Call to Formula One: Ban Perez Garibay after homophobic statements
With his homophobic statements, Antonio Perez Garibay has made it impossible himself to be in Formula 1 or to visit a paddock in the future. There should be no place in this sport for someone who dares to speak so derogatorily about someone's sexuality. F1 has no choice but to ban Sergio Perez's father from the sport completely, as happened earlier with Nelson Piquet senior after a racist comment about Lewis Hamilton.
Always, Formula 1 and the FIA have advertised their diversity and inclusiveness in motorsport. Formula 1 and its umbrella regulator rightly argue that everyone should feel at home, regardless of origin or sexuality. When Nelson Piquet senior made an inappropriate and offensive remark about Lewis Hamilton, Formula 1 denied Max Verstappen's father-in-law access to the paddock.
Antonio Perez Garibay has a history of absurd statements, but usually those were harmless. Back then people laughed about it and moved on. Just moving on is impossible after what the Mexican has now said in ESPN's podcast. He commented, "There's a driver who was a Formula 1 driver, [turned] journalist. He first stated that Checo was already out of Red Bull. The following week he [Schumacher] came out of the closet. Don't know if he was in love with Checo. Do you understand it? There are many strange things. You no longer know if he is a journalist, a woman, a gentleman."
Perez Garibay does not belong to Formula One
Formula One can only treat Antonio Perez Garibay's statements the same way they did so with Nelson Piquet's. After all, this was not an unfortunate slip of the tongue, but a deliberate attempt to insult Ralf Schumacher. The latter, incidentally, reacted particularly calmly to Perez Garibay's statements. Yet it should certainly not be forgotten that Schumacher waited years to come out, surely because he wanted to avoid comments like those made by father Perez.
What would a young talent in motorsport choose when thinking about coming out or not, when they hear Perez Garibay's statements? They would likely have think twice about saying in the thus still conservative racing world that they are attracted to the same sex. That is why Formula 1 and the FIA should condemn Perez Garibay's words harshly.
The fact that Perez Garibay has not yet apologised is also telling: Apparently, he thinks this is all perfectly normal. But no, it isn't. Therefore, this cannot go without sanction: People who make such comments simply have no place in this sport.
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The fact that Perez Garibay has not yet apologised is also telling: Apparently, he thinks this is all perfectly normal. But no, it isn't. Therefore, this cannot go without sanction: People who make such comments simply have no place in this sport. Lets see if any team or driver or pundits address the issue.
This is what is wrong with this world nowadays. Somebody said something stupid. As much as I saw, all contemned him, as it was stupid indeed what he said. But no, it's not enough, lets ban him, lets hide him in the cave, lets lock him up. Let's never see his face again. I mean come on. Even Ralf as an intelligent person understood, that it was more about father trying to defend his son, than Perez senior trying to be toxic. Perez senior is known taking things way too seriously. There should be more understanding in the world and trying to see world from other person perspective as well. Not trying to erase people for something they once said. Like Vips career was erased. I read in news that even F1 owners called his F2 team to drop him immediately, but his team owner said no, cause he knew that Vips is actually a good person and it was just said in the heat of playing games. Same time these same F1 owners are taking money with smile on their face from war criminals, from people that don't care about human rights and from people who see females as some lower class person. If people say stupid things, then trying to erase them, means you're on the same level with them, or even worse. Looking this blog, we all should have been banned long time ago. Some person even 10 times a day.
Are you singling me out with that last sentence? I'm sensitive to these things so I have to ask :) While I ask, maybe you should ask why someone like me has to reply to 10 people plus per day, who act as trolls and thus get my comebacks with the same level of respect I'm shown. There was zero need for that last sentence no matter whether it's me or someone else you're referring to. Just further stoking a fire when you didn't even need to. And you wonder why sh** gets stirred. Stupid little comments like yours. I was reading your post pretty much agreeing with almost of it, enough for me to slap a 'like' on it. Then you let yourself down and started something unnecessary and for no gain. I only ask if it's me because I'm not on every day and every post I make is not ban-worthy. More like your personal feelings got hurt. I'm sure you'll not be straight with me for your reply, but don't worry, I'm not expecting you to be.
Exactly this. 100% agreed. The world is becoming childish now. What happened to calling an idiot an idiot and just move on with your life? I don't agree one bit with some comments from old fools like Piquet, Marko, Bernie and Perez, but please... Just don't give them one second of your time. There are way more important things in life...
Now I'm writing this down I realised something really funny... Isn't it hugely contradictory trying to be inclusive by cancelling out people? In a way it's on the same level.
Why would F1 ban him? How is this different then hosting races in countries that have clear human rights violations and is even more against the LGTBQ people.....? You try to have a open homosexual or lesbian relationship in Saudi......good luck.Same for UAE,Qatar and Bahrain. If anything,F1 should come out in support of his statements..... But no,instead of taking a stance...we change the wording in the regulations to make it more "inclusive". You know what they say....you can put lipstick in a pig....
A very good point MabMav. See THIS is the kind of comment this blog needs. Ok I don't agree with you that it should go as far as F1 supporting his statements, because they were a bit inappropriate, let's be fair. But your counterpoint about where some races are hosted, is an excellent one if F1 are going to ban him from the paddock. Hard to argue against. The obvious reason they host in those countries is money. Oil > War it seems. We don't host Russia any more. And where did China go and why? You have MBS steering the ship too and Aston Martin with Saudi oil sponsorship (prompting MBS to want to overturn Alonso's penalty that time). Perez Sr. has simply done what many do here. Made his comeback to Ralf personal and insulting instead of keeping it to F1. :) People do say silly things in the heat of the moment. And this is a case of a father protecting his son (and we know he is protective of Sergio - in his eyes he's going to be a world champion). But you can't let it go either. He can't be calling Ralf a woman. Ok the 'in love' part was a mild-ish jab, but the 'woman' part... nah.. you can't go there. And let's not say this is 'woke' or any of that BS. It's simply not appropriate. Ralf kept his sexuality to himself for quite a while it seems. And how do you think the reaction would have been if he'd come out during his time in F1. I would have hoped that the reaction would have not been negative. However, we ARE in a world with homophobes and racists. And people like to brush off the latter as if it doesn't exist. You hear them with the "oh playing the racist card again" crap. Well yeah if we react that way every time then the actual racists will slip through the cracks. Nelson Piquet is an example. Both he and Kelly Piquet support a Brazilian politician with white supremacist ties. Max is happy with Kelly. I'm not connecting any dots there btw, just stating two separate facts that are likely exclusive to one another. Same goes for homophobes. But not every statement like Perez Sr. is a sign of homophobia. Not at all. He's pissed at Ralf. That does not equate to a general hate or intolerance of gay people. So people in F1 must not be quick to assume this. If I as a white person utter the N word, it doesn't make me a racist. It's a word. It's all about context. People use the racist term far too loosely and incorrectly. We had moments on here when someone deemed it 'racist' to insult Dutch people (this was during the anti-British tirade from those lovely RB fans). But it's not racist to be anti-British or to say "all Germans have no sense of humour". Being British, Dutch or German isn't a race. Same for someone saying they hate all Christians. They're not a race, it's not racist! There's a lack of understanding here and I think F1 needs to be careful if they are going to label Perez Sr a homophobe. His statement was inappropriate, yes. Homophobic... well that depends on how offended want to be on behalf of someone else. If you want to class what Perez said as homophobic, that's one thing. But it does NOT mean that he is a homophobe as a person. Emotion factors into this and people say silly things, sometimes things they regret, when they're emotional. A ban MAY be knee-jerk reaction so F1 looks like it's playing its part in being correct. But then they rightly banned Piquet. But I don't compare this too much to Piquet. I think Piquet's was just blatant and couple that with his known support of Bolsanaro... you can see how his mind works.
"Ok I don't agree with you that it should go as far as F1 supporting his statements, because they were a bit inappropriate, let's be fair." I meant that firmly as a bit of sarcasm. Trying to point out the hypocrisy of the FIA. You raise some pertinent points.However,the world is such a diverse place with different believes and convictions,it is impossible to please everyone all the time. I'm just saying as a organisation,if the FIA whant to be showing themselves as all inclusive ....they need to either stand behind that message 100% or just show that they are a money hungry organisation that doesn't really care who pays for them to host a race. There is a reason we are not racing in Africa,but almost on every middle east country who can afford it.
The thing with the FIA is that it's supposed to be a non-profit organisation. Imagine that :) What would 'all inclusive' mean? That we include homophobes and racists too ? Hehe :) Ralf Schumacher is outside of F1 looking in and so I dunno if this is as much about inclusion but about the tolerance of people towards others who are different to them, whether it be sexual, colour, religion or even nationality. Tolerance of opinions isn't something we see a lot off though unfortunately - particularly if they differ from one's own. Banning Perez would be the opposite of inclusion too. It's literally exclusion. Piquet had a chance to explain himself in Brazil didn't he? Didn't he have to go to court for what he said? We can all slip up and say something silly, it happens. It's not every time that people need to be labelled for life because of it. I don't know enough about Perez Sr to judge him really so I won't. Came across like an angry father defending his son, but yeah he still said the wrong thing.
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