Nelson Piquet not Returning to F1

Filed in archive F1 Racing on January 12, 2010

Nelson Piquet, who was at the centre of the crash scandal during the 2008 season which saw Flavio Briatore leave the sport in shame, will not return to the Formula One Championships. Instead he is to travel to the US to become a Nascar driver. He cited a first eighteen months that "did not go as planned" as the reason for leaving F1 racing.

During the Singapore Grand Prix in 2008 Piquet span and crashed for no apparent reason, bringing the safety car out and allowing his team-mate Fernando Alonso finished first after a 15th place start.

Piquet has said that, although success in Formula One was his main ambition, "happiness is just as important". "Nascar is hugely challenging and I will be putting everything I have into this", he also said. We can't help thinking, though, that although he had been topped to be among the drivers adding their names to the sparkling new format of F1 next season, he has been left high and dry after causing the biggest controversy in Formula One racing. He was dropped from the team and revealed to the papers that he had been told to crash. This lack of loyalty is surely something all other teams will want to avoid.