Nelson Piquet Jr has announced that Renault has dropped him with immediate effect

Nelson Piquet Jr has announced that Renault has dropped him with immediate effect , and blamed his team boss and manager Flavio Briatore for ruining his career.

Piquet branded Briatore “my executioner” and accused him of breaking a promise that he would get equal treatment to team-mate Fernando Alonso this year.

He said he felt relief as well as disappointment at the end of his Renault tenure, which he called the worst period of his career.

“I have received notice from the Renault F1 team of its intention to stop me from driving for them in the current F1 season,” Piquet said.

“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".

“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 [being] a fast, winning driver.”

Piquet revealed that his contract contained a performance clause requiring him to score 40% of the points Alonso had amassed by the midway point of the season.

With Alonso having scored all 13 of Renault’s points to date, Piquet failed to hit that target – but claims he was never given a fair chance since the double world champion did the lion’s share of pre-season testing and was often given a more advanced specification of the team’s R29 car.

“Of the first nine races that I ran this year, in four of them Fernando had a significant car upgrade that I did not have,” said Piquet.

“I was informed by the engineers at Renault that in those races I had a car that was between 0.5s and 0.8s a lap slower than my team-mate.”

Piquet said Briatore had assured him during the winter that he would have the same status in the team as Alonso.

“For the 2009 season Briatore, again acting both as my manager and team boss of Renault F1, promised me everything would be different, that I would get the attention I deserved but had never received, and that I would get ‘at least equal treatment’ inside the team,” he said.

“…Unfortunately, the promises didn't turn into reality again.”

“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.”

“I spent one year as a test driver, where I only did a handful of tests, and the next year started as a race driver with Renault,” he said.

“After the opening part of the season, some strange situations began to happen".

“As a beginner in F1, I could only expect from my team a lot of support and preparation to help me in getting up to the task.

“Instead, I was relegated as ‘someone who drives the other car’ with no attention at all ".

“In addition, on numerous occasions, 15 minutes before qualifying and races, my manager and team boss (Briatore) would threaten me, telling me that 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.”

“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.”

"www.npiquet.com"