It’s all getting a bit messy in the fascinating Piquet vs Renault battle. Renault have begun criminal proceedings against Nelson Piquet Jr and Sr over an alleged attempt to blackmail the F1 team. Nelsinho, who has been granted immunity by the FIA, is sticking to his guns with a determination, resolve and fighting spirit that would have served him well had he ever thought to deploy them while driving a Formula One car.
In the background, FOTA – you remember FOTA, the lily-livered teams organisation that nearly broke away from Formula One but then didn’t see it through – have begun making noises about the way that statements made to the FIA have been leaked into the public domain. Max Mosley is having the leaks investigated, we’re told, and given that an awful lot of people have decided Renault are guilty without hearing their side of things in full (this writer included, to be honest), the prejudice generated by the revelations thus far might be enough to make such an investigation worthwhile. Then again, they appear calculated, and they’ve made F1 a talking point again; you might feel the reasons are wrong, but can they ever really be so?
While you consider that, consider what Max might be trying to tell us about Renault’s defence case here, and whether he might feel that the evidence collected by the FIA so far leaves Renault needing to construct a better case than the one they seem to have right now.
The key issue in the forthcoming case, of course, is that of why Nelson crashed. Flavio Briatore says there was a pre-race meeting but deliberate crashing was not discussed, according to the information dribbled into the public domain so far. Pat Symonds, director of engineering, apparently stated deliberate crashing was discussed, and brought up by Piquet Jr. Piquet Jr says they told him to do it. It’s difficult to imagine Nelsinho having the brains to suggest it, especially since the fuel strategy needed to make it beneficial to his teammate would have to have been agreed the night before. Equally, though, it’s not so difficult to accept that he had the right credentials for the job. Is it, Flavio?
Q. Why do you think Nelson Piquet crashed deliberately?
FB: Nelson has crashed 17 times.
That’s taken from an Autosport Q&A, and it isn’t such an unreasonable point…
