A Chief justice has today accepted a lawsuit and the former Formula 1 driver Nelson Piquet now has 15 days to respond following racist and homophobic remarks about Lewis Hamilton. The F1 Champion Nelson Piquet was in the news recently following an interview that went viral ahead of the British Grand Prix when the Brazilian called Hamilton a ‘Nigga’ then eluded that he performed homosexual acts instead of concetrating on his F1 championship bid in 2016.

The applicants for the court action have demanded R$10 million (£1.5 million) in damages for collective moral damage and the Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories accepted on Monday the public civil action. 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.” Now, the former Brazilian Formula 1 driver will have 15 days to present an objection to the hearing.

Educafro, Centro Santo Dias, Aliança Nacional LGBTI+, and Associação Brasileira de Famílias Homotransafetivas (ABRAFH) have asked for compensation of R$10 million for “collective moral damage and social harm inflicted on the black population, the LGBTQIA+ community, and the Brazilian people in general.”

Further, the “insulting, humiliating and vexatious, racist and homophobic offenses publicly vociferated by the defendant violate norms that protect the honor and dignity of the human person, as well as those that protect the black population against racism.” according to the organisation.

Demands also include a request that Piquet is to publish a public apology and, if he makes any more racist or homophobic statements, to pay a fine of R$ 100,000 per occurrence.

After the interview went viral, the international repercussion was extremely negative to Piquet. Last week, Formula 1, the FIA, and Mercedes published statements condemning the three-time champion’s attitude. Hamilton also spoke out, stating that a profound change of mentality is needed, and other drivers, such as Sebastian Vettel, former drivers, and organizations came out in his defense.