The big rumour as evening fell and journalists debriefed at the Hungaroring on Friday evening was that Renault has indeed decided to drop Nelson Piquet.
The struggling Brazilian admitted 24 hours earlier in Budapest that his seat for the remainder of 2009 is in doubt, following a "conflict of egos" behind closed doors at the Nurburgring two weeks ago.
It seems the conflict was between his famous father and team boss Flavio Briatore, after the latter informed the Piquet camp that Germany was the 23-year-old's last race.
According to the Hungary speculation, triple world champion Piquet Snr insisted that his son's contract specifically prohibits Renault from axing him for performance reasons when the specifications of the two cars do not match.
Piquet's R29 has now been brought up to scratch with the updated specification enjoyed by Fernando Alonso at the Nurburgring, moving the Renault camp to issue another round of notice that he will be imminently departing the team.
His replacement at Valencia and beyond will be the Swiss-French rookie Romain Grosjean, who had a big crash during GP2 qualifying at the Hungaroring on Friday afternoon.
simalive
July 25, 2009 2:27 AM
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