Piquet issues violent language and threats against Brazilian president

Nelson Piquet senior is once again part of a controversy. A video has surfaced on social media in which the three-time world champion makes threats against Brazil's newly elected president Lula da Silva.

Piquet is by no means averse to controversy. The former F1 driver and father of Kelly Piquet - Max Verstappen's girlfriend - has a long history of insults. His list of targets includes Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Enzo Ferrari and Keke Rosberg. Earlier this year, footage surfaced of Piquet using a racial slur in reference to Lewis Hamilton in 2021. The latter situation was taken so seriously that Piquet was suspended indefinitely from the Formula 1 paddock.

Now Piquet has brought a new controversy upon himself. In a video on social media, the Brazilian reacted to last weekend's Brazilian presidential election that strongly divided the country. Lula da Silva narrowly won over incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro, which immediately provoked a reaction from Bolsonaro's supporters.

Piquet has fierce words for Lula da Silva in the video

The video shows Piquet reacting to the election results in a conversation with another man, in which he does not yet seem to want to acknowledge that Lula actually won. "We are going to get Lula out of here, that son of a bitch," is how Piquet puts it. A little further on, he adds: "Lula needs to be in a cemetery, the son of a bitch."

Matt Bishop, Aston Martin's communications manager already responded to the video by saying, "Sad, and embarrassing for F1."

Earlier, it seemed possible that the Brazilian Grand Prix was in trouble for next week due to the post-election demonstrations, but that was contradicted by Formula 1 this week.