Piquet Jr calls Briatore F1 career's 'biggest mistake'

Nelson Piquet Jr. said the biggest mistake of his Formula 1 career was putting it in Flavio Briatore’s hands, accusing his former manager and mentor of leaving him exposed during a short Renault spell that became inseparable from Crashgate.

Speaking to SoyMotor.com, the former Renault driver said Briatore was the central error behind a career that lasted only 28 grands prix across 2008 and 2009. “The biggest mistake for me was having Flavio as my manager, as my mentor,” Piquet Jr. said. He added that “that was our mistake, mine and my parents’, not having someone we could trust,” and said his family should have had “someone to advise us, to protect my interests.”

Piquet Jr. said Briatore never handled him as an individual priority, but as one piece in a wider business operation. “He had six, seven or eight drivers... I was just a number in the game,” he said. “He did whatever he needed to do with the puzzle to make the biggest profit.”

Those remarks go to the heart of how Piquet Jr. now views his Renault exit. After arriving in F1 in 2008, he was dropped during the 2009 summer break after being overshadowed by Fernando Alonso, bringing an abrupt end to his time on the grid.

The relationship is still defined by the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix scandal. Piquet Jr.’s deliberate crash at Marina Bay, which affected the race in a way that helped Alonso win, became one of the biggest controversies in F1 history after Piquet Jr. informed the FIA of the circumstances following his dismissal in 2009. He received immunity, while Briatore was banned by the FIA before that sanction was later overturned by a French court.

The timing of Piquet Jr.’s criticism is striking because Briatore is once again operating at the center of the Enstone team. Now 76, he has returned to the outfit in its Alpine era as a consultant appointed by former Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo, effectively working alongside managing director Steve Nicholls, while remaining active in driver management.

Piquet Jr., now 40, rebuilt his career away from F1 after what he has described as a brief and deeply controversial spell in the championship. He went on to win the 2014-15 Formula E title and continues to race in endurance competition, stock cars and touring cars, a path that underlines how completely his career moved beyond the F1 future he believes was damaged at Renault.