Renault initiates legal proceedings against the Piquets

The Renault team and its boss Flavio Briatore have initiated legal proceedings against Nelson Piquet Junior and Nelson Piquet Senior after an alleged attempt to blackmail the French team.

Renault faces allegations from the Piquet family after the younger Nelson Piquet Junior told the FIA that he was ordered to crash intentionally during the Singapore Grand Prix.

Flavio Briatore denied the accusations, calling them an atrocious and scandalous lie, and Renault announced that it had initiated legal proceedings against the Piquet family.

The FIA announced that it would hold an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on September 21, 2009. The ING Renault F1 Team will participate in this meeting and respond to allegations that team members had an agreement with Nelson Piquet Junior to deliberately cause an accident during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, prompting the safety car to come out for the benefit of Fernando Alonso.

« To date, the ING Renault F1 Team has not wished to express publicly on the subject during the FIA’s preliminary investigation. »

« However, the ING Renault F1 Team and its Managing Director Flavio Briatore personally wish to declare that they have initiated criminal proceedings against Nelson Piquet Junior and Nelson Piquet Senior with the Paris prosecutor’s office for slanderous denunciation and attempted aggravated blackmail with the aim of allowing Nelson Piquet Junior to keep his driver’s seat in the team until the end of the 2009 season. These facts will also be subject to a procedure with the English police. »

The FOTA immediately reacted: « All parties in conflict should be entitled to a fair hearing conducted in private and not in the public arena, which results in counterproductive publicity harmful to the image and credibility of Formula 1. The FOTA believes that disputes within the sport should be handled professionally and condemns the practice of intentionally releasing confidential documents to sway public opinion. Confidential documents should remain under the control of the competent authority, » writes the FOTA.

According to a statement from the Renault F1 Team.