way to pass two cars on that corner. He made a joke. Lucky for him, only the other one [Verstappen] got f****d up."

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Piquet allegedly abused Lewis Hamilton twice

Apart from the podcast, there was yet another interview in November 2021 where Nelson Piquet used racial slurs against the seven-time world champion. In the interview, he was discussing the 2016 world championship when Nico Rosberg defeated Hamilton for the title. Referring to Rosberg's father, Piquet called him "s**t" and used a racial slur against the latter. To quote the same:

"Keke? Was s**t. Zero value. His son won a championship (Nico Rosberg against Lewis Hamilton in 2016). I think the n**** was giving more his a** at the time. He was kinda bad."

Though Nelson Piquet apologized for what he had said about Hamilton, there were several punishments lined up for him. He was banned from the Formula 1 paddock and received major backlash from the community.

Lewis Hamilton has been actively working against racist and homophobic behavior for a long time and it was quite disrespectful to him. He even issued statements following the incident earlier in 2022.

Judge Pedro Matos de Arruda ruled out the fine for Piquet and has said that the amount is given to fight against racism in society. Hamilton is a very respected figure in the country and was also honored with the Honorary Citizenship of Brazil last year.