Martin Brundle's live grid walk on ITV's pre-F1 shows may have become one of the most popular and entertaining elements to the broadcaster's grand prix coverage, but the former McLaren and Benetton ace has dropped himself in hot 🐟water after referring to track workers as 'pikeys' in the build-up to the race in Montreal at the weekend.

With fears over the durability of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve's surface ꦆ- and drivers having variously described it as 'a joke' and 'a nightmare' during qualifying - Brundle said to the sport's chief executive Bernie Ecclestone prior to the off that: "There are some pikeys there at turn ten putting tarmac down - what do you🌊 think of that?"

That remark has now been slated by꧙ racial equality watchdog the Equality and Human🅷 Rights Commission.

A spokesman is quoted by the Daily Telegraph as having said: "This word has been used on television in the past and is highly derogato🦩ry. They have caused muꦑch offence in the past."

An ITV ♋spokesman has since issued an apology for Brundle's remark, adding that it was too soon to say if any complaints had been registered about it.

'P🧜ikey' is as a slang term traditiona🐻lly used to refer to gypsies or travellers, but has now been coined as a general term for anyone living with no fixed abode.

According to the Telegraph, last December a Sus♛sex gardener is believed to have made legal history when he was convicted of racially aggravated harassment for using the word.

Lee Coleman also repeatedly uttered 'pikey' during a drunken outburst over a nightclub entrance fee - for which he received a twelve-month community order and 200 hours of unpaid work - whilst celebrity chef Marco Pierre-White has also been censured for using the expression 'pikey's picnic' on ITV reality show Hell's Kitchen.