Nelson Piquet Jnr and Fernando Alonso in Renault conspiracy claim (Video)
Nelson Piquet Jnr crashed out of the Singapore Grand Prix on lap 14
After last year’s Singapore Grand Prix there were plenty of conspiracy theories that Nelson Piquet Jnr crashed deliberately to help Fernando Alonso win the race.
Those theories are now being given credence by Brazilian F1 journalist Reginaldo Leme, who claims Renault are to be investigated by the FIA over the result of last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Brazilian TV station Globo also carried the report during its Belgian Grand Prix coverage today. The allegation is that Piquet was ordered to crash by the team to help Alonso win the race. Here’s a paragraph from the race report which explains the scenario:
Alonso, who along with Rosberg had started on the less favourable super-soft tyres, made his first pit stop. Although he fell to last it proved extraordinarily fortunate timing when his team mate crashed two laps later, Nelson Piquet Jnr backing his car into the wall in front of the grandstands by the Marina.
Sure enough, as the other drivers made their pit stops Alonso inherited the lead and won the race. This came a day after qualifying down in 15th due to a car failure.
Piquet was, of course, dropped by Renault earlier this year and later launched a vitriolic attack on former boss Flavio Briatore. It doesn’t take a cynic to wonder if he might just be trying to get revenge on his old team.
Here’s a look back at some footage of the crash:
Piquet also spun on the warm-up lap in Singapore. More evidence he was capable of spinning without being told to? Or was he getting in a practice spin ahead of his big moment?
I still think it’s a bizarre conspiracy but if Piquet himself claims it’s true then, notwithstanding his obvious antagonism towards the team, the FIA are surely going to have a look.
Do you think the claims are true? Here’s links to the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix coverage from last year, and other relevant articles, to help you make your own mind up:
Ka and Boom spring to mind.
isn’t the journalist being a little paraniod
isn’t the journalist being a little paranoid
Wow!. Amazing how Piquet is angry with Briatore!
Well, i think Briatore is capable of coming up with something like that, but have doubts if he actually would. perhaps he had complete faith that Piquet’s inabilities would not be questioned.
but crashing so that the other car can take the lead? either Piquet is dumb to accept to go along with it and put himself in danger, and Renault would be dumber to commision it, these cars cost millions, whatever happened to flavio wanting to bring costs down….
part of me wants to believe it, the other doesn’t, imagine the extra air time F1 would get if that were true or at least the FIA buys it and starts sniffing around….
Is there any way that they can “sabotage” a car from the pit wall? I mean, did Jr even know?
For example, can they change an engine map or “something” mid lap…Could it be, they give Jr the command to Push(Cover story)……then change a setting on his car(Unknown to Jr or Alonso), so that when he uses the throttle exactly the same way he has for the previous 11 laps, on this occasion, it causes a spin?
Dont flame me, I am just wondering if it is possible to “trip” a car up from the pit wall? To change something so much, that it causes driver to lose control?
Remember when JV’s left rear wheel fell off in the the last race in 1996…like FW didn,t plan that.
Hmm, well remembered. I cant stop wondering why Ruben`s Anti-Stall keeps kicking in.
The FIA are already sniffing around.
I think Briatore would absoulutely do something like this
Piquet could never lie about something this big. There is definitely something here
Hey, wait a minute. Who said that it is Piquet who is bringing it up?
@AntonioPizzonia Renault+Badoer+Briatore+Grosjean= DreamTeam 2010!about 22 hours ago from web
@AntonioPizzonia
Amanhã ou segunda mundo da F1 terá surpresas. Aguardem pq é coisa quente…10:14 PM Aug 29th from web
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Translation: Tomorow or monday F1 world have some surprises. Hold on because is hot stuff.
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AntonioPizzonia and Nelsinho are training at Monaco together… so I believe there is something..
http://twitter.com/AntonioPizzonia
will the anti-christ reveal himself in a few hours from now?
what can they do though?
that safety car changed the whole championship, we all remember massa disaster in the pits
Punish Renault.
freakin take away the team and esp the manager from entering the fields of F1 forever!! would be really good for the sport!! let him manage a 2nd rate football team
Flavio is “good” to F1 business…
(understand that I agree with you.. but F1 is a money machine and this things help it)
aah! don’t take globo tv & Galvao Bueno too seriously!! He’s an absolute patriot & will go to any extent to defend his brazilian drivers. We all know how close piquet sr & galvao are
i think both the piquet’s must shut up. The son is maligning his father’s image by doing this.
i extend your “shut up” idea to galvao!
when could renault have maid this order, that it never appeared on the radio?
Last year’s radio transmissions were not all public, if they wanted they could communicate without being heard. (i hope i remember correctly). in any case i would suspect national pride and friendship has come in to cause a stir, who knows maybe the Piquet’s want to pressure Briatore into releasing Nelsinho from the management contract
Definitely! There would have been secondary radio channels for communication. Do you think what the FIA transmits on TV is the real communication? The FIA wants us to believe the on goings are transparent. Teams have always had alternate methods of secure cockpit to pit communication.
It might have been decided before the race, hence the spin on the warm up lap to practice … allegedly
I agree that Piquet Snr is very self serving. You don’t win 3 world championsips without being driven and selfish. However at the time of the incident I like many did wonder if the whole thing had been orchestrated by Renault. I hope that it is not true because F1 really doesn’t need any more scandal. The timing of the revelation does seem a little like the Piquets getting some revenge over Flavio and Renault. Personally I’m not a fan of any of the parties concerned.
Was Piquet stupid enough ‘then’ to drive into a wall just ‘coz his team boss said so? or is he stupid ‘now’ to have come up with a bizzare story just as a revenge-seeking ploy?
and who’s to say that Alonso would have won? The stewards might not have asked the Safety Car, some other driver might have stayed out and gained an advantage….
Next he’ll say Briatore also bribed Ferrari pit crew to leave the hose in Massa’s car!
all it reminds me of is: sour grapes!
All i remember at the time is quite a number of bloggers feeling that the crash was quite bizarre. A few actually dared suggest that it was staged.The fact that FIA are sniffing says something. Ok lets be clear here – if the story is true, who is most likely to expose it if not a Brazilian journalist?
Safety car was 99% sure.. It’s a track and 2 walls along side…
What a mess !??
I say like this song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX7V6FAoTLc
perhaps I send it to him on twitter.
It’s just a coincidence. It is pointless to go on about it near to this years Singapore GP. Piquet wouldn’t risk his health by crashing the car just for Alonso.
I sincerely hope it is not true, both as a Renault fan and as an F1 fan. If it is then you can expect a serious beating from the FIA under Article 151(c).
The FIA often seem to take into consideration commercial factors when punishing teams. Remember, in 2007, they fined Mclaren $100 million over ’spygate’, but they let Renault off for a very similar offence. Apparently this was because a large fine might have encouraged Renault to pull the plug on the team.
So even if the story is true, perhaps the FIA will let Renault off lightly to try and encourage them to stay in F1. (But I hope, if guilty, they are punished fairly- such commercially influenced, unsporting decisions are exactly why some people don’t consider F1 to be a true sport)
I don’t think having a few technical documents from a competitor, brought by an employee moving from their team to yours, is “a very similar offence” to having an on-demand flow of stolen information from another team, courtesy of a mole. But I digress….
One could also argue that “commercial factors” caused the WMSC to change their original punishment of McLaren – exclusion from 2007 and 2008 – to the comparatively lighter penalty of the fine and points loss. And of course there is the matter of Renault’s recent appeal against their Valencia ban …. so there is certainly evidence that some judgements may be commercial rather than strictly sporting, but I think regardless of the punishment, if Renault are found guilty the damage caused to the team and the sport will be massive.
a few?, surely you mean, the entire technical specs of an F1 car.
The shop where Coughlin tried to get photocopies is about 500 metres away from my friends house.
Strange that.
I was referring to Renault in that case. The “on-demand flow of stolen information….” etc. was McLaren.
But then Renault actually put the part that they stole the plans for on the car.
I don’t see the point in this conspiracy at all, would they be saying this if Piquet was still Fernando Alonsos team mate? i don’t think so, its generally a load of rubbish and strictly a conspiracy, what can they do though? The safety car changed everything, Alonso won the Race, and of course the Ferrari Pit Blunder which cost Massa the championship.
well, Massa only had a chance because Hamilton was penalised in Spa.
That is a blatant distortion. In Spa, Hamilton lost 6 points (in my opinion, deservedly) in his fight with Massa. In Singapore, Massa lost 11 points to Hamilton (10 himself plus 1 for LH due to his demise). If you sum to it the engine blow up in Hungary and the mess Ferrari did in his 1st pit stop in Canada, Hamilton would not have had a snif of chance to win last year’s championship – which he did by the skin of his teeth.
Massa not getting points in Singapore was a blunder by Ferrari. Can’t blame anyone else there.
Lewis got penalised in Spa because the FIA decided to make up a new rule about waiting aleast 1 corner before overtaking.
Plus the Bourdais-Massa incident in Fuji where Massa gained a position and Bourdais was penalised.
Massa crashed/spun out of the first 2 races. If he hadn’t done that he might have won the WDC too.
Strange that people here fail to mention the fact that kimi almost parked his car to let ‘CHAMP’ massa through into second place at china
You can’t blame Massa for the Singapore blunder either. My point here is that he lost the Championship due to problems that he was not to blame. Regarding China, well, the same could be said of Kovi letting Hamilton through in Germany… Hamilton only won the championship (by 1 point in the last curve) because his team did not blunder like Ferrari did.
Hamiliton won by one point because that’s all that was required. He would have had to apply different tactics if it were necessary.
@ Antifia
just to refresh your confused memory, hamilton went on to WIN that race, in the process he overtook four cars(kovi,nick,massa & our very own piquet
) hamilton & mclaren achieved that on sheer speed. In CHAMP Massa’s case he was trailing kimi by 10 sec with 15 odd laps to go, kimi was forced to drop his pace just for champ massa to catch him & pass him. you see the only person massa overtook on that day was his very own team mate, if you can call it overtaking 
At least be glad that ferrari didn’t do something they did to irvine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw01rREy_rQ
& most importantly champ massa never deserved to win at spa in the first place.
I think you’re all missing the real culprit who lost the championship for massa and won it for Hamilton. TIMO GLOCK!!!
Leme is very close to Piquet. So I’m pretty sure the Piquets are his sources.
Also, Joe Saward just confirmed a investigatio is indeed going on.
I felt Galvao Bueno very upset, asking Reginaldo Leme about the source all the time.
It wouldn’t be the first time a driver has exposed dodgy goings-on at his former team. Remember Norberto Fontana?
Be that as it may, does Briatore strike to anyone like a man that would refrain from practices as such? Or would Alonso for that matter???
NO and NO!
FOM have removed that video. Obviously ashamed of themselves.
If this story was about anyone other than Briatore, I wouldn’t believe it……………
Seconded.
And it did seem far too convenient at the time.
Thirded.
I don’t think it’s true but when Briatore’s involved you can never be sure.
I think that this things might be true. I thought of it the moment I saw Piquet crash. People have done much worse things for much worse reasons.
Let’s hope this is’nt so, it would be so damaging to F1, if true. My, oh my, never a dull moment in F1!
So that tells us that the 35 pts racked by Alonso in the closing stages of the 2008 season was also a conspiracy?! I don’t think so. The Singapore GP was just a very wild coincidence.
I always thought that it was deliberate. His voice on the radio was so unemotional, and both Flav and Fernando have form in terms of being willing to break rules to gain the advantage. If the team was in danger of having its budget pulled, as was rumoured last year, they may have felt it justified “tweaking the circumstances” a bit.
It’s not true. Renault would simply not allow such a potentially lethal and plain idiotic plan to happen. Not just Renault – any sane individual. Not only that, but given that Renault and Fernando Alonso were well out of the drivers and manufacturers championship, they had absolutely nothing critical to gain by co-ordinating such a bizarre, homicidal plan at that particular moment, on that particular circuit. This is utter bonkers. Pantaloon wearing bonkersness.
+1. Absurd.
Why would Piquet endanger himself, other drivers, marsels and members of the public?
He might not have set the F1 world on fire, but he is a professional driver and good human being.
FIA is wasting money and futher damaging the F1 brand.
Only one problem with this idea. All team radio transmissions are monitored and recorded. No way that Renault could radio Nelson Piqued (sic) and advise him to trash the car.
Anyway, you have made racing your life. You are driving in the ultimate global series, one of the most powerful racing machines ever made. Race you really going to risk you life, career or reputation by trashing your drive?
Nah! No way. More chance that Michael Jackson has just moved into a villa next to Elvis in the Seychelles.
I agree, complete rubbish!!
The FIA are investigating and presumably the first step would be to demand copies of the radio transmissions – as they did with McLaren at Melbourne this year, for example.
But you wouldn’t necessarily have to use a radio instruction of “Piquet, please crash now so Alonso can win”. If it was pre-planned, any phrase could have been used as a trigger.
At the time, there’s no way I would have believed the story. And even now I’m sceptical about Piquet’s motives. But we’ll see what the investigation turns up. After their recent troubles and given the economic situation it’s the last thing Renault need.
Indeed, and the true meaning of any “trigger” phrase (and this entire affair) would presumably be Piquet’s word against Renault’s. Unless Piquet can find someone within Renault to back up his account it won’t stand up.
It would also be an incredibly risky thing for Renault to agree with a driver who was at that point widely believed to be on the verge of the sack – why give an already underperforming employee potential leverage for blackmail?
I remember reading a piece in Autosport years ago, an interview with Stefan Johansson where he’d been filming some promotional material for McLaren. At one point, the script required him to spin the car and he found it near impossible to do intentionally.
What could have that ‘trigger’ phrase possibly be ?
maybe:
“Só um homem que nunca me entendeu, e ele não me entendeu.”
just a thought
Well it doesn’t have to be Renault, I mean the companies are always expecting results from their teams and the teams have their team manager or however it’s called. So maybe Flavour Flav was in pressure to deliver some results and he figured out he could do this and to maximize his options of getting a podium at least.
I’m not a big fan of conspiracy theories, actually I don’t buy’em at all but I live in Argentina and with the kind of politicians we have here I’m no longer shocked when horrible claims are made. I guess we will just have to wait for the investigation (and to see how it was carried out too) and see.
The only thing that tells me that this could be very well true is the fact that they had not had a good result before that and the fact that Alonso had a very unusual fuel strategy to be starting from P15.
How long do the teams have to keep audio tapes. They could well be scrapped by now, as it was last season.
The FIA can probably use this as an excuse to scrap Singapore from last years results and say that Massa is the new 2008 WDC champion.
I wish! More fuel for the FIA-is-against-McLaren fire. It’s been too quiet, we need MORE rumors, conspiracies, what-if’s etc
And for a moment I felt sorry for Piquet jr after he was out of his Renault seat, but now… whether its true or not revenge at all costs is not the way. It would be better for him, more honourable showing to Briatore what hes worth on race track, just like Kubica did. Now Im sure we wont see Piq jr in an F1 car, I cant see any team taking him.
looks like my forum thread is useless now…
So all Piquet crashes were only because he tried to let Alonso win? In that case I’m sure he was right all along about him being a top driver.
Of course Briatore is Dr. Evil in disguise, but surely radio traffic and such is known by the FIA and would’ve come out long, long time ago.
Nice conspiracy, plenty of Alonso-haters will be up in arms again.
Why would any radio exist? If (and it’s a big if) something happened it was planned and Nelson knew in which lap he had to crash. If there’s any radiocom it’s something that would look innocent outside of the context.
Despite being a brazilian, I agree that Leme (who is better at sounding more credible than he is) is making too much sound and fury over this, and even if it true, I don’t think it will “rock the foundations” of the sport as he mentioned… just add another sad chapter to formula one racing (Austria in 2002 springs to mind). Furthermore, it wasn’t Renault’s fault that Ferrari screwed up Massa’s pit stop. As much as it pains me to say it, we must on from 2008 and accept that Hamilton won it. Some win, some you lose.
Furthermore, depsite being a fervent supporter of my country’s driver, I think Piquet Jr. should just shut up already! Granted, Alonso isn’t the best teammate to have and Briatore is not the world’s greatest boss, but he could have done more, a lot more in the car. Honestly, stop finding excuses as to why you were a bad driver and accept that you were just not good enough. Maybe if you accept that (and that you are NOT your father), things may improve… slightly (Massa never whined, just got into the car and drove…).
Allowing ourselves for one second to believe that it were true, what an irony it would be if one Brazilian’s involvement in a scheme like this provoked circumstances which led to another Brazilian losing points and, ultimately, the world championship.
…and now back to reality.
But remember the pit stop hose debacle – that wasn’t Renault’s fault. After looking at these comments, I do wonder if it is another huge conspiracy to strip our Lewis of the title. Surely not! A conspiracy within a conspiracy. This is getting quite surreal.
If this is a conspiracy against Hamilton it wouldn’t work… If Alonso and Piquet were stripped of all of it’s points from last year (and other drivers inherit the positions), Hamilton would still win the championship, and with a two point difference to Massa instead of 1 (104 to 102).
I was watching the brazilian coverage of the Belgian Grand Prix erlier today (as I live in Brazil). After Reginaldo Leme’s revelation, there was clearly an unconfortable situation installed in the coverage. Luciano Burti replied “As long as I know Nelsinho, I’m sure he would never crash purposely on a race”.
Later, Galvão Bueno brought back the subject, saying Piquet sr. told him earlier this year: “Why do you think I am coming for every single GP in 2009? Do you think I like this? I am here ’cause something big is gonna happen”.
I can’t say I don’t think Briatore is not capable of such thing. My only fear is the future of the Renault team in F1 after this Singaporegate.
I agree with you. Very strange the way Reginaldo told the story as well as Galvão´s reaction. Never saw such a situation.
Well, we all know Nelson is the ‘King of Spin(ing)’.
To Piquet: to spin a vehicle on track with style.
Haha…I love this because as soon as the race was over and it showed the highlights I said as a joke to my dad I bet he did that to gift Alonso the win, to get back in briatories good books.
If any sort of punishment was given to renault it is likely to be diqualification from the race…etc. Not really changing that much, giving Rosberg a win and Hamilton an extra 2 points onto his title, meaning he won it by a margin of 3 points, as Massa finished 13th.
Would love to hear more about how Briatorie treated Piquet though, feel sorry for the poor lad…
I wonder whether the FIA will consider investigating the Brazilian GP, given that similar conspiracy theories were flying around about Glock “yielding” to Hamilton. To me both claims seemed equally baseless, but it does make you wonder….
The Glock conspiracy is more baseless than the Piquet conspiracy (sounds like a Robert Ludlum novel). Glock was on dry tyres in the wet. No true F1 fan or expert would ever consider that to be a conspiracy, whereas quite a few seem to be giving credence to this one.
I don’t think it’s really possible for something to be “more baseless” than anything else….
That aside, the Piquet conspiracy was widely dismissed until this “new evidence,” whatever it may be, came to light. The same could well be true of Glock, for all we know.
Glocks final lap time in Brazil was identical to Trulli who was the only other driver on the wrong tyres. There was no conspiracy there. In fact Glock made a position by not changing tyres, so the decision was a success for him.
In Singapore, I did immediately think “that was convenient” when it became obvious Alonso would benefit hugely from his team mate’s crash.
I hope the FIA find that it was just coincidence. I can’t be bothered with months of controversy, which would surely end in Renault leaving the sport if they’re found guilty.
Andy this is not the WMSC. This is a public forum of F1 fanatics. Winning an argument here won’t change the evidence – if it is a fact that Nelson crashed on purpose, then regardless of where the information comes from, FIA are bound to take action. If it is not, then why worry?
Frankly, FIA was ready to risk McLaren leaving the sport in 2007. I don’t see why saving Renault – a team with less following – should be a priority above McLaren. Maybe this could be Mosley’s last kick at the troublesome FOTA members – first, BMW, then Renault and probably Toyota later on in the year. Now how is that for conspiracy theories
The FIA will undoubtedly look at it. They can’t help themselves.
Since the FIA loves conspiracies they will punish teams whether they had a real part in something or not.
This will undoubtedly result in Renault getting a huge fine and maybe a suspension for a year. This is more than spying after all. It is doing something to manipulate the outcome of a race and affect the championship.
The lawyers will be busy!!
If he managed to pull that crash on purpose he deserves an Oscar nomination. I’m a sceptic untill I see an evidence.
Also, I don’t mean to generalize but recently a brazilian journalist made headlines with his creative way of doing investigative journalism.
yes …. for special effects
It´s unbeliveble…What does the Piquet´s want ? Seriosly ?
It´s sad to be a Piquetjr fan,why cant he drop
everything in the past and start all over.
What did hurt Nelshino so incredible enourmous much ?
To be honest,I can see a pattern…it´s about his own
ego.When he get´s older and more wise he will understand.
…once bitten, twice shy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Piquet Jr. was behind all of this. He got fired, and now he wants to be pitied on. What do you do then? Create a conspiracy theory against your old team, of course!
Sure, sure. But maybe it’s just the fact he’s that bad, as shown in the videos. Most agree that he only got that position at Renault because he has a famous dad. Whoop de do.
But since it is a Brazilian network that reported all of this, then it might just be Piquet Jr. desperately trying to create controversy. Good work, Nelson. Now, go away and have a fun time being unemployed.
Pique senior was a very bitter man, look at the insults he said to Nigel Mansell.
Piquet Jnr was quoted as calling his side of the garage mechanics “a group of useless typical english sheep-shaggers”, on his twitter page after the Spanish Grand Prix.
We all know what he did to salazar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SXbGDcMeo8&feature=PlayList&p=8164E61A74CF25F8&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=11
never seen a f1 driver getting physical.
maybe piquet sr is bitter of the fact that mansell’s son might be better than his pet son
A better video Keith:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwozMaDGrYk
The first thing that Flavio did was look towards the end of the pit lane!! obviously he was looking at the safety car to be deployed
Could Flavio possibly be a covert member of the infamous “Propaganda Massonica”?
justa thought
Actually, if you look at the monitor just in front of him, the view is not of Piquet’s accident. However, if he had knowledge that an accident was about to happen, he is giving himself away a little.
My wife (who works for the CIA and MI6) is an expert in Facial recognition, and, after watching this video with much attention, she asserts (without any doubt), Flavio already knew what was going to happend before it happened.
Sorry guys, but I have to leave now, she has to take her medicines right now…
somebody will shut all of his door’s for a future drive
Big brother at work again
My first though on the matter was, ‘What utter, utter, utter, UTTER ********’! However, if the FIA are prepared to seriously investigate it, at least there’s some smoke. And where there’s smoke…
Anyhow, I would be very surprised if there actually is a conspiracy, and even then, if the FIA can prove it.
Sorry about the b-word. Apparently it makes for my post to be ‘awaiting moderation’.
Piquet may be angry with Renault and want revenge, but he wouldn’t make such an accusation without some evidence to back it up, surely. One cannot just instantly dismiss it because it originates from Piquet. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were true. Ooooh, I love a good conspiracy theory – there’s always a fresh one on the go in F1.
If McLaren are acused of doing all sorts of things, are the other teams all perfect, or only better in hedding their dirt.
This time is Renault, took them almost an year…
And when it will come time for Ferrari to pay their dues for playing dirt since the Schuma times…?
Ferrari’s will be the absolute dirtiest – i was hoping Rubinho would come out with something this year after Brawn’s delay on signing him up last year, but now we know why he got a drive and nothing will be coming out of that soon – unless of course if he cracks the whip and threatens to tell all if Brawn doesn’t give him equal treatment in the Champinoship fight.
Reginaldo Lemes is absolutely right!!!
FIA is currently using MI6 services. I have a good friend there, and I know they have a pair of “double-zeros” working on this project (code name: French Caipirinha).
Nelsinho was hypnoticed by Flavio Briatore (Alias Gustav Graves). For this reason, Nelsinho has declared recently he doesn’t know anything about this affair.
Flavio (and Renault) are creating the “ultimate F1 weapon”: every Fernando Alonso contender will be crashed against a wall.
They are having some trouble to make it work properly (due to McLaren’s ECU) but it seems it will work without any problem for next season, despite Alonso will be collaborating with another rival organization.
It seems he (Alonso) has sold the system to Ferrari, lead by his ultra-villain, Luca le Chiffre.
Oh my God! I’ve talked too much… I hear some voices in the corridor… oh no!
Please no…
Lol.
ha ha ha hah
I’m very sorry if I missed the bulk of information on this issue but it looks like there hasn;t been much more than what is in this post.
First off, it states the FIA has launched an investigation on the situation, not that they have launched it because of this ‘investigative journalism’, only that this journalism uncovered the investigation itself.
Secondly, if this was spreaded as a rumour I doubt it was Piquet (jr) himself, at least not deliberately. The last time we’ve heard from him he was still hopeful for a drive. If true something like this would rule out any chance of him ever stepping into an F1 car again and if he started the rumour, it wouldn’t even matter if it’s true.
I haven’t decided if it’s got any credibility, but when watching the race it certainly crossed my mind as well. Alonso finally in a competitive car again, the team messed up quali, they put Alonso on a totally crazy strategy and just after he pits, Piquet crashes. It’s got all the right ingredients for a good ol’ conspiracy.
You know what they say… there’s no smoke without fire… and this one smells real shmokey to me
oh. my. god. what a load of absolute rubbish.
Autosport
a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8229787.stm”>BBC
Proper link:
BBC
How would you penalise Renault anyway?
The FIA would decide the penalty for Renault by looking at what fines they gave to other teams for equivalent offences, then deducting $100m.
I don’t know if it is true or not, but is a stranger case. Piquet was ironic by radio at moment.
However, if we think about a conspiracy claim, what he would gain? Why to reveal it now?
It is very misteryous.
For me is really hard to believe in a history like that, but Reginaldo Leme is a very respected journalist who covered F1 for over 30 years. The man is a close friend of Piquet Senior and the people here in Brazil believes that The Father is the main source backing Reginaldo´s history.
He said also that the mood in the Renault garage has been terrible and that the investigation is independent.
Incidentally, Mike Doodson written some weeks ago this very odd paragraph:
Wow, that’s interesting. The credence level has just been heightened.
I read that Doodson piece at the time and wondered what he was referring to. Maybe now we know….
While i agree that Reginaldo Leme has been around forever [and I'm sure he should then have many connections among brazilian drivers], I certainly wouldn’t call him an F1 expert, and I’m not sure his so respected among more specialized media. I’ll wait for the Celso Itiberê column on the subject [he's a trustable source, I can't tell you]. So far, I take it as sensationalism.
And I can’t tell you Nelsinho is really, really angry at Renault and everybody at the team. On his twitter page, shortly after Grosjean crashed out of the race, there was a tweet on Portuguese mocking him and his performance. They were teammates, for God’s sake!!! It wasn’t his fault that PIQ was sacked!!!
While i agree that Reginaldo Leme has been around forever [and I'm sure he should then have many connections among brazilian drivers], I certainly wouldn’t call him an F1 expert, and I’m not sure his so respected among more specialized media. I’ll wait for the Celso Itiberê column on the subject [he's a trustable source, I can tell you]. So far, I take it as sensationalism.
And I can’t tell you Nelsinho is really, really angry at Renault and everybody at the team. On his twitter page, shortly after Grosjean crashed out of the race, there was a tweet on Portuguese mocking him and his performance. They were teammates, for God’s sake!!! It wasn’t his fault that PIQ was sacked!!!
Which Piquet later deleted! Too late now though, we’ve seen it.
It was such an obvious plan I`am amazed it wasn`t picked up at the time. Oh hum just another sleezy story involving F1, you never know,one day they might get back to racing.
It’s hard to believe but then it’s hard to believe Alonso would blackmail his boss, that McLaren would lie to the stewards in Melbourne etc.
I’ve been surprised before and as unlikely as it sounds, well as they say, once bitten…
I hope it’s not true, for the sports sake. We’ve had enough political hoo haa this season and this is the last thing F1 needs.
That’s exactly how I see it. Can’t believe it on face value. Where’s the smoking gun?
where Benetton (Renault) with Flavio in charge not caught cheating back in the Schumacher winning years???
and was Alonso only too happy to use info stolen from Ferrari when he was at Mclaren and would young nelson have not done anything to get another season in F1.
it would not take a great leap of faith for this to be true.
This is F1 and nothing would surprise me!!!
This sounds again like the 9/11 conspiracy theories. Really stupid
It was McLaren, not Alonso, who used info stolen from Ferrari. Alonso’s emails were published which shows, among many other things we do and don’t know how he was treated.
Benetton were found to have removed a filter from their refuelling system, but not punished.
Benetton were also discovered to have a secret program hidden in their car’s software – the so-called ‘option 13′. This was discovered to be a launch control system, which had been banned for 1994. Again, there was no punishment.
Schumacher’s two-race suspension was for overtaking on the formation lap at Silverstone and subsequently ignoring an instruction from race control. He was also disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix, which he had won, for excessive plank wear (which could have been by accident, by negligence or by intention, but in all likelihood probably not the latter because it’s hard to get away with).