Lewis Hamilton has said that Formula One should ignore “old voices” and reject racism as it focus on becoming more inclusive.
Piquet, who is the father of Max Verstappen’s partner, Kelly Piquet, was on a Brazilian podcast last November discussing the collision between Hamilton and Verstappen during the 2021 British GP when he used a racially offensive expression in Portuguese.
The word the 69-year-old used is reported to be an equivalent or similar to the N-word.
The comments have only just come to light and Formula One issued a statement supporting seven-time champion Hamilton before he responded.
Piquet apologised on Wednesday and said his comments were “ill-thought out” – but denied any racial intent.
Former long-time F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone defended Piquet earlier today, saying he was surprised Hamilton hadn’t “brushed it aside,” and defended Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ahead of the British GP on Thursday, Hamilton faced the media for the first time following Piquet’s comments surfaced.
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Without mentioning Piquet or Ecclestone by name, Hamilton said: “I don’t know why we are continuing to give these older voices a platform because they’re speaking upon our sport and we’re looking to go somewhere completely different. And it’s not representative, I think, of who we are as a sport now and where we’re planning to go.”
“These old voices are, you know, whether subconsciously or consciously, do not agree that people like me, for example, should be in a sport like this, do not agree women should be here,” he added.
Hamilton had already posted on social media that “archaic mindsets need to change” in response to Piquet, 69, and he expanded at Silverstone.
“I’ve been on the receiving end of racism, criticism, negativity, archaic narratives and undertones of discrimination for a long, long time, and there’s nothing really particularly new for me,” the seven-time F1 champion said.
“It’s more about the bigger picture.
“I don’t know why we are continuing to give these older voices a platform.
“They’re speaking upon our sport and we’re looking to go somewhere completely different. If we’re looking to grow in the US, other countries, South Africa, we need to look to the future and give the younger people a platform, who are more representative of today’s time.
“It’s not just about one individual, it’s not about the one use of that term, it’s the bigger picture.”
In the media briefing, Hamilton said that discrimination “is not something we should be projecting and promoting, giving a platform to divide people”.
He added: “We need to be bringing people together, we are all the same.
“It is not helpful, the comments we are seeing from some people. I don’t think there’s been a day gone by where people who are older – who haven’t been relevant in our sport for decades – haven’t being saying negative things and trying to bring me down.
“But I’m still here, I’m still standing strong, I’m focused on my work and really trying to push for diversity and inclusion in our organisation.”
Asked if he had lost respect for those “older voices”, he said: “I’ve always tried to take the high road, I’ve always tried to be respectful to these individuals.
“But as I was saying before, why do we give these guys a platform? They’re not with the times, they’re clearly not willing to change.”
He continued: “These times of discrimination and micro aggressions, in today’s world it’s just not helpful and it’s creating more divide.
“I love how Michelle Obama says ‘when they go low, go high’ so I try to continue to do that, I’m inspired by people like that.
“I’m still here, it’s not going to deter me from what I think is right and doing what I love, which is working in this sport.”
Hamilton is encouraging F1 to do more to widen the diversity and inclusivity of the sport, and is working with his Mercedes team to fund projects to promote more female participation in auto racing and engineering scholarships for black students with a focus on auto racing. They announced the first grants today.
Meanwhile, Piquet was suspended from his honorary membership of the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) today, which owns and runs the Silverstone track used for this week’s Grand Prix.
The BRDC remarked that Piquet’s use of “racially offensive language to describe a fellow BRDC member is unacceptable and represents conduct that is wholly inappropriate for an Honorary Member of the BRDC, notwithstanding his subsequent apology”.
It added that its board was expected to cancel Piquet’s membership at a forthcoming meeting.
