Piquet case puts Formula One's credibility at stake, says Head

Race-fixing allegations have put Formula One's credibility at stake and the governing body must take a firm stance, according to Williams co-owner Patrick Head.

Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet has alleged that his former Renault team ordered him to crash in Singapore last September to bring out the safety car and help Spanish team-mate Fernando Alonso win the race.

Former champions Renault have been summoned by the sport's governing body to a hearing in Paris on September 21 to answer charges of fixing the race and fraudulent conduct.

They in turn have commenced criminal proceedings against Piquet and his father, accusing them of false allegations and attempted blackmail.

Piquet, 24, was dropped by the team last month after failing to score a point in 10 races. He said in a statement last week that he had told the governing body the truth.

"If (cheating) proved to be happening in a consistent way I think rightly that nobody would have any interest in Formula One racing because you couldn't believe what you were looking at," Head told reporters at the Italian Grand Prix.

"Equally, if someone has used operational procedures to gain an advantage as has been suggested, then it needs to be dealt with quite firmly."

Head, whose team have been linked to a possible Renault engine deal next year, said he did not know the details of the case but there had been considerable speculation at the time.

"We thought it was a pretty extraordinary thing to put Alonso 15th on the grid with only 12 laps of fuel on board," he said.

"It seemed an extraordinary decision... there were all sorts of rumours at the time.

"If young Nelson was asked to deliberately crash or spin his car, regardless of his contractual position, in my view he should have said no at the time," the Briton added.

"If that did happen, then the people responsible should be dealt with pretty firmly.

"Young people, when they are under pressure, do make mistakes," Head added. "I would put 99 per cent of the blame on the people that asked him (Piquet) to do that, if that's what happened."

Head said the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) needed to act decisively.

"It's a complex sport. Some people say it isn't a sport," he continued.

"But if all the cars are designed to the same rules and the engines are to the same rules, for all the shenanigans that go on beforehand and all of the commercial deals and everything, when the lights go out at the start one would like to think that was a straightforward race."

Head said Williams would be "pretty horrified" if any driver suggested to them that he crash deliberately to help the team win a race.

He said the same applied to the media, revealing that he had been told by one journalist that Piquet had informed him 15 minutes after the race what had really happened.

"I think if a journalist was told that by a driver he should have said 'Look, stop. If you carry on with this I will have to...'," added the Briton, whose team took Piquet's father and namesake to his third world title in 1987.