Head of Spanish federation slams Piquet
Gracia criticised the decision to grant Piquet immunity in Monday's WMSC hearing
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By inthenews. |  |
Saturday, 19, Sep 2009 04:04
By Adam Leveridge.
The head of the Spanish motorsport federation Carlos Gracia has criticised the decision to grant immunity to Nelson Piquet.
In an interview with Spanish radio station Onda Cero, Gracia said that Piquet was as culpable for the race-fixing controversy as Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds.
"This kid, if it was up to me, wouldn't be allowed to walk blind people on the sidewalk," Gracia said.
"It's such yobbish behaviour from which he has also benefited, because, like he says in his sworn statement, he did it so he would get a contract renewal for 2009, and he will be paid until the end of the year.
"In that case this is a person should not only be sanctioned by the Council and the FIA, but he should also be prosecuted in an ordinary court.
"I found out through the press that Mr Nelsinho was going to get immunity.
"It would be a total shamelessness if this happened in the FIA."
Gracia went on to criticise Piquet's father Nelson Piquet Senior over the way he dealt with the situation.
"He is a silly kid who doesn't know if he has pushed the throttle or not, because it's no coincidence that he's had 17 accidents since he's been at Renault," said Gracia.
"The father has an uncontrollable kid and he is a resentful parent. And when they turn the fan on, they try to get the s**t to hit as many people as possible."
But Gracia supports Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds' decision to resign from their positions with the Renault team.
He said: "Renault is a very serious company.
"It's a company that has been in the world of motorsport for many years, without any kind of immorality, and if the immorality was caused because of those two gentlemen, then it's a good thing that they are out of formula one.
"Because be it Flavio Briatore, as big as his name is, or be it the engineer, what's clear is that we don't want these people in formula one."
Renault will answer charges of race-fixing at an extraordinary hearing of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) on Monday and, despite Briatore and Symonds' resignations, the team is still open to sanctions from the FIA.