Red Bull boss Helmut Marko has claimed Lewis Hamilton’s team purposefully dug up apparent racist remarks from Nelson Piquet ahead of the British Grand Prix. Marko said Piquet’s remarks were not blatant and was simply another one of the Brazilian’s “ill-considered statements”.
The three-time world champion described Hamilton as a “neguinho” during the clip which sent shockwaves through the sport. The Red Bull chief appeared to question the strange timing of the interview surfacing before Hamilton’s home race.
However, the clip was recorded from a Brazilian TV interview back in November before the end of last season. The video referenced Hamilton’s crash with Max Verstappen at the 2021 race at Silverstone.
But, Marko believes the reason it was redistributed on social media could have an ulterior motive. He commented: “I don’t want to defend Piquet, but if you translate the Portuguese correctly, what he said isn’t nearly as blatant.
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He explained: “This is all bull****, I am not racist. There is nothing, nothing I said [was] wrong. What I said is a very soft word — we even use it for some of our white friends. I used this word almost a year ago in the interview and they come up with this. It has caused me some problems but to be honest with you I don’t really care.”
Hamilton responded in Piquet’s “archaic” language ahead of the British Grand Prix and called for older individuals to not have a voice. He added: “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.”
