Fallout From Sebastien Buemi Ramming Nelson Piquet

As per my previous post during the Monaco Grand Prix, Sebastien Buemi ran into the back of Nelson Piquet on Lap 11, resulting in the retirement of both drivers.

There was no doubt that the accident was caused by Buemi. After the race, Buemi apologised to Piquet for the incident, saying:

I was right up behind Piquet, in his slipstream and when I tried to pull out and make my move he went on the brakes and I could not get out from behind him, so I ended up pushing him all the way into the first corner.

I am sorry about this and I went and apologised to him.

Nelson Piquet however has been less than gracious in his response, saying that 'Young' Buemi cost him seventh place:

I'm very angry because Monaco's a long race and that's why these young drivers need to be careful with what they're doing.

I don't know what he was thinking there - we planned a long first stint and, if it wasn't for the crash, I could have ended up in seventh.

I understand that Piquet is under a lot of pressure, with rumours that he will lose his place in the Renault team. However, I don't think Piquet has helped himself with the response.

The reaction to Piquet's comments is mostly incredulous. Piquet seems to be throwing stones, when he obviously lives in a glasshouse. He's only a couple of years older than Buemi and he has made many 'young' driver errors himself over the last season and half.

By all means, he can criticize Buemi for costing him the chance to finish (although many cynical commentators have pointed out that he was no certainty to finish the race, given his own record of crashing out), but he hasn't earned the right to take the stance he has in criticizing young drivers. He's still one himself.

At least Sebastien Buemi's team boss Franz Tost reacted reasonably well. Although frustrated by the mistake, Tost said:

As usual at this track, you end up in the barriers if you don’t have the discipline to wait a little bit. But, in Buemi’s defence, he did a really good job in qualifying and I see today’s incident as another step in his learning process.

On a side note, I thought that I was 'live blogging' the accident, but it turns out that Channel 10 here in Australia was delaying the race by 30 minutes or so. As a result, it wasn't as 'live' as I thought. :(

In good news for Toro Rosso, Buemi's teammate, Sebastien Bourdais, finished 7th for the team. Had Buemi managed to stay out of trouble, he would likely have been in the same region as Bourdais, which shows the STR car is doing fairly well.

However, Buemi did make the error and will be disappointed with the crash in Monaco. He needs to puts this behind him and look forward to the next race now, but he will be very keen to finish the race in Istanbul.