Could Nelson Piquet save son’s career?

Is the career of Nelson Piquet Jnr, son of the motor-racing legend Nelson Piquet, about to be saved by his dad? It looks like it. The 24-year-old appeared to have blown his Formula One career when he was dropped by his team, Renault, this week and had a very public falling-out with team boss Flavio Briatore.

However, his background could be his salvation as speculation rages that his father will offer him a second chance by stepping in to take over the BMW Sauber team, which announced it was leaving F1 last week, and installing his son as one of the drivers.

Piquet Jnr was tipped for great things after finishing runner-up to Lewis Hamilton in the GP2 Championship in 2006 and following Hamilton into the big league. But things have not gone his way this season and after 10 Grand Prix races without a point, he had his contract terminated by Renault.

After discovering his fate, Piquet threw his toys out of the pram, accusing Briatore of being his "executioner". He added: "I feel a sense of relief for the end of the worst period of my career."

Now daddy may be about to come to the rescue.

Piquet Snr, who won the world championship twice for the Bernie Ecclestone-owned Brabham team and once for Williams in the 1980s, guided his son through the racing ranks after founding a single seater racing company called Piquet Sports.

He is now being tipped to team up with Peter Sauber to revive the Swiss-based team as an independent entity for 2010 after the exit of majority shareholder BMW.