F1: Piquet Sacked - Blames Briatore For Woes

Formula 1

F1: Piquet Sacked - Blames Briatore For Woes

To no one’s great surprise Nelson Piquet has been dropped by the Renault team with seven races of the season still to run...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted August 03, 2009

(Photo: LAT Photographic)

To no one’s great surprise Nelson Piquet has been dropped by the Renault team with seven races of the season still to run. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

To no one’s great surprise Nelson Piquet has been dropped by the Renault team with seven races of the season still to run.

He is expected to be replaced by third driver Romain Grosjean, who is currently competing in GP2, although there has been no official word from the team.

The Brazilian took the unusual step of using his website to tell the world that he has been sacked by putting a statement on it, even describing Flavio Briatore as his ‘executioner.’
Other drivers who left Briatore’s employ on a sour note include Alex Wurz, Jenson Button, Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen. None however has been as public with their criticism of Briatore as Piquet, who has gone after his erstwhile boss with both barrels.

Piquet’s statement read as follows:

“I have received notice from the Renault F1 team of its intention to stop me from driving for them in the current F1 season. I want to say thanks to the small group who supported me and that I worked together at Renault F1, although it is obviously with great disappointment that I receive such news. But, at the same time, I feel a sense of relief for the end of the worst period of my career, and the possibility that I can now move on and put my career back on the right track and try to recover my reputation of a fast, winning driver. I am a team player and there are dozens of people I have worked with in my career who would vouch for my character and talent, except unfortunately the person that has had the most influence on my career in Formula 1.

“I started racing at the age of eight and have broken record after record. I won every championship I raced in go-karts. I was South American F3 champion, winning 14 races and getting 17 pole positions. In 2003 I went to England, with my own team, to compete in the British F3 championship. I was champion there as well, winning 12 races and getting 13 pole positions. In fact I was the youngest ever champion. I raced GP2 in 2005 and 2006, winning five races and scoring six pole positions. I had a great season in my second year, only missing out on the championship to Lewis Hamilton due to technical mistakes of our team, which I take as my own as well, including running out of fuel during a race. I set the record in GP2 for the first driver to have a perfect weekend, scoring the maximum points available, in Hungary 2006. No one matched that until July 2009 when Nico Hulkenberg did in at Nurburgring.

“The path to F1 was always going to be tricky, and my father and I therefore signed a management contract with Flavio Briatore, who we believed was an excellent option with all the necessary contacts and management skills. Unfortunately, that was when the black period of my career started. I spent one year as a test driver, where I only did a handful of tests, and the next year started as a race driver with Renault. After the opening part of the season, some strange situations began to happen. As a beginner in F1, I could only expect from my team a lot of support and preparation to help me in getting up to the task. Instead, I was relegated as someone who drives the other car with no attention at all. In addition, on numerous occasions, fifteen minutes before qualifying and races, my manager and team boss [Briatore] would threaten me, telling me if I didn’t get a good result, he had another driver ready to put in my place. I have never needed threats before to get results. In 2008 I scored 19 points, finished once on the podium in second place, having the best debut year of a Brazilian driver in F1.

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