Nelson Piquet racism row escalates as new Lewis Hamilton slur emerges
The racism row engulfing Nelson Piquet and Formula One escalated on Friday as it emerged he had gone on to make even more offensive comments about Lewis Hamilton on a podcast.
As Hamilton called for action against "older voices" with offensive views, reports in Brazil claimed Piquet called the Briton a "neguinho" a third time and said he was being "f— in the a—".
According to Grande Premio website, which had access to the full interview, the Brazilian launched into the derogatory attack when asked for his thoughts on 1982 world title winner Keke Rosberg.
"Keke? He was a piece of s—, he was worthless," the three-time former champion said. "He's like his son (Nico). He won a championship..."
Referring to Rosberg Jnr beating seven-time champion Hamilton in 2016, Piquet allegedly added: "The 'neguinho' (Hamilton) was probably being f— in the a— more than usual back then, so he was not doing well [in races]."
Piquet has already been barred from the Formula 1 paddock and booted out of the British Racing Drivers' Club after it emerged on Tuesday that he had twice used the derogatory phrase "neguinho" while discussing Hamilton.
Piquet had been under intense pressure to contact Hamilton directly to say sorry, but, in a statement on Wednesday, the 69-year-old claimed his comments were mistranslated.
"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," a statement read.
He has yet to respond to reports in Brazil about his further reported comments in the two-hour interview recorded in November last year.
Watch: Bernie Eccleston 'surprised' Hamilton hasn't 'brushed aside' Nelson Piquet's racist comment
On Thursday, ahead of the British Grand Prix, Hamilton called for "older voices" with offensive views to be refused a platform after a week which has also seen provocative remarks from Bernie Ecclestone about Vladimir Putin.
Mercedes driver Hamilton said: "Discrimination is not something we should be giving a platform. We need people to be bringing people together." He added: "We are all the same and the comments we are seeing are not helpful."
On Thursday morning ex-F1 boss Ecclestone, in an interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain, had voiced his support for the Russian president and his actions in Ukraine.
"There needs to be some accountability," said Hamilton. "You know what you're going to get [with Ecclestone].
"I don't know what their [the broadcaster's] goal is. To hear from someone that ultimately believes in the war, displacement of millions of people and the killing of thousands of people; the person who's doing that, they support him. And I can't believe that's what I heard today."
Hamilton was also referring to an interview given by another three-time champion, Stewart, who said last week that he thought Hamilton should retire.
Hamilton, who has long been frustrated by what he sees as Stewart's negative attitude towards him, said: "These past two weeks I don't think a day has gone by without one of these people saying negative things or trying to bring me down."
Red Bull have also sacked their reserve driver Juri Vips after he made an offensive remark on an online gaming stream.
Asked if he believed F1 had a racism problem, Hamilton said: "We are living in the world and there is still discrimination all around the world, you see it all around you.
"These micro-aggressions come out, enough is enough, no-one should have to brush off racism and it shouldn't be for me to have to brush it off. We need big organisations to take a stand."
Piquet is the father of Max Verstappen's partner Kelly Piquet. Verstappen said at Silverstone: "Everyone is against racism, it is very straight. The wording used - even though from different kinds of cultures and things they said when they were little and younger - was not correct and that will be a lesson for the future not to use that word because it is very offensive."
