Oct.16 (GMM) Nelson Piquet’s famous father on Friday revealed his son would currently be a Toro Rosso driver had he listened to his advice.
Instead, his 23-year-old namesake is out of work having been ousted by Flavio Briatore and then disgraced amid the crash-gate scandal, but Piquet Snr says he had a seat at Red Bull’s junior team lined up for 2009.
“It was (Flavio) Briatore who wanted an extension (for 2009),” triple world champion Piquet, who is in the Interlagos paddock this weekend, said during an interview with Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“I wanted Nelsinho to leave Renault and had found him a seat at Toro Rosso with Gerhard Berger. But Nelsinho wanted to stay with Renault because there was the chance that Alonso would go to Ferrari,” the 57-year-old Brazilian added.
