Nelson Piquet Senior has been talking to Gazzetta dello Sport regarding the recent crash scandal involving his son Nelson Piquet Junior, Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds and also about Piquet Jr’s possible drive at Toro Rosso.
“It was (Flavio) Briatore who wanted an extension (for 2009). I wanted Nelsinho to leave Renault and had found him a seat at Toro Rosso with Gerhard Berger. But Nelsinsho wanted to stay with Renault because there was the chance that Alonso would go to Ferrari.”
This may be all pie in the sky for all we know, but it makes sense. Yet again we saw a driver like Piquet Jr sidelined for the main event, this being Fernando Alonso. Throughout 2009 we’ve heard rumours of discontent from Piquet and Piquet Jr alike, Briatore threatening Piquet Jr with the sack, even before races. Not a nice working environment by all means.
Piquet goes on to describe his feelings on Briatore:
“He deserved it. Admittedly it wasn’t his idea, but to convince a young driver to do something like that is huge. He should stay far away from racing.”
Piquet also implicates Alonso in the crashgate scandal of last year, saying he was fully complicite with the plan:
“Do you think Alonso would conceive a race where he starts 15th and makes a pit stop almost straight away? It was a perfect plan.”
Piquet senior sounds like he’s been eating a few sour grapes recently – with Piquet Jr’s chances at landing another drive in F1 very very slim, his involvement too is slipping away.
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