The latest revealing on the race-fixing scandal involving Renault came up earlier today, when a copy of a letter sent by Flavio Briatore to Nelson Piquet Sr. was made public by British publication Autosport. The document, issued 2 days before the Piquet family went public with the whole affair – meaning it dated back to July 28th – represents Briatore's outrage over what he clearly considered a blackmailing attempt by Piquet.
“You can easily imagine that I can certainly not accept your contention that the Renault Team, myself, and your son entered into some sort of conspiracy that would not only have an impact on the result of the competition, but actually, that may put at risk the safety of all the contenders in the Grand Prix just to have Fernando Alonso obtaining a racing advantage,” said Briatore in the aforementioned letter.
“Secondly, I am forced to consider that your threat constitutes without doubt a blatant attempt of exerting blackmail against Renault F1 and myself to extort an illegitimate advantage by way of threats and outrageous lies on the basis of an alleged hear-say,” added the Italian manager.
In addition, Briatore made it very clear that, should Piquet go public with the story, he will have no other choice but to take legal actions against both him and his son (something that is yet to happen since the scandal set off two weeks ago)
“Please be advised, however that, should you take any step in relation with your blackmail, or make any declaration in connection thereof, I shall have no choice but to introduce against you, and against Nelsinho as the case may be, any action that way be appropriate before any criminal and civil court having jurisdiction on the ground of defamation, false accusation extortion,” concluded Briatore.
The story about Renault's alleged fixing of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix came to light only days after the Enstone based team officially ousted Nelson Piquet Jr. from their 2010 lineup, following the Hungarian Grand Prix.
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