Judges have denied former Brazilian F1 driver Nelson Piquet’s appeal to pay the has $960,000 fine for anti-Black comments made regarding Sir Lewis Hamilton of Formula Racing.

The rejection of the appeal comes just three months after the initial lawsuit by 4 separate human rights groups including BrazilNational LGBT+ Alliance decided to take Piquet to court in a lawsuit staking10 million Brazilian reals for moral damages.

Piquet’s comments prompted widespread condemnation by the F1 paddock and in a response on social media Hamilton wrote: “These archaic mindsets need to change and have no place in our sport. I’ve been surrounded by these attitudes and targeted my whole life.”

Piquet was ordered to pay 5 million Brazilian reals or $950,000 but his team quickly submitted an appeal to the magistrate’s verdict, with Judge Pedro Matos de Arrude stating the Piquet’s comments were in breach of Brazilian laws against racial discrimination, as enacted in a 2010 statute. This meant that Piquet’s previous claims that his usage of the racial slurs were some type of a colloquial term of endearment, but instead that the terms used were not affectionate, not culturally permitted by the Brazilian public and indeed racist.. “Subtlety is one of the characteristics of contemporary Brazilian racism,” stated de Arruda, adding that the word used by Piquet was “not an affectionate nickname.”

Though Piquet’s troubles may just be beginning.

Fans and critics alike want Piquet banned from the sport all together so that he may not be able to continue to reap the ad-revenue benefits associated with being a accredited professional driver in the world’s premier racing league.

Nelson Piquet Jr. the son of Piquet is not only responsible for the now infamous “Crash-gate” an incident that led to multiple drivers being injured, the delaying of a grandprix contest finish, and severely damaged 5 multi-million dollar vehicles. Fans have noted that in 10 years Piquet Jr. has never taken responsibility for the crash, to the contrary, he has blamed his pit crew among many other factors.

Now with the next Formula-1 commission meeting looming, viewers across the world question if the committee or the stewards will take action to limit if not outright eliminate Piquet senior’s financial stake in the organization.

–Sylvester Loving, B1daily