RIO DE JANEIRO — Retired Method One champion Nelson Piquet has been ordered by a Brazilian courtroom to pay $950,000 in “ethical damages” for making racist and homophobic feedback about Lewis Hamilton.
The 70-year-old Brazilian had referred to seven-time champion Hamilton as “neguinho,” a racially offensive time period which suggests “little Black man,” in 2021. In one other interview, Piquet used racist and homophobic language.
The courtroom in Brasilia on Friday ordered Piquet to pay 5 million Brazilian reals “in collective ethical damages, to be allotted to funds for the promotion of racial equality and towards discrimination of the LGBTQIA+ group.”
The fees had been filed by a number of human rights teams, together with Brazil’s Nationwide LGBTI+ Alliance.
Of their grievance, the human rights teams mentioned that Piquet violated the norm of human dignity enshrined within the nation’s structure.
The choose mentioned Piquet’s feedback corresponded to the definition of racial discrimination outlined in Brazil’s 2010 Statute of Racial Equality.
Hamilton had condemned “archaic mindsets,” and the Mercedes driver mentioned he had been “surrounded by these attitudes and focused (my) complete life.”
He’s the one Black driver in F1 and obtained honorary citizenship from Brazil final 12 months.
Piquet, who gained three F1 titles within the Eighties, was discussing a crash between Hamilton and Purple Bull driver Max Verstappen that happened throughout the British Grand Prix in 2021.
His daughter Kelly Piquet is Verstappen’s girlfriend.
Piquet later apologized in an announcement for the “sick thought out” racial time period however mentioned it “is one which has extensively and traditionally been used colloquially in Brazilian Portuguese as a synonym for ‘man’ or ‘individual’ and was by no means supposed to offend.”
In his determination, choose Pedro Matos de Arruda mentioned “subtlety is likely one of the traits of latest Brazilian racism” and that the phrase is “not an affectionate nickname.”
Piquet had used racist and homophobic language within the different interview when discussing Hamilton lacking out on a earlier championship.
Piquet’s feedback implied if Hamilton hadn’t been homosexual, “he would have gained the championship. … Due to this fact, being homosexual can be a unfavorable attribute,” the choose mentioned in his determination.
The retired driver has the precise to attraction the ruling.
Piquet had angered some F1 followers for his assist of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. He donated about $95,000 to Bolsonaro’s failed re-election bid.