Piquet is accused of blackmail
POLICE have been called in by the Renault team who have begun criminal proceedings for blackmail against their former driver Nelson Piquet and his world champion father.
Even by F1’s recent standards, the extraordinary story of Piquet’s allegations that he was ordered by Renault to crash in a grand prix reached a bizarre new level yesterday in the Monza paddock.
The day began with Renault ending their silence on the claim which has seen them ordered to appear before the World Motor Sport Council in Paris a week on Monday.
It ended with Piquet jnr warning he would not be bullied into submission and sticking to his story that he was told to crash during last year’s Singapore Grand Prix to allow team-mate Fernando Alonso to win. In between, Flavio Briatore, the team principal, ripped into Piquet and said that he had only hired him this season because there was no one else available and he had slashed the Brazilian’s salary by $500,000 to $1million a year (£600,000).
“Nelsinho is a very spoiled guy. Every time he is racing it is because he owns the team as well,” said Briatore. “He is very fragile. We tried everything. What you want is only performance.
“I put the clause in the contract that if he is not performing he would be out in Germany.”
Piquet, who was fired after that race and replaced by Romain Grosjean, signed off with a furious farewell claiming that Briatore – who had been his boss and manager – had betrayed him and turned out to be his “executioner”.
Briatore also alleged he only took on Piquet because three-times world champion Nelson Piquet, whose career ended at Benetton when Briatore was in charge, asked him to do so.
Then he threw in the suggestion that Piquet jnr had another reason to make allegations as the young driver was furious he had been forced to move from Oxford to the same block of flats as Briatore in London so that the team boss could keep a closer eye on his personal life.
Briatore says he has no idea how long proceedings will take but in a statement, the company said: “The ING Renault F1 Team had not commented publicly during the FIA’s initial investigation into this matter.
“However, today the ING Renault F1 Team and its managing director Flavio Briatore personally wish to state that they have commenced criminal proceedings against Nelson Piquet jnr and Nelson Piquet snr in France concerning the making of false allegations and a related attempt to blackmail the team into allowing Mr Piquet jnr to drive for the remainder of the 2009 season. The matter will also be referred to the police in the UK.”
Piquet jnr was quick to respond. “I confirm that I have co-operated fully and honestly with the sport’s governing body.
“Because I am telling the truth I have nothing to fear, whether from the ING Renault Team or Mr Briatore, and whilst I am well aware of the power and influence of those being investigated, and the vast resources at their disposal, I will not be bullied again into making a decision I regret.
“I have every confidence in the FIA investigation and the World Motor Sport Council.”
In leaked documents, Piquet jnr has said that Renault’s director of engineering Pat Symonds not only told the driver on which lap to crash but even marked the spot on a map.
Piquet says the idea was that Alonso would stop early for fuel on lap 12 before anyone else and then he would crash two laps later, as happened.
That threw the other teams’ tactics into disarray and Alonso won while Piquet was given a deal for a second season.
Briatore said: “I don’t feel that I have any responsibility [for this] and we don’t feel we have done absolutely anything.
