The statement comes only one week away from Piquet's publicly slamming his team boss and manager Flavio Briatore for not giving him a chance during the 2009 season and for being disrespectful to him throughout his years at Renault.
“For the 2009 season Briatore, again acting both as my manager and team boss of Renault F1, promised me everything would be different, that I would get the attention I deserved but had never received, and that I would get at least equal treatment inside the team,” said Piquet in the statement.
However, while required to score at least 40% of Fernando Alonso's points in the championship by mid-season, Piquet argued that he wasn't given equal material to work with. While the Spaniard benefited from all the improvements brought to the R29 throughout the first part of the season, the Brazilian was left with the initial package.
“He (Briatore) made me sign a performance-based contract, requiring me to score 40% of Fernando Alonso's points by mid-way through the season. Despite driving with Fernando, two-time world champion and a really excellent driver, I was confident that, if I had the same conditions, I would easily attain the 40% of points required by the contract.”
“With the new car I completed 2002km of testing compared to Fernando's 3839km. Only three days of my testing was in dry weather, only one of Fernando's was wet. I was only testing with a heavy car, hard tyres, mostly on the first day (when the track is slow and reliability is poor), or when the weather was bad. Fernando was driving a light car with soft tires in the dry, fine conditions. I never had a chance to be prepared for the qualifying system we use.”
“In Formula 1 today, the difference between 1st and 15th position is sometimes less than a second. It means that 0.2 or 0.3s can make you gain eight positions.”
“In addition to that, car development is now happening on a race-to-race basis due to the in season testing ban. Of the first nine races that I ran this year, in four of them Fernando had a significant car upgrade that I did not have,” added the statement.
Last but no least, Flavio Briatore was also named one important cause for Piquet's failure in the last couple of years, as the Brazilian driver revealed there was little help he received from his Italian manager.
“The conditions I have had to deal with during the last two years have been very strange to say the least, there are incidents that I can hardly believe occurred myself. If I now need to give explanations, I am certain it is because of the unfair situation I have been in the past two years. I always believed that having a manager was being a part of a team and having a partner. A manager is supposed to encourage you, support you, and provide you with opportunities. In my case it was the opposite. Flavio Briatore was my executioner,” said Piquet.
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