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22nd
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Former Formula 1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr. caused a huge controversy in motorsport when he apparently declared that "Someone like Ayrton Senna would not have won anything in F1 today” to Terra.
Piquet is not only a NASCAR driver these days but also a columnist at Yahoo! Brazil.
In his column published Wednesday, Piquet Jr says that he was wrongly quoted by “some members of the Brazilian medias who are more interested in creating controversty than to inform their readers”.
In the original interview, Piquet compared two different eras - when his father raced in F1 and when Ayrton Senna raced.
“In the '70s and '80s, the drivers played a very important role on the mechanical side of things,” Piquet explained.
“My father helped develop the tire warmers, the active suspension, the BMW utrbo engine and other great technical innovations. (Ayrton) Senna arrived later in F1, and by that time, the cars were reliable and fully developed. It was no longer necessary to be good at developing a car.... Ayrton's concern was just to drive fast. He was indeed super fast, but he did not have the same technical background as my father and he didn't have to save the engine, the gearbox and the tires during the race. Simple as that. No controversy.”
Piquet is not only a NASCAR driver these days but also a columnist at Yahoo! Brazil.
In his column published Wednesday, Piquet Jr says that he was wrongly quoted by “some members of the Brazilian medias who are more interested in creating controversty than to inform their readers”.
In the original interview, Piquet compared two different eras - when his father raced in F1 and when Ayrton Senna raced.
“In the '70s and '80s, the drivers played a very important role on the mechanical side of things,” Piquet explained.
“My father helped develop the tire warmers, the active suspension, the BMW utrbo engine and other great technical innovations. (Ayrton) Senna arrived later in F1, and by that time, the cars were reliable and fully developed. It was no longer necessary to be good at developing a car.... Ayrton's concern was just to drive fast. He was indeed super fast, but he did not have the same technical background as my father and he didn't have to save the engine, the gearbox and the tires during the race. Simple as that. No controversy.”