First piquet interview

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/for...icle6861132.ece

Interesting article.

"The first confession was made to the FIA by my father during the Brazil Grand Prix in 2008. "
So FiA knew that Singapore was a mess that could affect the outcome of the Championship.

I read an article the other day bascially saying they couldn't do anything until Piquet Jnr himself came forward, they then wanted to get all the info together and pounce on Renault - basically it was a "witch hunt" to get Flavio

An interview with Nelsinho will be aired tonight, done by the same reporter that broke the crash-gate news (Reginaldo Leme of Globo).

Reginaldo also interviewed Nelson Sr last sunday, but the interview was badly cut and edited to fit the slot in the "Fantastico" TV program and many important questions and answers were left out.

That sounds strange. They could have done like in lie gate - requested all radio traffic, telemetry and whatever and simply called them all to a hearing. They might not have been able to prove anything, but the championship was at stake so it seems very strange that they did nothing.

When I think about it - they did not need any witnesses or confessions in "park gate", they decided that Schumi (almost) crashed deliberately after watching replays and telemetry. And from the telemetry released form Singapore, it was clear that the crash was either deliberate or the car was driven by someone clueless about basic driving techniques. No F1 driver is clueless about that.

You make a good point, however, I don't think Max and the FIA wanted to pull the trigger until they had enough bullets in the gun.

That might be, but then one must ask "enough bullets for what"? They must have realized that the WDC could end up in the wrong hands.

exactly - they wer egunning for Flavio and didn't want him to get away. I'll see if I can find the article

The more NPjr talks the worse he makes it for him self. Unless his dad is ready to kick in some of the few hundred mil. he is worth I think his F! days are over. Remember if you take the kid the father comes along also. Andeveryone remembers what a jerk off the old man is.

Absolutely.
Father was a slippery bastard and the least worthy 3xWDC in history.
So Junior's motives were all about the future of other young drivers.
So why all the delay in confessing his poor decision (which it most certainly was)?

He is a jackass. His comment about his being "at the beginning of my career" in the present tense is delusional. He is at the end of his career unless truck racing is what he calls "my career". I don't feel sorry for him at all, or Flav. Maybe I feel a little sympathy - for whatever reason - for Symonds, who I suspect was in the room and had it dropped on him by the boss. I still think his ban is justified and a ban on Piquet would have been justified were it not for the deal with the FIA.

I can't help but believe there is more in this story than we have yet had revealed, maybe more than we will ever know.

It's pretty bad that they knew since Brazil 2008.

So it seems that the only good thing about 2008, were good looking cars...

Absolutely STAGGERED to believe that the FIA may have truly known since Brasil 2008! What was Max waiting for.....to use this as an ACE up the sleeve against FOTA if the time came? They should have demanded Renault answer the allegations... the data would have been hard to hide and they could have possibly have dealt with this before the start of the 09 season and for once we might have had a "controversy" free year....but then again..... that's probably not what Bernie wants considering the editorial F1 has gotten this year...

The whole episode stinks from all concerned, the sooner we are rid of the Piquets from motorsport, Herr Mosely and the his cronies from the FIA, the better our sport will be.....

Right now I am thinking of a word that sounds like Tankers!

And the old fool bernie as well..

Yip, it´s all Max´s fault. Maybe he subconsciously planted the idea in Briatore´s head. Yeah, that´s it. It was his idea and then he roasted poor old Flavio. The bastard.

Bingo......makes u wonder why the wait....Like was Pat Symonds only going to confess almost a year later, but not less than a month after the incident...same for Flavio?????

Maybe the real "new" scandal is THE WAIT becuase the FIA/MaX wanted lewis to win over Massa?????
Or that too many bets were made??
Or that PK jr. was still a liar until fired by Flavio?
Or did not want to change the results?
or that the fulll moon was rising?

This episode just shows how low F1 can go.

My friends all laugh at me because I watch it.

I was trying to explain that the head of F1 (MM) said Crashgate was worse than Spygate, but Renault only got a suspended race ban

I would almost feel mercy for Piquet. But then again, not really no.

There is absolutely no excuse for what he did. Although, as I have said before, there is a case there for a degree of sympathy. He was handing over 20% of his earnings for a service that he was not getting.

As for the 2008 story, there were plenty of rumblings almost as soon as the race finished. Patrick Head claims that within hours of the race finishing a journo told him that the crash was deliberate. No smoke without fire?

Funny isn't it, some here blame the FIA for convicting Flavio/Renault without enough evidence but then there are those who think that he (they) should have been penalised earlier with even less evidence, they can't win either way

Anyway first interview with Nelsinho, first step in the rehabilitation process, a couple of interviews, a bit more mea culpa, perhaps some charity work (FIA might help him out there) and a drive in some racing series and Nelsinho is ready for career 2.0

I hope that Big Nelson did invest in some good PR advisors because Nelsinho is gonna need those

SURELY the FIA have to make a formal statement to answer these allegations of knowledge, if for nothing else... to help Massa's recovery...whose poor brain must be trying to explode out of his fragile head right now at the the thought that the FIA may have been able to interject sooner and thus possibly had chance to change the championship result...

Truly disgusting moment in F1 history...

Possibly THE lowest moment?

Can anyone think of a worse incident that tarnished or involved so many people that "may or may not" have known about this? The only thing I can really think of was the Indy Farce over tyres and maybe the Schumacher/Rubens "no after you sir" moment.... in terms of bad press for F1...

also....forgetting the sport side of this for a second.....

WHO actually one in this scandal? Has there been any investigation into LARGE bets placed on an Alonso win in Singapore??? I wouldnt be surprised if the odds were not pretty damn good for that?

someone...somewhere...got very rich on this one...! just a hunch I have...

It is not a question of that. It is about starting an official investigation in order to make sure they do what they can to to guarantee that the Championship thropies are lifted by the right hands.

What is more important for the race fans?
A. Right driver and right team wins the championship
or
B. Flavio get's a life time ban from the paddock

There will always be a big question mark and maybe long law suits over Hamiltons title and I don't know Flavio at all and quite frankly I do not care much if he is in the paddock or not.

I think FiA should definitely have put focus on A. Now we have B far too late anyway. Instead of disrupting last season, it disrupts this one. We don't need that shit this season. They should have acted directly or they should have let the sleeping dog lie.

I wouldnt waste ya breath if I were you sir. When one person believes NPJ has the support of his peers (Lewis Hamilton)...when in fact it has been proven countless times over what the TRUE feelings of the F1 paddock are toward NPJ....
You realise that some people will always simply create stuff for the sake of it ... does not matter how you prove otherwise...

As Mario Andretti said to me the other weekend..."NPJ is unemployable in F1".....done...good night.....turn off the lights when you leave....

Please keep this discussion about Piquet and the interview, the discussions of how the FIA handled it have been covered in other threads

Could you give us a link molive if that interview appears online?

Those Piquets are really not holding back, first an interview with Ed Gorman in The Times and now already on TV in Brasil.

He could appear a bit more apologetic though imo.

I thought the Times piece was their take on the TV interview in Brasil (having been handed the tape in advance) rather than a seperate interview. So only 1 interview.

Yeah, his claims that he's the real victim don't sit well with me.

Yes Nelson, I get that you were approached just before you got into the car, yes, I appreciate that you weren't thinking straight and didn't have the opportunity to talk to anyone before the start. We've all been in fast-moving, high-pressure situations where events run away and I dare say I might well have done the same thing in the same position.

But, why on Earth didn't you say anything immediately after the event when you'd cooled down? Why didn't you walk straight to the FIA and tell them what had happened that night or in the next week? Why did you sign another contract with these snakes? Why did you wait until you got fired before going forward but only under the proviso that you couldn't be touched (which, if he'd gone to the FIA at the time, he probably wouldn't have needed because they'd appreciate the stress he'd been put under)?

Nelson was the real victim right up until a week after the event. After that point, he's lost the ability to claim innocence. If he'd said something at the time, he'd probably still have an F1 seat, either at Renault under new management or at another team. Now he has nothing and has to start all over again in the cut-throat world of NASCAR. Stronger men than he have tried and failed at that game.

This, tbf

The thing that does not make sense to me is why FiA was told about the story in Brazil 2008? Had the story broke then Nelsinho would not have been in the Rneault at all this year. Why would his father say something that under normal circumstances would have thrown his son straight out of the sport he has been tutored to be a part of since birth, and straight into many possible law suites, but against FiA and possibly also civil cases in Singapore?

Nelson, Nelson, Nelson - cry me a freakin' river...

Hi

This is my first post on the forums, but I don’t think I can stay silent about my views on this situation any longer as his latest statement has made me very angry. I’m speculating a lot here as what we’re being told by Mr Piquet just doesn’t add up to me. I apologise for the length here!

Nelson keeps reiterating that he had to crash because he was under pressure to please the team and secure a contract for 2009. Well, I’m not being funny, but firstly, if you’re whiter than white in this whole situation, why on earth would you want to continue driving or generally working for someone who has so obvious little regard for your life that they’d ask you to crash, risking your personal safety or that of any other driver, spectator or marshal who could’ve been injured or much, much worse if something hadn’t gone exactly ‘to plan’? If we’ve learned nothing else from motorsport in 2009, we know that people can be killed injured in the most freakish, horrific ways that are beyond the control of anyone, let alone a ‘talented’ driver.

He says he had no time to consider his options, but says the plan was conceived hours before the race. So Nelson, you’re telling us that in that time period your obviously massive conscience and weight of morality didn’t have time to mull the situation over or even ring home to get daddy’s opinion? You don’t seem to be able to make any decision without him having any say on the matter so it seems strange that this one is no different. That, and at 24 you say you can’t possibly weigh up all the implications of taking part in a situation like this? Oh yeah, I’m forgetting, right and wrong is one of those conundrums that is just impossible to work out isn’t it?

Consider this for a second, if Nelson had done the decent thing, seen the contempt his employers obviously had for him and not crashed the car, he could’ve gone to the FIA after the race and given his evidence of what he had been asked to do, which we’re told was what they needed to pursue the case. He would’ve come out of this in a totally different light, respected as the person who had the strength to stand up to his cheating bosses and do the right thing and eliminate them from the sport. I’m 100% sure he wouldn’t be the pariah he is now with a terrible reputation and a career to try and rebuild.

If he truly cared that much about what he was asked to do, why didn’t he go to the FIA after Nelson Snr told him they needed his testimony to take the case forward at last year’s Brazilian GP and not wait ten months until after being fired short-sightedly by one of the men who we’re told orchestrated the whole thing? It’s speculation, but would that testimony have ever reached the FIA if you were still in a Renault now, the day after the 2009 Japanese GP? If Nelson was as bothered by what he was asked to do as he says he was, I’m sure the FIA would’ve been happy to receive this information during the winter and get rid of cheats before the new season, but oh wait, his contract had been renewed…

Now to call himself the victim in this is just the final straw, this ‘man’ was given full immunity for his testimony that didn’t come through until ten months after the incident. He has helped to fix the result of a sporting event, he has brought the sport into disrepute, yet he cannot seem to see the seriousness of the situation he was partly responsible for. If any team is willing to get involved with him or his family, more fool them, they deserve everything they get.

Nelson, I personally hope that you are never given the opportunity to race Formula One or any other kind of motorsport ever again, you had the opportunities and backing thousands of young drivers would dream of, yet you were willing to fall the depths of desperation to orchestrate a result that very few sportsmen are willing to sink to.

Nelson, for once do the decent thing and just go away.

I think it's clear he got shafted by Briatore during his time at Renault. And in that sense, I can see him as a victim.

But over the crashgate affair? Not so much.

He and his old man are such a disgrace. I still think they invented the plan and brought it to Briatore, then later used it as blackmail. Flav shouldn't have been the only one to get a lifetime ban IMO.

The thing is, even if you buy his excuses completely, the conclusions are just as damning: a driver that get's irritated rather easily and can't think straight under pressure. Not exactly something any team manager is keen on.

Exactly... well unless you're driving for your daddy's team ;)

I still don't get why Piquet's actions in this seem to have annoyed some people so much more than, say, Briatore's or Symonds'. I could see how someone might think they are all as bad as each other in this, but that Piquet is the bad guy out of the three? Don't get it.

For me it is because he did it, then he used the fact that he did it to blackmail his team and now he is asking for our sympathy and try to pretend he was just an innocent victim. But I guess there is more in this than we know.

Perhaps because they have been suitably punished by the FIA - and in the case of Symonds, seems to have accepted his part and punishment with real remorse instead of going to the media and crying that he is the 'victim'.

I'm sorry but Piquet was driving the car, not Flav or Pat - ultimately he decided to throw it into the wall. And after doing so he had ample opportunity to go to the FIA, instead of waiting till it suit him to do so.

He may be unemployable in F1 (and I hope so) but it is of his own making.

Oh well every driver has its detractors and Nelsinho with his poor F1 record, career financed with dad's money and role in crashgate is an easy target.

Symonds gets some sympathy because he more or less admitted his role in crashgate (as did Nelsinho of course) and Flavio gets some sympathy because of his harsh life ban (which technically it isn't).

Also some seem to havy difficulty with the whistleblower concept and/or donot understand why immunity was granted.

I'm just as angry about their actions, but for me its the fact he keeps saying he was forced into doing it by the circumstances he was in. Ultimately he was the one who crashed the car and could've taken the decision not to right up until he came around that corner.

So if he hadn't, would he have been fired for not following orders? Debatable, but I'm sure if he had his evidence would've ended up at the FIA pretty sharpish afterwards. For me its the fact that he seems to now want forgiveness for his part in this. The fact remains, he put the plan into action but got away scot free even after withholding evidence for ten months; I think that is what is sitting uncomfortably for a lot of people.

If he had not crashed, and if he had gone straight to the FIA afterwards, nobody (least of all BB warriors) would have believed him. With Flav as his manager, his career was screwed.

The only 'right' option which has the effect of both ensuring punishment for people that really have no place in F1 because they even thought this was an acceptable 'strategy' and ensuring no driver was ever put in such a position again, was to come clean straight away.

It's a shame that the Piquets got so close to doing the right thing in Brazil but backed out of it. Or were they discouraged from doing so?

The immunity is not his fault really, so I don't get how that's held against him.

He shopped a couple of guys in his team but, IMO, I'm glad he did - F1 is better off without people who think that strategy is ok. And at least we now know the truth about that race.

Sure it took him 10 months to come out with the truth, but he's still a lot quicker at doing so than the still in denial Briatore or 'can't confirm or deny' Symonds.

He didn't have to do it, but Flav and Symonds didn't have to order it. Take either side of the equation away and the event doesn't happen. So again I don't see why he's the fall guy for that.

As JPW alludes to, I think it comes down to the fact that he's rubbish. Whereas Briatore and Symonds have had past success. Almost like the difference in the way Hollywood seems to view Polanski to a run of the mill child rapist. And hardly the kind of thing that ought to make a difference in the blame stakes, IMO.

None of which is to say NPj hasn't done anything wrong - he's done plenty. Just that the idea he is the big bad guy out of the 3 involved seems a bit wrong to me.

Only speaking for myself obviously, but to me "I've been told" or "he did it too!" are the two weakest and most disgusting defenses I know. Not only in F1, but in general. Nothing to do with how justice and the law handles those, just my personal opinion. I simply can't stand people who do that, that's all.

Legally it's a completely different thing, I'm well aware of that.

Piquet was the one who crashed, so he commited the most serious action out of the 3. Coming up with the idea to commit an act is one thing but to actually do it is another and obviously more serious. Thats why Piquet is the most guilty of everyone.

I don't think anyone see him as the Big Bad Guy, rather the opposite. Had he kept his mouth shut I doubt we would have discussed him much, but there is curious elements in this story. I think that when Pat and Flavio starts to speak in media, they will get more attention on the forums.

Here it is.

It was aired yesterday, and he did look more apologetic, almost recognizing that there could be no way back up. I think that only now he trully realizes the depth of the mess he created by accepting to play along.

Among other things, he said the whole idea came from his own race in Germany, when he got that 2nd place due to the SC deployment. That gave them the idea.

Nelsinho also answered to the allegations made by Briatore that he was having a gay relationship. He said that the old man he lived with is a friend of the family and that Flavio used the info to attack him.

Here on Youtube.
And here on Globo (g1).