Statement by Nelson Piquet Jnr on his Singapore crash leaked online
Nelson Piquet Jnr claims Flavio Briatore ordered him to crash at Singapore
Nelson Piquet Jnr’s statement to the FIA about his controversial crash during the Singapore Grand Prix last year have appeared online.
F1SA has published the documents which are reproduced in full below.
Piquet’s statement includes the following remarks:
At the time of this conversation I was in a very fragile and emotional state of mind. This state of mind was brought about by very intense stress due to the fact that Mr Briatore had refused to inform me of whether or not my driver’s contract would be renewed for the next racing year (2009) as is customarily the case in the middle of the year (around July or August). [...]
After the meeting with Mr Symonds and Mr Briatore, Mr Symonds took me aside to a quiet corner and, using a map, pointed me to the exact corner of the track where I should crash. This corner was selected because the specific location of the track did not have any cranes that would allow a damaged car to be swiftly lifted off the track, nor did it have any side entrances to the track, which would allow a Safety Marshall to quickly move the damaged car away from the track. Therefore, it was felt that a crash in this specific position would be nearly certain to cause an obstruction on the track which would thus necessitate the deployment of a safety car in order for the track to be cleared and ensure the safe continuation of the race.
Mr Symonds also told me which exact lap to cause the incident upon, so that a strategy could be devised for my team mate Mr Fernando Alonso. [...]
During these discussions, no mention was made of any concerns with respect to the security implications of this strategy, either for myself, the public or other drivers. The only comment made in this context was one by Mr Pat Symonds who warned me to ‘be acreful, which I took to mean that I should not injure myself.
I intentionally caused the crash by letting go of control of the car just before the relevant corner. In order to make sure I would cause the incident during the correct lap, I asked my team several times via the radio to confirm the lap number, which I would not normally do.
After the FIA officially announced its investigation Renault declared it would not comment on the matter before the hearing on Monday 21st September. Will Renault stick by that and allow Piquet’s damaging claims to go unanswered?
Source: FISA via Tazio.com.br and F1 Around
Renault Singapore crash controversy
- Did Piquet crash on purpose? (Poll)
- Renault face Singapore crash hearing
- Nelson Piquet Jnr and Fernando Alonso in renault Singapore claim
- Fernando Alonso’s bad luck turns good for win (2008 Singapore Grand Prix)
- 2008 Singapore Grand Prix analysis
- Piquet’s scathing attack on Briatore
- Nelson Piquet Jnr dropped by Renault
- Alonso and the Piquet-Renault fall-out
craig said on 10th September 2009, 20:05
I wish for the old days like when Schumacher would crash into something and he could take the credit himself.
Martin said on 10th September 2009, 23:08
Its called manning up.
Something missing from most people in f1 today.
Harv's said on 11th September 2009, 1:02
but schumi would crash into people so that he won the championship! and then when he was out of the race say “ooop’s”
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 10th September 2009, 20:13
It’s been brought to my attention that the documents first surfaced here on F1SA:
http://www.f1sa.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17075&Itemid=219
djdaveyp said on 10th September 2009, 20:14
The more i read into this, the more i believe it! You only have to think about 1994 to get really suspicious. This would be the first time uncle flav has cheated, like fitting traction control when banned and removing filters from fuel hoses.
I’m deeply suspicious, and I hope the door of F1 smacks the *** really hard on his bottom as he exits the sport sliding on it!
djdaveyp said on 10th September 2009, 20:18
Whoops thats £1 in the swear box. I’m getting bitter in my young age!
HounslowBusGarage said on 10th September 2009, 20:33
Yeah! If he’s guilty, sentence Flav to an afternoon of fun with Max!
But seriously, if it is true, and if Flav is implicated we can kiss goodbye to Renault as well as Toyo and BMW.
To paraphrase Wilde: to lose one manufactuer in a season is unfortunate. To lose two or three looks like carelesness.
Maybe it’s all a desperate plot by Piquet Senior to get rid of as many manufacturer teams as possible, which will drive the apparent value of a new team like Campos downwards, so that Piquet Senior can buy the team cheaper for Boy Wonder to play with!
mp4-19b said on 10th September 2009, 20:23
If i were Nelson Jr i would have kept my big fat mouth shut for the sake of the sport. Maybe would have blackmailed Flavio for a few billion dollars, gone and settled on the foot hills of the Andes
John H said on 10th September 2009, 20:56
No I totally disagree.
The more truth that comes out the better.
The better this sport will be in the long term.
mp4-19b said on 10th September 2009, 21:00
Do you seriously think this sport can take anymore scandals of this magnitude?
Bigbadderboom said on 10th September 2009, 21:16
It doesn’t matter, if these issues are covered up and unearthed at a later date the damage could be wider ranging, it’ actually quite a librating thing that in this modern age of communication we can all debate the pro’s and con’s of such a circumstance. The only way to police the sport is publicly, it is by far the biggest preventative measur of future indiscretions by others, publi humiliation is a nasty thing…..ask Dave Ryan.
Karlos said on 10th September 2009, 22:59
Yes.
Martin said on 10th September 2009, 23:11
spygate really wasnt that big a deal. industrial spying happens all the time and very seldom is caught. Austrailia again was no big deal and the fia fota war isnt even on the radar, but cheating in a race and fixing the results affects the gambling world and now you are playing with a grouop of folks that are way to serious.
Joaqo (Max should resign now!!!) said on 11th September 2009, 5:55
Who cares? This is like cleansing for the sport, the awful thing is not that it came to the light it’s that it happened in the first place.
Bartholomew said on 10th September 2009, 21:01
Nelson Jr. should have kept quiet. Hope he is good at cutting sugar cane.
The revenge of Uncle Flav will be terrible.
Steph90 said on 10th September 2009, 20:28
Sorry if this has already been included …
Also read somewhere Symonds was reluctant to give any details in an interview (surprised also at him as I too thought he was a good guy).
I’ve just watched the Singapore GP on the review DVD and it’s very odd thinking a driver could and would do that just for the chance of a drive next season and at the end watching Briatore and Piquet on the pitwall it’s uncomfortable with all this news breaking.
F1 is really being let down by scandals the past few years, that said I wonder just what else over the decades could have been covered up? Though we’ll never know.
Nitpicker said on 10th September 2009, 20:49
A slap on the back from Flav? A lot more than his usual coldness towards Piquet. The picture that was worth a thousand words was seeing Flav leave the pit lane after Alonso’s retirement in Hungary. Clearly he wasn’t bothered about watching the remainder of Nelson’s race.
Igor said on 10th September 2009, 20:37
All I can say: Oiii!!!
That’s utter crap and there will be no winners, only dead bodies. Whatever the outcome is, Nelsinho’s career is finished, he may be a cab driver or inmate, depending on outcome… :-(
If that’s proved true, Flav and Symonds are dead bodies (not physically of course :-), (and there could be criminal prosecution – risking life of driver, spectators, and so on..)
Renault utterly embarrassed will be thrown out of the championship, and most certainly walk away from F1 for a long time. Surely, they will be distracted from racing and end of their season will be really bad.
F1 in general will get really bad publicity again, and every past controversy will be dragged out of closet and paraded around.
Alonso may get away, saying either he knew nothing or he did what he was told as a soldier.
If Nelsinho made this all up, there will be no money on Earth to pay compensation to all parties involved. I guess, he made this statement still in “fragile state of mind”, so he needs to be treated..
I really feel sorry for all people involved in F1, this is not a way to end one of the most exciting seasons in history, at least last 20 years.
Shucks!! Just pity.
mp4-19b said on 10th September 2009, 20:40
Hi Igor :) Do you by any chance have any Piquet jr “collections” ?
Igor said on 10th September 2009, 21:13
Nope! Never liked him anyway..
John H said on 10th September 2009, 20:57
lol!
Crazy Horse said on 10th September 2009, 20:38
Regardless of the truth about crash, one point lost here is that the damage to F1 is already done. Coming after Stepneygate and lying about radio transmissions, this is a very black eye.
Staging a crash is the most dangerous form a cheating imaginable. it will be hard, and take time, for F1 to recover from this accusation, no matter the truth.
I have also watched for a long time the disparaging of NP’s driving. There is no excuse for going along with the plan, but we now see the stressful beyond belief working conditions for a very young player in the world’s most ego-filled sport. I’ve decided to cut him some slack.
What’s more telling to me than the “evidence” is that old F1 hands “knew” it right away, just because.
S Hughes said on 10th September 2009, 23:58
I agree. It sounds like Flavio is a monster to work for if you’re not Alonso (see Heikki …).
Alex T said on 11th September 2009, 5:05
Ditto for Heikki@McLaren. For first year after screwing his qualifying by heavily fuelling him . Team shamelessly released in all post race briefs “Fuel Corrected Heikki was faster than Lewis”. Macca haven’t exactly treated Heikki fairly.
World is Unfair… no taking sides here!!!
Oliver said on 11th September 2009, 11:49
Some drivers get the best out of the car when its heavier, and others while its lighter.
F1Yankee said on 10th September 2009, 20:41
assuming renault have “brought the sport into disrepute” and land a $100M fine, i could see renault motors handing flav the bill. he could pay out of pocket.
Mp4-12D said on 10th September 2009, 21:02
Coming Soon … “Force Blue” auction on Ebay:)
Bigbadderboom said on 10th September 2009, 21:51
LOL, Flavio thought he was unsinkable, well at least his boat still floats ;)
Leon said on 10th September 2009, 20:42
What a bloody mess ! With the company in deep, deep financial trouble and likely to lose Alonso very soon anyway, I can’t see Renault making the starting grid next spring, can you ? And if that turns out to be the case, the people I feel sorry for are all the fantastic guys at the factory. What a complete disaster !
Did nobody at the top think this through and realise the terrible damage it would wreak if something like this ever got out ?
Steph90 said on 10th September 2009, 20:44
Stepneygate was losing an arm or two, Liegate was a broken nose this is almost decapitation.
I was wrong I whole-heartedly believed Renault and Piquet would be completely innocent.
I can understand Piquet being desperate for a drive but he had a choice, a hard one yes but he didn’t have to do it. He’s not only let his teammate gain an unfair advantage and helped him win, played a part in the outcome of last year’s WDC but most importantly dealt a huge blow to the sport he loves so much and wanted to race in.
Wesley said on 10th September 2009, 20:48
Poor Piquet was off the pace…
He tried so hard yet,could not race…
The boss says “if you want to help at all…
make yourself usefull…and hit the wall”
Nitpicker said on 10th September 2009, 20:55
You should write press releases for the FIA. A bit of haiku might calm everyone down :)
SoLiD said on 10th September 2009, 20:52
Hard one to crack!
First word vs word is hard to judge… Don’t think you can punish because of a word, because that would be a bit crazy…
Piquet has always been a bad loser, always looking for excuses why he wasn’t good enough.
He should have kept this to himself anyway, he has been given too many races in f1 anyway!
mp4-19b said on 10th September 2009, 20:57
Do you guys remember this ? The Calciopoli or better known as 2006 Italian football scandal.
just take a look at some of the punishments:-
The following punishments were given to individuals [6]:
* Franco Carraro: €80,000 fine.
* Massimo De Santis: 4 year ban from football.
* Paolo Dondarini: acquitted.
* Pasquale Foti: 2½ year ban from football, and €30,000 fine [5].
* Adriano Galliani: 5 month ban from football.
* Antonio Giraudo: €20,000 fine and 5 year ban from football, with a further recommendation to the FIGC president that he be banned for life from membership of the FIGC at any level.
* Pietro Ingargiola: Given a warning.
* Tullio Lanese: 2½ year ban from football.
* Claudio Lotito: 2½ year ban from football.
* Gennaro Mazzei: 1 year ban from football.
* Innocenzo Mazzini: 5 year ban from football.
* Leonardo Meani: 2½ year ban from football.
* Luciano Moggi: 5 year ban from football, with a further recommendation to the FIGC president that he be banned for life from membership of the FIGC at any level.
* Pierluigi Pairetto: 3½ year ban from football.
* Gianluca Paparesta: 3 month ban from football.
* Claudio Puglisi: 3 month ban from football.
* Fabrizio Babini: 1 year ban from football.
* Andrea Della Valle: 3 year ban from football.
* Diego Della Valle: 3 year 9 month ban from football.
The police were involved in the investigations.can we expect something like this? i know its only one team that is involved but still…
hamz0rs said on 10th September 2009, 22:09
I am italian, and know about it. Most of these punishments are pure appearance, and nothing has changed really. Most of these people are still reigning. Much ado about nothing, this sport simply can’t be cleaned, it’s dirty inside.
Mussolini's Pet Cat said on 11th September 2009, 1:33
Blimey, are all Italians corrupt?????
Agileracer said on 11th September 2009, 5:08
Are Mike Coughlan, Nigel Stepney, Ron Dennis (repeat offender, lied under oath) all Italians :-?
GP1 said on 10th September 2009, 20:58
We can only imagine what happened during those Benetton years when Flavio was with schumacher
Myles said on 10th September 2009, 21:06
Here is an interesting article. Note the ending.
http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/f1-symonds-evasive-during-fia-questioning/
Bigbadderboom said on 10th September 2009, 21:26
The weight of the media and leaked reports tend to be siding with young Nelson, If it’s as cut and dry as this report and others that have emerged then Flavio and Pat are in deep deep do do (to steal a phrase from my 10 year old boy)