Nelson Piquet Sr. has been banned from the F1 paddock following his racist language used in reference to Lewis Hamilton, per multiple reports.
The three-time F1 world champion issued an apology Wednesday, saying, in part, “What I said was ill thought out, and I make no defence for it, but the term used has widely and historically been used colloquially in Brazilian Portuguese as a synonym for ‘guy’ or ‘person’ and was never intended to offend. I would never use the word I have been accused of in some translations. I strongly condemn any suggestion that the word was used by me with aim of belittling a driver because of his skin colour.