18/09/2009
NEWS STORY
Nelson Piquet Snr claims that he first alerted the FIA about the fixing of the result of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix at Interlagos just five weeks later.
British tabloid the Daily Mirror quotes the Brazilian as claiming that he voiced his concerns in a conversation with the FIA's Race Director and Safety Delegate, Charlie Whiting (right).
"When this thing happened in Singapore I couldn't believe it," the paper quotes Piquet as saying. "In Brazil I talk to Charlie. I got him and said 'Look what could happen to Nelson if I bring this up? I was afraid to screw up the career of Nelson."
The Brazilian goes on to say: "In the race in Brazil I called Charlie and I told the whole story to Charlie."
While the whole 'Crashgate' saga first came to the attention of the media over the course of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, it is now known that the FIA had been investigating the matter for some time. However, if Piquet's claim is true, one has to wonder why action wasn't taken even sooner.
Piquet and Whiting previously worked together at Brabham in the 1980s, where the Englishman was the Brazilian's chief mechanic. The team owner at that time was a certain, Bernard Charles Ecclestone.