Comments on: Pressure piles on Piquet

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:47:33 +0000

Renault Sporting manager Steve Nielsen has admitted concerns about Piquet's performance:

We saw last year with Heikki, he had a difficult start to the season and then he was able to turn it around and I think Nelson has to do the same. Nelson had a good race in Barcelona, unfortunately he made a mistake, but the Friday, [and] Saturday qualifying, certainly, he did an excellent job and then made a mistake in the race. So I think rather than say he’s had a disastrous start to the season, it’s a bit of a curate’s egg – there is good bits and bad bits. He needs to start having more good bits than the bad bits, and he needs to start doing that as soon as he can because Formula 1 is a business, it’s a very cut-throat business, and if people don’t deliver they go the obvious way.

(source)

By: Paul Sainsbury

Paul Sainsbury — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:27:52 +0000

Yeah, it seems to me that the argument that Lewis did what he did last year as a result of Alonso’s set-up skills seems suspiciously like sour grapes from those unable to accept that Alonso was simply out-driven by a rookie. Of course he benefitted from time to time from Alonso’ experience, but that does not change the fact that over the course of the season he was simply better, and Fernando ran off to avoid any more potential embarrassment.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:45:26 +0000

Sadly I do not rate Paffet as F1 material, even Delarosa is faster than he is. I also believe the Hamilton copying Alonso’s setup last year as not being the real fact, mainly because, the team often puts the drivers on different programmes during free practice. And usually, either driver comes up with a baseline setup that is further refined throughout the whole weekend. Even Kimi uses Massa’s car setup every now and then, but I don’t see anyone complaining.

By: Architrion

Architrion — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:15:12 +0000

I’m with N38, but I’d add rookie Lewis (the one who drove last year, I mean) to the package. He needed some background before racing here, but he founded himself well protected by the setup ability of Mr Alonso. And this is the real difference with Mr Piquet. This child can’t read Alonso’s Setup Manual anymore and what you’ve got is this medium-sized driver (until he gets on his boots and learn his basis…)

By: Number 38

Number 38 — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:31:17 +0000

Piquet, Glock, Sutil and Vettel don’t belong on the F1 grid. They should have had more miles in their logbooks testing before being placed as rookies. F1 would be better off with Klien, Luizzi, and maybe it’s time for McLaren to let Paffet have a go, he DOES have the mileage. Everyone has to be a rookie once but this batch is just wasting spave on the grid.

By: Noel

Noel — Sun, 11 May 2008 11:08:17 +0000

Lewis set a very high benchmark for rookies to aspire to and I think it’ll be a long time before anyone matches it. I’m not confident Piquet will come good but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. It’s far too soon to be talking about sacking a driver who showed real skill in GP2. F1 is a different beast entirely and I’m sure we all know of a few drivers who took a while to settle in.

By: Michael Counsell

Michael Counsell — Sun, 11 May 2008 11:01:39 +0000

All 5 of the rookies are still not the finished article, and still need to prove themselves. Nakajima is probably doing the best so far and he’s probably the least experienced out of all of them and outside of Williams and Toyota wasn’t that highly rated.

By: Rabi

Rabi — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:44:45 +0000

Well the bottom line is that as long as Alonso is there then Piquet is there. I have my doubts that Ferrari will take Alonso with Kimi there. Why well for the following facts:
Kimi was born in 1979 which makes him less than 30. Kimi is the 7th highest paid sportsman in the world (according to the ever reliable(!) wikipedia). The only person ahead of him from the same sport is Fernando Alonso. Kimi’s contract expires at the end of 2009, if he was to win the WDC this season I don’t think the heads at Maranello would want Kimi who at that time would be a double world champion with Ferrari out.

So as long as Kimi is there Alonso has to go somewhere else. He won’t return to McLaren, Williams aren’t good enough. I doubt Toyota or Honda would want to pick up his bill and I don’t think he’d want to go there. Red Bull would be unrealistic since they have Webber, Vettel and Coulthard. Only teams left remaining are BMW and Renault and I doubt that Mario Thiessen would be allowed to replace Heidfeld since I would be extremely suprised if he replaced Kubica with Alonso.

Do bear in mind that Alonso does not come cheap and that is the one thing that will put a lot of teams off. Unless a new team with tons of money and ability enter Alonso is more than likely to stay at Renault and drag them back to where they were before Michelen were axed.

By: milos

milos — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:02:18 +0000

Is Bruno Senna any better than Nelson Piquet or is it his name that makes him “better” ?

Piquet is very disapointing but I believe that Briatore would not have placed him in the car unless he believed he is worth it. The money that back him for sure make Briatore think twice before dismissing Piquet. Piquet’s backing helps to finance also Alonso’s paycheck. So, Briatore may show a bit more patience with Piquet than he had with Heikki. But 2008 season may be the only chance Piquet is going to get. If he does not begin to raise his game soon, his F1 career may end before it picks up. There isn’t much room for pay drivers any more.

But whether Renault would be better off with Bruno Senna… I have my doubts …

By: frecon

frecon — Sun, 11 May 2008 09:32:49 +0000

But Piquet was the first one putting pressure. I remember in the preseason, Piquet Jr. (a little bit) and Piquet Sr. (a lot) said that his objective was be better than Alonso. And in some interviews they also said that it was possible, because Nelshino fighted with Lewis at GP2, and Lewis had won some duels to Fernando in F1.

For me is three mistakes in that argument:

1) MP4-23 is not R28.
2) What Lewis did last year is very unsual. Because his performance, and because he had his first season the best car of the grid.
3) Another overrated brazilian driver. Since Senna i have heard of each brazilian pilot that he was the best, and he was going to win the championship. Brazil are looking for a new champion and they put a lot of pressure in their drivers.