The almost forgotten and always tiresome Fixgate saga has been reignited by the news that sacked Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr and his father will take former Renault boss Flavio Briatore to court over a libel claim against the Italian.
The Piquet family are bringing libel action against Briatore over a press release sent out by the Renault team while Briatore was still in charge that suggested the Piquets had attempted to blackmail the team and had submitted false evidence to the FIA.
The statement from Briatore saw him rant that: "I am forced to consider that your threat constitutes without doubt a blatant attempt of exerting blackmail against Renault F1 and myself to extort an illegitimate advantage by way of threats and outrageous lies on the basis of an alleged hear-say."
The statement was combined with the commencement of a legal case against the Piquets.
Briatore was eventually found to have ordered Piquet Jr to crash deliberately in the 2008 Singapore GP, triggering a safety car which tipped the race in favour of Fernando Alonso in the sister Renault. The Italian was banned from motorsport for life, a ban that has subsequently been overturned on a technicality by a French court.
Piquet Jr himself escaped sanction over the incident, after accepting the FIA's offer of immunity in return for giving evidence against the team, though he was unable to find a 2010 F1 drive and has turned to a career in NASCAR instead.
But the Piquet team have reopened the issue of the statement from Briatore, and are seeking damages of £200,000 in the High Court in London over the release. Briatore has been summoned to the court to contest the case.
The UK's Daily Mail newspaper quoted Piquet Jr's lawyer Dominic Crossley as saying that the action was taken after Renault failed to retract their allegations.
"Given Renault F1's failure to accept the Piquets' invitation to withdraw the allegations and apologise, they feel they have no other choice but to demonstrate the falsity of these allegations in court," Crossley stated.
The Renault team, which has subsequently been sold to Luxembourg-based businessman Gerard Lopez, but continues to run in Formula One under the Renault name, retracted the legal threats against the Piquet family shortly after Briatore was sacked from the team.
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