Piquet turns his back on F1

Nelson Piquet has decided to give up on F1 and pursue a career in the United States in one of the NASCAR series.

The Brazilian was at the centre of the Singapore crash fixing scandal which resulted in Renault team boss Flavio Briatore and director of engineering Pat Symonds being banned from the sport by the FIA. Last week those bans were overturned by a Paris court, but the FIA has given notice of appeal.

Throughout all of this Piquet received no punishment, as he was granted immunity from prosecution by the FIA in return for spilling the beans on what happened. Briatore's lawyer has indicated that he may sue Piquet and his father Nelson Sr over the matter. Former FIA president Max Mosley has indicated that he believes that the Piquets may counter sue Briatore.

Clearly Nelson Jr has found most doors in F1 closed to him after admitting he deliberately crashed and by the way he behaved over the matter. He tested for Red Horse Racing in the Camping World truck series part of the NASCAR programme and may race there this year.

"I have spent the last few months carefully evaluating my options for this year," he said on his website. I had to choose a path and it was a difficult decision to make.

"Being successful in Formula One was always my goal but I have learnt that happiness is just as important as ambition and after my first 18 months in F1 did not go as planned I have decided to focus on something different and have chosen to take a route in America."