Brazilian Formula 1 driver, Nelson Piquetyou will have to pay almost one million dollars in compensation, after the Brazilian justice sentenced him for having called lewis hamilton “black”, a comment that was classified as racist.
According to Brazilian media, a court of first instance in the Federal District considered Piquet’s statements about Hamilton “intolerable” and a “serious offense to the fundamental values of society.”
Faced with this situation, the court ordered Max Verstappen’s father-in-law to pay five million reais (945,000 dollars at current exchange rates) for “collective moral damages.” The money will go to funds for the promotion of racial equality and against discrimination of LGBT people.
What happened to Nelson Piquet and Lewis Hamilton?
Nelson Piquet
The phrase arose in a 2021 interview in which Piquet used the word “black” to talk about Hamilton, recalling an accident in July of that year involving Lewis and Verstappen on the first lap of the British Grand Prix.
“The black guy (Lewis Hamilton) put the car in and left it because he had no way to pass two cars in that curve. He played dirty. His luck was that only the other (Verstappen) got screwed ”, statements that were condemned by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), for Formula 1.
For his part, Hamilton reacted by denouncing “archaic attitudes” that “must change. They are more than words.” Piquet, 70, then apologized “wholeheartedly” to Hamilton for his words.
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Nelson Piquet apologizes to Lewis Hamilton
Nelson Piquet and Lewis Hamilton.
“What I said was wrong and I will not defend myself, but I want to specify that the term used is a term that has long and historically been used in the Brazilian Portuguese language as a type or person, and that it has never been intended to offend.”
However, this argument was not enough for the court, which judged that “the lack of intent (…) is no longer relevant to justify or dismiss discriminatory conduct against minorities.”
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