Three times Formula One champion, Nelson Piquet is embroiled in accusations of racism today. The Brazilian 1980’s F1 driver has been accused by several Latin American publications of calling Lewis Hamilton a “nigga”. Piquet won three F1 drivers’ titles with Brabham in 1981 and 1983, and again with Williams in 1987.
Nelson Piquet gave an interview in November 2021 to well known F1 Brazilian journalist Ricardo Oliveira to a Brazilian outlet called Motorsport Talk where Nelson was discussing the incident between Hamilton and Verstappen at the 2021 British GP.
Translated from Portugese Piquet said, “The ‘little nigga’ put the car in and left it there. There was no way to get two cars through there so he did it dirty.”
Hamilton was deemed at fault for the incident and given a time penalty.
The Brazilian described Hamilton’s move as a “joke” adding he was “lucky” Verstappen only crashed not suffering serious injury.
There has been some level of outrage in Brazil this week as video footage of the incident has been unearthed and published by CNN Brazil, O Globe, and Folha de Sao Paulo have all reported the story.
Portuguese term Piquet used “neguinho” literally means “little black guy (or child)”, it’s the diminutive of “nego”, a slangish term for “negro”.
There are two uses of the word, one is the polemic described which intended to be offensive. However, there is another use for the term where it is common for some family members and friends to call each other like that in a tender way.
Yet the only family connection between Nelson and the on track combatants is that of his daughter being Max Verstappen’s girlfriend.
CNN have asked Nelson Piquet to comment, but as yet he has not.
Social media has been alive with Hamilton fans calling for Red Bull to disassociate themselves with Piquet senior who is occasionaly a guest in their garage.
How Formula One will see this matter is unclear, thought it will be a test of the “We Race as One” anti racism slogan the sport adopted following Hamilton’s call to arms in the face of extreme racism in the USA.
This weekend marks a year since Hamilton and Verstappen came together at last years British GP and Christian Horner is hoping to “right the wrongs” of last year.
“It’s our local race, we’re only 15 minutes up the road. I’m sure there’s going to be huge support for Lewis and George and Lando.
“But, you know, we’re going there leading both championships, as we did last year, but just hoping for a little bit of a better end result than what we got.”
UPDATE:
Formula One has just issued a statement:
“Discriminatory or racist language is unacceptable in any form and has no part in society. Lewis is an incredible ambassador for our sport and deserves respect.
“Lewis tireless efforts to increase diversity and inclusion are a lesson to many and something we are committed to at F1.”
