Nelson Piquet Sr addresses racial slur situation

Nelson Piquet Sr has released an official statement regarding the comments he made about Lewis Hamilton during an interview in November.

Some comments have emerged from an interview Nelson Piquet did back in November, in which he chose a rather controversial set of words, calling Lewis Hamilton the N word.

F1 and FIA and several teams, icluding Mercedes, spoke out about the matter, supporting Lewis Hamilton and condemning such behaviour. There have been some talks that Piquet would be denied access to the F1 Paddock from now on, but nothing was officially confirmed.

Nelson Piquet Sr issued an official statement today:

"I would like to clear up the stories circulating the media about a comment I made in an interview last year.

"What I said was ill thought out, and I make no defence for it, but I will clarify that the term used is one that has widely and historically been used colloquially in Brazilian Portuguese as a synonym for 'guy' or 'person' and was never intended to offend. I would never use the word I have been accused of in some translations. I strongly condemn any suggestion that the word was used by me with the aim of belittling a driver because of his skin colour.

"I apologise wholeheartedly to anyone that was affected, including Lewis, who is an incredible driver, but the translation in some media that is now circulating on social media is not correct. Discrimination has no place in F1 or society and I am happy to clarify my thoughts in that aspect."