Nelson Piquet Jr. - the♔ son of three-time F1 champion Nelson Piquet - made his F1 debut with Renault in 2008.

As eꦍxpected, Piquet Jr. progresseﷺd through the junior ranks with relative ease, winning the British Formula 3 Championship alongside some Williams F1 tests.

He made the step up to G𓆏P2 Series - now FIA Form﷽ula 2 - in 2006, fighting for the title with Lewis Hamilton.

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The B✱razilian ultimately finished runner-up, just 12 points behind Hamilton, who was promoted to the McLaren F1 team for the following year.

On the other hand, Piquet Jr. sat on the sidelines as an official test an🐷d reserve driver for Renault before getting the full-time role alongside the returning Fernando Alonso in 2008.

Under pressure at Renault

Piquet 𒆙Jr. was put alongside two-time F1 champion Alonso for the 2008 campaign.

It took until the French Grand🅰 Prix for him to score his first points with seventh, a timely result given the rumours and pressure he was under at the time in tryin♍g to retain his seat for the following year.

A maiden pod💙ium finish at the German Grand Prix ahead of title contender Felipe Massa eased the pressure before further points finishes in Hungary, Japan and China.

Piquet Jr. did enough to keep his seat for 2009 with his crash in Singapore, which brought out the Safety Car, not gett♛ing any attention un𝔍til midway through the following year.

10 races without scoring a point meant Piquet Jr. was dropped in favour of Romain Grosjean ah๊ead of the European Grand Prix at Valencia.

Piquet Jr. was sacked in early August and soon after the 🌳allegations around the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix meant the ‘Crashgate’ scandal had started.

‘Crashgate’ scandal

Following his departure from Renault, allegations surfaced that Piquet Jr. had deliberately crashed his car to enableꦑඣ his teammate, Alonso, to win the race.

His cra♊sh on Lap 14 resulted in a Safety Car, allowing Alonso to take the lead of the race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Race leader Massa had controlled the race froꦿm the ☂start but the Safety Car meant he had to stop early.

His early pit stop didn’t go to plan and he lost the lead - a꧃ weekend that arguably cost him the 2008 title.

Fast forward to August 2009, Piquet Jr. made statements to the FIA that it was deliberate and he had be☂en asked by Renault team boss Flavio Briatore and engineer Pat Symonds to stage the crash.

Briatore and Symonds we🦄re forced to leave the team ahead of the 2009 Singapore GP, and were charged with consꦚpiracy and race rigging.

The team itself were handed a disqualificꦯation from F1, which was suspendeꦑd for two years pending any further rule infringements. 

Briatore was banned from all FIA-sanctioned events for 🎃life, while Symonds was banned for five years.

“My situation at Renault turned into a nightmare,” Piquet tolওd the FIA in 2009. “Having dreamed of being a Formula One driver and having worked so hard to get there, I found myself at the mercy o𝄹f Mr Briatore. His true character, which had previously only been known to those he had treated like this in the past, is now known. 

“Mr Briatore was my manager as well as the team boss, he had my future in his hands but he cared nothing for it. By the time of the Singapore GP he had ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤🌸ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚisolated me and driven me to the lowest point I had ever reached in my life. 

“Now that I am out of that situation I cannot believe that I agreed to the plan, but when 𒅌it was put to me I felt that I was in no position to refuse.”

Piquet J🤡r. would never get to race in F1 again after 🥃failing to land a seat for 2010.

Briatore has been seen in the F✤1 paddock as he’s still close to former driver, Alonso, while Symonds ha🐎s worked for Williams and under Ross Brawn in recent years.