LONDON, (Reuters) – The Renault Formula One team apologised unreservedly to triple world champion Nelson Piquet and his son yesterday and agreed to pay them substantial damages for libel resulting from 2009 race-fixing allegations.
“It’s a bit late in the story, but better late than never,” Piquet junior, known as Nelsinho, told Reuters by telephone after the apology in the London High Court.
“They’ve apologised. It’s nothing special. They should have done it earlier.”
Piquet junior triggered one of the sport’s biggest scandals last year when he told the governing FIA that he had been ordered to crash deliberately at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help team mate Fernando Alonso win.
Former champions Renault, who were subsequently handed a suspended permanent ban, had issued a media release last September accusing the Brazilians of lying as part of a blackmail attempt.
The younger Piquet had been dropped by the British-based team in July before speaking to the International Automobile Federation, which was still investigating the accusations when Renault F1 made their defamatory statement.
“The Team accepts…that the allegations made by Nelson Piquet Junior were not false,” Renault said in a statement read out in the London High Court and posted on their website (www.renaultf1.com).
