Comments from three-time F1 world champion Piquet given in an interview last year surfaced this week, among which he used a racial slur against Hamilton.
It led to widespread condemnation through the F1 community, including a rebuttal from both F1 and the FIA.
Seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton said it was “time for change” to shift “archaic mindsets”.
Piquet has now issued a statement in which he said he wanted to “clear up the stories circulating in the media about a comment I made in an interview last year.”
Although Piquet admitted that what he said “was ill thought out, and I make no defence for it”, he claimed the term he used “is one that 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,” Piquet said.
“I strongly condemn any suggestion that the word was used by me with the aim of belittling a driver because of his skin colour.
“I apologise wholeheartedly to anyone that was affected, including Lewis, who is an incredible driver.
“But the translation in some media that is now circulating on social media is not correct.
“Discrimination has no place in F1 or society and I am happy to clarify my thoughts in that respect.”
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