Nelson Piquet & Lewis Hamilton: F1 drivers speak out in defence of Brit

Former Formula One three-time world champion Nelson Piquet has been condemned for using racially abusive language towards Lewis Hamilton, with the majority of the current grid speaking out in his defence.

Whilst referring to the seven-time world champion, Piquet used a racially abusive term in a derogatory way when analysing the crash between him and Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix last year.

The fact that this interview is only just being picked up in the main stream media and being acted on highlights a major problem in itself.

Piquet’s daughter is the current partner of Verstappen, so to see him taking the Dutchman’s side in an incident that split the F1 community is no surprise.

However, to refer to Hamilton like he did is simply unacceptable and cannot be tolerated in any way shape or form, there’s no room for that sort of behaviour in any instance.

We saw Formula One and Mercedes make their own statements swiftly, along with the FIA which is good to see, although we need the governing bodies to act on their words too, which they appear to be doing.

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Taking his connections into account, the fact we haven’t seen any condemnation for the comments from Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Christian Horner or Red Bull themselves is incredibly disappointing. That’s not the sort of message we want to see in the face of something as abhorrent as this.

Thankfully, plenty of the grid have spoken out in Hamilton’s support, most team Twitter accounts showed their solidarity with the seven-time world champion, with almost every driver doing the same.

His teammate George Russell tweeted: Huge respect to LH. He has done more for the sport than any driver in history, not just on track but off it. The fact