Bernie Ecclestone has bizarrely claimed that Lewis Hamilton should "ignore" Nelson Piquet's racist slur as the controversy continues to engulf F1.
Quotes Piquet made in November last year surfaced earlier this week in which he used a slang term for the N-word when discussing Hamilton's crash with Max Verstappen at Silverstone last year.
Ahead of this year's British Grand Prix at the weekend, Piquet has apologised but insists his words did not carry any racist intent.
The Brazilian looks set to be banned from the F1 paddock, but former supremo of the sport Ecclestone, who is close friends with Piquet, has launched an extraordinary defence of the former driver.
He told Good Morning Britain: "I've known Nelson for an awful long time. I was with him a couple of weeks ago. It's not the sort of thing Nelson would say meaning something bad.
"He probably thinks lots of things he says which might upset us or might feel a little bit offensive.... to him it's nothing. It's just part of conversation.
"Nelson would never go out of his way to say anything bad, certainly. I think what probably happened, knowing Nelson as I know him, as his daughter is the girlfriend of Max Verstappen, probably after seeing the accident, he probably exploded and carried that forward."
When asked about the term in question, Ecclestone added: "Well it's probably not appropriate with us. But probably it isn't something terrible that happens if you said that in Brazil.
"People say things... if people happen to be a little bit overweight, or undersized like me, I'm quite sure a lot of people have made remarks about that. If I'd have heard it, I'd have been able to deal with it myself without too much trouble.
"I'm surprised Lewis hasn't just brushed it aside. Or, better than that, replied. But he's now come out and Nelson has apologised."
Ecclestone went on to claim that F1 is no different to wider society and that the whole world has an 'out-of-date mindset'.
After Piquet's comments came to light, Hamilton posted on Twitter : "It's more than language. 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. There has been plenty of time to learn. Time has come for action."
Piquet did apologise, but stopped short of admitting racism.
He said: "I would never use the word I have been accused of in some translations. 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.”
In a statement, F1 said: “The comments made by Bernie Ecclestone are his personal views and are in very stark contrast to position of the modern values of our sport.”
