"I wholeheartedly apologize to everyone affected, including Lewis, who is an incredible driver," the 69-year-old Brazilian said in a statement, "but the translation in some media now circulating on social media is not correct".
In an interview dating from November 2021, but which resurfaced on the internet on Tuesday, the triple world champion (1981, 1983, 1987) used the word "little black" ("neguinho" in Brazilian) to talk about Hamilton on his way back on an accident involving Briton and Dutchman Max Verstappen on the first lap of the 2021 British Grand Prix.
“The little black guy put his car in and left it because there was no way he could overtake (and have) two cars on that bend” – where Verstappen had ended up violently in the wall forcing him retired,” Piquet said in this video interview with Motorsports.com.
On Wednesday, Piquet wanted to "clarify the stories circulating in the media".
"What I said was poorly thought out and I do not defend myself against it, but I want to clarify that the term used is a term that has been widely and historically used in the Brazilian Portuguese language as a synonym for "guy" or of "nobody" and that it was never intended to offend", he assures.
"I would never use the word I have been accused of in some translations. I strongly condemn any suggestion that I used this word in an effort to belittle a pilot because of their skin color," adds the former pilot.
On Tuesday, Hamilton reacted: "These are more than words. These archaic mentalities must change and have no place in our sport".
Piquet's remarks had also been widely condemned in the world of F1, by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), by Formula 1, the organizer of the World Championship, and by teams and other drivers.
Piquet, also the father of Verstappen's partner, is one of the supporters of the far-right Brazilian head of state Jair Bolsonaro.
© 2022 AFP