Nelson Piquet apologizes to Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton: After his racist insult became known, the ex-world champion from Brazil also made it clear that he had been mistranslated. His words should not have put anyone down – but there are other opinions.
After Nelson Piquet’s racist derailment, the three-time world champion publicly apologized to Formula 1 superstar Lewis Hamilton. However, the Brazilian rejected a racist background in a widespread statement and sees himself misinterpreted.
“I wholeheartedly apologize to all those affected including Lewis who is an incredible driver but the translation in some media that is now circulating on social media is incorrect. Discrimination does not exist in Formula 1 or in society something to look for and I am happy to clarify my thoughts in this regard,” the statement said.
Previously, Piquet’s earlier statements had appeared in which he had denigrated Hamilton in an interview. “Little Neguinho puts the car like this because he didn’t have a chance to overtake two cars in that corner. It’s a joke! He’s lucky it’s only Verstappen caught,” said the 69-year-old in Portuguese in an interview with journalist Ricardo Oliveira. It was about the accident between the Mercedes driver and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen at the 2021 British Grand Prix.
“What I said was thoughtless and I’m not arguing against it, but I want to clarify that the term used is one that has been widely and historically colloquially used in Brazilian Portuguese as a synonym for ‘guy’ or ‘person “is used and was never meant to be offensive,” it said. “I would never use the word I’ve been accused of in some translations. I firmly reject any suggestion that I used the word with the aim of disparaging a driver because of the color of his skin,” Piquet said.
The specialist magazine “Motorsport-Total.com” had the Formula 1 reporter Luis Ramos from São Paulo confirm that this term should not be equated with a trivialization of the N-word, “but with ‘little black man'”. Nevertheless, according to the report, Piquet’s statement was clearly racist. “In context, Piquet’s ‘Neguinho’ is definitely meant pejoratively,” he said. “He doesn’t call Max ‘Holandesinho’, which means Dutchman, while he doesn’t use the name for Hamilton, but defines it through the color of his skin.”
