Three-time Brazilian Formula One champion Nelson Piquet will pay 5 million Brazilian reais ($953,050) in moral damages for racist and homophobic comments against the Mercedes driver Lewis hamiltonas a Brazilian court ruled on Friday.
In an interview in November 2021, Piquet used a racist slur referring to the seven-time world champion, when commenting on Hamilton’s British Grand Prix crash with Max Verstappen.
Hamilton calls for action to change “archaic mentality” after footage of the interview surfaced on social media in June. Piquet, 70, apologized to the British pilot, saying his comments had been mistranslated. Piquet’s daughter Kelly is Verstappen’s partner.
In another clip that emerged later, Piquet used racist and homophobic language against Hamilton in a podcast interview when describing how Hamilton lost the 2016 championship to Nico Rosberg. Hamilton, who was granted honorary Brazilian citizenship in June, is the only black driver in Formula 1.
The cases were brought by four human rights groups, including Brazil’s National LGBT+ Alliance, which they want Piquet to pay 10 million Brazilian reais for alleged moral damages.
In his decision, Judge Pedro Matos de Arrudo said that the amount of compensation is given “in the sense that not only the reparative function of civil liability must be appreciated, but also (and perhaps above all) the punitive function so that, as a society, may one day be free from the evil practices of racism and homophobia.”
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
