Nelson’s Piquet racist remarks on Lewis Hamilton left the entire F1 community shocked and outraged earlier this week.
Most of the F1 community immediately came out in support of Hamilton as soon as Piquet’s comments resurfaced. However, the two major names missing from that list were that of Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen.
The latter was under scrutiny, because Nelson Piquet is his girlfriend Kelly’s father. As a result, it led to fans demanding that either Verstappen or Red Bull make a statement regarding the matter.
They didn’t do so on social media. However, ahead of the British GP Verstappen spoke out publicly in support of Hamilton, and admitted what Piquet said was no right. Following on that matter, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner too condemned what happened, and explained why they didn’t make a statement.
“First of all, because we are appalled by Nelson’s comments,” he said. “And it is from an interview some time ago. But we had an incident with one of our young drivers. Earlier or at the end of last week, and we took very definitive action.”
Red Bull and Max Verstappen are behind Lewis Hamilton
The incident Horner talks about is that of young Estonian driver Juri Vips. He was part of the Red Bull academy and driving in F2 this year. On a recent stream, he used a racially inappropriate slur, which led to his contract with the Milton-Keynes team being terminated.
This was a defining moment, and fans wanted to see Red Bull take a similar stand against Piquet. However, Horner explained why they didn’t do so.
“We feel that action speaks louder then works,” the 48-year old said. “And the action we took with Juri which was draconian but in line with the policy that we have.”
“Max has been absolutely clear that he is fully supportive of Lewis, as he stated in the press conference yesterday. Not just Lewis, but any form of racism or discrimination in the sport.”
Verstappen goes into this week’s British GP, leading the World Championship with 175 points to his name. Hamilton meanwhile, is P6 in the standings, with 77 points.
