Former F1 world champion Brazilian Nelson Beckett has apologized to seven -time British champion Lewis Hamilton after he was called a “little lion” in a video.

The three -time world champion said in a statement that “he apologizes from the bottom of my heart to everyone affected by it, including Lewis, but the translation in some media shared on social media is incorrect.”

The Brazilian used the word “Nigeño”, which means “little black” in Portuguese, to refer to Hamilton in a podcast interview he gave in Brazil in November 2021, which was rebroadcast on Tuesday.

Beckett explained that he did not think “okay”, mentioning that he was not in the process of defending himself, but the term, as he said, is very popular in Portuguese-Brazilian as a synonym for “boy”. or “man”, emphasizing that he did not mean violence.

On Tuesday, Hamilton responded to Beckett’s words: “It’s more than words. This old mindset needs to be changed and it has no place in our sport. ”

Beckett was widely condemned after his speech, especially after Hamilton covered the topic more than once on social media.