As the silly season continues in Formula 1, a second mid season sacking has occurred in the Renault camp. Nelson Piquet Jr. has been dropped by the French squad due to his lack of performance.
Nelson, who is son to three time champion Nelson Piquet Sr., was awarded the second race seat at the beginning of the year. However, he was warned that he was to step up his progress and result or be cut. Nelson Sr. made sure that Flavio Briatore understood that the young Brazilian’s contract could not be cut due to lack of performance in an inferior machine. It was no secret for most of the year that Fernando Alonso had been receiving new development parts before Nelson. This weekend the French squad outfitted the cars equally and Piquet still suffered to make pace. Briatore then dropped the news that Nelson would race his last race for Renault this weekend in Hungary.
As his replacement, the obvious favorite for the seat Romain Grosjean will take over duties starting in Valencia. The Swiss-French driver experienced a massive crash this weekend in GP2 qualifications at the Hungaroring.