File image of former Formula One driver Nelson Piquet, proper, with former Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Brazil’s triple Formula One champion Nelson Piquet should pay 5 million Brazilian Reals ($953,050) in ethical damages for racist and homophobic comments towards Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, a Brazilian court docket dominated on Friday.
In an interview in November 2021, Piquet used a racial slur referring to the seven-time world champion, when commenting on Hamilton’s British Grand Prix crash with Max Verstappen.
Hamilton known as for motion to change “archaic mindsets” after footage of the interview surfaced on social media final June. Piquet, 70, apologised to the British driver and stated his comments had been mistranslated. Piquet’s daughter Kelly is Verstappen’s companion.
In one other clip which surfaced later, Piquet used racist and homophobic language towards Hamilton in a podcast interview when describing how Hamilton missed out on the 2016 championship to Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton, who was awarded honorary Brazilian citizenship final June, is the game’s solely Black driver.
The costs have been introduced by 4 human rights teams which wished Piquet to pay 10 million Brazilian Reals for alleged ethical damages.
In his choice, Judge Pedro Matos de Arrudo stated the quantity of compensation was given “in the sense that one should not only appreciate the reparative function of civil liability but also (and perhaps mainly) the punitive function so that, as a society, we can someday be free from the pernicious acts that are racism and homophobia”.
