If you follow F1 you’ve been following the race fixing charges against the Renault F1 team, which focus on Nelson Piquet Jr’s crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
It is alleged the incident was premeditated and created to force a safety car. With the knowledge the safety car was going to be introduced Renault number one driver Fernando Alonso was able to alter his refuelling strategy to gain an advantage over his rivals. An advantage that saw him win the race.
A string of unsatisfactory results in 2009 saw Nelson Piquet Jr sacked by the Renault F1 team in July. Since then he has not been hiding his anger at the team’s decision, with most of his resentment directed to team boss Flavio Briatore.
At the end of July 2009 Piquet Jr made a statement to the FIA detailing his side of the story from last year’s Singapore Grand Prix. You can read the statement in full after the jump, but it is the following paragraph that will cause Briatore and his team the most concern:
“…I was asked by Mr Flavio Briatore, who is both my team manager and Team Principal of the Renault F1 Team, and by Mr Pat Symonds, the Technical Director of the ING Renault F1 Team, to deliberately crash my car in order to positively influence the performance of the ING Renault F1 team at the event in question. I agreed to this proposal and caused my car to hit a wall and crash during lap thirteen/fourteen of the race.”
Assuming the statement made by Nelson Piquet Jr is a true and accurate reflection of events, you can expect both he and his former team to be heavily sanctioned by the FIA.
In many ways this is a far worse situation for the sport than the infamous ‘Stepneygate’ spy saga from 2007. The outcome of that controversy saw the McLaren team heavily fined and removed from the Constructors’ Championship. If the race-fixing allegations against Renault are proven, one can only imagine how dramatically the FIA will react.
UPDATE 12 September: Falvio Briatore hits back with counter claims of blackmail, backed by Renault launching legal action against both Nelson Piquet Jr and Nelson Piquet Sr.
[Source: F1SA | Thanks to Tim for the tip]
4 replies on “Nelson Piquet Jr statement to FIA”
Serious sh!t
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