Nelson Piquet has been sacked by Renault after failing to pick up any points for the French team this season, the 24-year-old Brazilian announced on his personal website on Monday.
Piquet, without a win in 28 races, said in a strongly worded statement that he was disappointed at losing the drive and criticised his treatment by Renault supremo Flavio Briatore.
He described his time with Renault as the worst period of his career and said he now wanted to start afresh and prove his driving credentials with a new team.
"I want to say thanks to the small group who supported me and that I worked together with at Renault F1, although it is obviously with great disappointment that I receive such news," Piquet, whose father won the world championship three times, said.
"But, at the same time, I feel a sense of relief for the end of the worst period of my career, and the possibility that I can now move on and put my career back on the right track and try to recover my reputation of a fast, winning driver.
"I am a team player and there are dozens of people I have worked with in my career who would vouch for my character and talent, except unfortunately the person that has had the most influence on my career in Formula 1."
Piquet was making reference to Briatore, his team boss and manager. Piquet accused the flamboyant Italian of unfair behavior in his time driving alongside two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.
"On numerous occasions, 15 minutes before qualifying and races, my manager and team boss (Briatore) would threaten me, telling me if I didn't get a good result, he had another driver ready to put in my place.
"I have never needed threats before to get results. In 2008 I scored 19 points, finished once on the podium in second place, having the best debut year of a Brazilian driver in F1."
Piquet said that despite promises from Briatore that things would be different in 2009, nothing changed.
"Unfortunately, the promises didn't turn into reality again," he claimed, going on to call some of the situations he has had to deal with in the past two years as "strange".
In a final swipe at Briatore he concluded: "I always believed that having a manager was being a part of a team and having a partner. A manager is supposed to encourage you, support you and provide you with opportunities. In my case it was the opposite. Flavio Briatore was my executioner."
(AFP via China Daily August 5, 2009)
