Nelson Piquet fined for racist and homophobic comments against Lewis Hamilton

The Lewis Hamilton case against Nelson Piquet has closed. Three-time Formula 1 world champion Piquet was sentenced to pay five million Brazilian reals (about 900,000 euros) for making racist and homophobic comments about the seven-time Mercedes world champion. Reuters and the BBC reported the news.

The facts date back to November 2021 when the former Williams standard bearer was sued for the comments he had made to the British. On that occasion, Piquet was a guest on the Brazilian broadcaster Enerto. Speaking of the accident at Silverstone between Hamilton and Max Verstappen, he had repeatedly used a racist epithet referring to the Mercedes driver.

In a separate interview, Piquet had instead talked about the 2016 F1 World Championship, when Nico Rosberg stole the title from his teammate, Lewis Hamilton. Even in that circumstance, the three-time world champion had stained himself with infamy, uttering not only racist but also homophobic epithets against the British driver. Comments that later appeared online last year.

Nelson Piquet’s apologies were useless. His words were harshly condemned by Hamilton. And, yesterday, the final ruling on the matter arrived. In pronouncing it, the civil court judge of Brasilia, Pedro Matos de Arruda, affirmed that the amount of compensation was declared not only «in the function of reparation of civil liability but, also, in a punitive function. A condemnation that comes – he continues – so that, as a society, one day we can be free from pernicious acts such as racism and homophobia».
Formula 1 had banned Nelson Piquet from entering the paddock indefinitely.