Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Irish_Tom

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Moving out of the Silverstone thread into this one:

Irish_Tom said:
Thanks @chrismscotland

Looks like much of the weekend will be used to discuss racism in the sport after Nelson Piquet used the N word to describe Lewis Hamilton.

The subsequent Social Media fallout isn't helping, with Rodrigo Piquet posting something that repeats the N word, and it's been liked by Kelly Piquet (Max Verstappen's girlfriend). I'll post it later if I have time but it will obviously need editing.

Such a shame the weekend can't just be about the racing.
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Scam said:
Given the interview was last year, how come it’s only just come to light with Mercedes and the FIA reacting today?
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Stumble Bum said:
Does anyone know why this has made the news today all of a sudden? pretty sure I read about the comment by piquet weeks ago and the original interview was from November.
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I think it's because it's the anniversary of the Lewis/Max crash and Piquet was commenting on it.
 

Kenai

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fez said:
Is this like the Cavani incident or is he genuinely being a racist POS.
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Copied from Sky News...

"The [racist term] put his car there to hit him on purpose," Piquet said.

Later asked if he felt Hamilton would not make the corner at Copse, Piquet went on to say: "Him? Never!

"He wanted to take him out no matter the cost. The [racist term] left the car there to hit him.

"It's because you don't know that bend. It's a very fast one, and two cars can't get through. There's no way two cars can go side by side there. It was a dirty trick!
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In the context, it seems plausible enough it was meant in a derogatory manner.
 

Scam

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Kenai said:
Copied from Sky News...

In the context, it seems plausible enough it was meant in a derogatory manner.
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It was one of two things. He was being openly racist and calling him a Brazilian-Portuguese version of the n-word. Or, he was being closet-racist by not calling Lewis by name, and instead referring to him as the small/young black guy. Which is also ludicrous. Lewis is 37 years old and has won 7 world championships. How, as an ex-F1 driver could you "forget" his name. :rolleyes:
chrismscotland said:
It does seem a bit odd that something from an interview in November has "suddenly" come to light.
Personally I think Piquet has been around long enough to know he shouldn't be using "that" word.
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I know nothing about Piquet but Brazil is fairly still racist/classist isn't it? Wiki tells me his father was a physician in Rio then went on to be Minister of Health. It was probably quite the charmed upbringing, rather walled off (literally) from any sort of multicultural/multiethnic goings on. But I'm only assuming.

Going to be interesting at Silverstone. I'm betting Max is super-friendly with his future (?) father inlaw given his history in the sport?
 

chrismscotland

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Scam said:
I know nothing about Piquet but Brazil is fairly still racist/classist isn't it? Wiki tells me his father was a physician in Rio then went on to be Minister of Health. It was probably quite the charmed upbringing, rather walled off (literally) from any sort of multicultural/multiethnic goings on. But I'm only assuming.
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You've probably got a point on Brazil, its not exactly a bastion of modernity, I suspect you might hear similar from a 69 year in the UK from a similar background to be honest.
Scam said:
Going to be interesting at Silverstone. I'm betting Max is super-friendly with his future (?) father inlaw given his history in the sport?
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Not sure its really got anything to do with Max. If I got blamed for everything my father in law had said I'd be in jail
 

Dup

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It's a wonder they have time for racing with the weekly media circus about non-racing nonsense. Absolutely fed up of it to the point I might not bother tuning in. I think for me F1 is at peak decline.
 

englishpremier

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Dup said:
It's a wonder they have time for racing with the weekly media circus about non-racing nonsense. Absolutely fed up of it to the point I might not bother tuning in. I think for me F1 is at peak decline.
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What's the none racing nonsense? You just turn on your TV or fire up your app a couple of mins before the scheduled race start, and job done. You see and hear nothing other than the race.
 

Mr Jack

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Scam said:
It was one of two things. He was being openly racist and calling him a Brazilian-Portuguese version of the n-word. Or, he was being closet-racist by not calling Lewis by name, and instead referring to him as the small/young black guy. Which is also ludicrous. Lewis is 37 years old and has won 7 world championships. How, as an ex-F1 driver could you "forget" his name. :rolleyes:
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From what I gather the word used by Piquet is not a direct parallel to the N-word (there's a different word in Brazilian Portuguese that is equivalent) but it was still a racist and derogatory way to refer to Lewis. Just as if in English you were bashing him and calling him "that black boy" it would still be racist without using the N-word.
 

Junglist

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I think what is more outrageous than Piquet being Piquet is some of the reaction from fans. There's an article on Motorsport and some of the comments on there are pretty wild takes and you have to wonder if they're sincere or just being edgy but I feel it's the former.
 

Jono8

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Mr Jack said:
From what I gather the word used by Piquet is not a direct parallel to the N-word (there's a different word in Brazilian Portuguese that is equivalent) but it was still a racist and derogatory way to refer to Lewis. Just as if in English you were bashing him and calling him "that black boy" it would still be racist without using the N-word.
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This.

There is no context in which what Piquet did was not racist.

Even if that word doesn't have the same connotations in Portuguese, just refering to him by the colour of his skin, and not by name is extremely racist. He knows his name FFS. He is the most decorated F1 driver to have ever lived. There is zero reason not to refer to him as "Lewis", "Hamilton", "Him/He".
 

Scam

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Jono8 said:
There is no context in which what Piquet did was not racist.

Even if that word doesn't have the same connotations in Portuguese, just refering to him by the colour of his skin, and not by name is extremely racist. He knows his name FFS. He is the most decorated F1 driver to have ever lived. There is zero reason not to refer to him as "Lewis", "Hamilton", "Him/He".
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100%.

Also, as the current world champion* and new ambassador for the sport* has Max come out and made a statement? Anyone with a bit of sense would distance themselves from those remarks and/or the person that said them pretty sharpish considering he is essentially part of the family. The silence is deafening.

EDIT: Or indeed have Red Bull commented or reposted the FIA's post maybe?
 
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