piquet told the fia that it had been on purpose. he said had been asked by renault team principal flavio briatore and engineer pat symonds to stage the crash. in return for his statement, piquet was given immunity by the fia. on 4 september 2009 renault f1 was charged with conspiracy and race fixing. on 16 september, renault announced they would not contest the charges, and that briatore and team engineer symonds had left the team.