A Brazilian judge has ordered that an investigation be opened into allegations that retired Formula One driver Nelson Piquet used racist and homophobic slurs about Lewis Hamilton.

The 69-year-old Piquet made the comments in interviews filmed in November, which only came to wider attention late in June.

The charges were brought by four human rights groups, which want three-time world champion Piquet to pay 10 million Brazilian reals ($1.86 million) for allegedly causing moral damage to Black and LGBTQ people. Piquet will have 15 days to state his case to judge Felipe Costa da Fonseca Gomes of the Distrito Federal court.

Piquet’s comments, made in Portuguese while discussing a crash between seven-time champion Hamilton and Max Verstappen during last year’s British Grand Prix, have been widely condemned by F1 drivers, teams, and the sport’s governing body.

Piquet referred to Hamilton as “neguinho” in Portuguese, which means “little Black guy.”

Piquet initially apologised to Hamilton, saying the term was not meant to be offensive.

But a second excerpt of the same video left little doubt that Piquet was singling out Hamilton as “the little Black guy,”.