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# Piquet to pay heavy fine for offensive Hamilton remarks
- URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/piquet-to-pay-heavy-fine-for-offensive-hamilton-remarks/
- Published: 2023-03-25T11:53:27.000Z
- Updated: 2023-09-15T17:25:43.000Z
- Description: Nelson Piquet has been ordered to pay the equivalent of £780,000 by a Brazilian court for racist and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton
- Author: Jack Cozens
- Tags: Formula 1, #video, #image-center-center

Nelson Piquet has been ordered to pay the equivalent of almost £780,000 by a Brazilian court for racist and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton.

Piquet was first condemned last summer for a word he used in a Portuguese-language interview in late 2021 while discussing the clash between Hamilton – F1’s first and only Black driver – driver and Max Verstappen at Silverstone that year.

[![](https://storage.googleapis.com/the-race-com.appspot.com/1/2022/07/XPB_310305_HiRes-1-300x200.jpg)](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/matt-bishop-piquet-ecclestone-are-what-f1-rightly-left-behind/)

Matt Bishop: Piquet, Ecclestone are what F1 rightly left behind

[Read more](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/matt-bishop-piquet-ecclestone-are-what-f1-rightly-left-behind/)

He [attempted to apologise for that](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/piquet-issues-apology-to-hamilton-but-claims-misinterpretation/) – while claiming his use of the word “neguinho” in the interview, a word that can be directly translated to “little Black man”, was misinterpreted – but further footage emerged of him using the same term as well as homophobic language towards the seven-time F1 world champion.

Action was brought against Piquet – who has been banned from the F1 paddock – by human rights groups including Brazil’s National LGBT+ Alliance. They wanted Piquet to pay 10 million Brazilian Reals in compensation.

The court ruled on Friday that Piquet must pay half of that sum – five million Brazilian Reals, which is the equivalent of £779,310.

In justifying that figure, Judge Pedro Matos de Arrudo – [as reported by Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/piquet-ordered-pay-950k-racist-homophobic-comments-2023-03-25/?ref=the-race.com) – said it was appropriate “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”.

Hamilton, who was made an honorary Brazilian citizen last year, called out [“archaic mindsets”](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/archaic-mindset-hamilton-responds-to-racist-piquet-remark/) at the time that Piquet’s first derogatory remarks emerged.