Nelson Piquet has apologised for a racial slur he used to explain Lewis Hamilton and stated the phrase he used has been taken out of the context he supposed.

The 69-year-old used a racist time period about Hamilton whereas blaming him for his collision with Max Verstappen, boyfriend of Piquet’s daughter Kelly, ultimately yr’s British Grand Prix. The feedback had been made in Portuguese on a podcast final November, however solely got here to mild this week.

Hamilton tweeted in response to it on Tuesday, saying “these archaic mindsets want to vary”, whereas F1, a number of groups and drivers all issued statements in assist of the British driver and condemning racism.

On Wednesday Piquet, a three-time F1 champion, issued a press release of apology and claimed the phrase doesn’t have a racial connotation in Brazil.

“I want to clear the tales circulating within the media a couple of remark I made in an interview final yr,” Piquet stated.

“What I stated was sick thought out, and I make no defence for it, however I’ll make clear that the time period used is one which has extensively and traditionally been utilized in Brazilian Portuquese for a synonym for ‘man’ or ‘particular person’ and was by no means supposed to offend. I’d by no means use the phrase I’ve been accused of in some translations.

“I strongly condemn any suggestion that the phrase was utilized by me with the goal of belitting a driver due to his pores and skin color. I apologise wholeheartedly to anybody that was affected, together with Lewis, who’s an unbelievable driver, however the translation in some media that’s now circulating on social media just isn’t right. Discrimination has no place in F1 or society and I’m comfortable to make clear my ideas in that respect.”