vyselegend wrote:I see one big reason to swap him with an experienced driver ASAP: Points!
...
That said, there are two points to be made to avoid making undue harm to Piquet:
1-Only result speaks, and in the end his zero point score is no less than Glock's or Coulthard's, even if his driving have been worse.
2-Renault are the only responsible for this dramatic position, having shown overconfidence in the abilities of the R28 car, and thinking pairing a rookie with FA would be enough to challenge the top three.
Wow, this has shaped up to
be a far better topic than I thought it could be, and no doubt this owes much to vyselegend's (
and subsequently others') thoughtful opening and contributions. I've always found it hard to say anything definitive about Nelson and am particularly averse of jumping to conclusions at this point.
This is mostly down to Piquet's history and the complexities of his position, so well documented here already. As the general wisdom has it, he seems to acclimatise slowly but is competitive thereafter. The points issue is pressing for Renault, there can be no doubt about that. Last year wasn't very stellar for them, but by this time they had 21 points nonetheless - compared to the total of nine amassed so far this season. Comparatively speaking I don't think they've ever done this badly since 2002, even. As Miguel calculates, Nelson faces an uphill battle in getting even to the smallest of points. I'm growing to appreciate that the "we must always be among the top three teams" approach is working against facing up to the real challenges in Formula One.
There is no "adequately good" in racing, it is a standard more befitting to a manufacturer competing in the automotive sector seeking to appease a market and guarding its profit margin. Ergo, perhaps it's not fair to expect Piquet to "cope with the situation", but rather he should be allowed to push in his own terms - never mind occasional failures to perform. Risks exist, that's the "
raison d'être" for the likes of ING. Before looking elsewhere (
As some report they're doing - would Alonso follow? BMW, Toyota, anyone?), perhaps they should point it out to Renault that Piquet should have a greater say in how he manages risk rather than conform to arbitrary expectations. The team is seemingly gripped by a defensiveness which is not conducive to progress. This can effectively stump the growth of a "rookie".
The confidence, dominance, self-sufficiency, shrewdness, lack of guilt (
as researched and reported by psychologists like Deborah Graham, Keith Johnsgard & Bruce Ogilvie et.al.) and whatnot must come from within; those cannot be imposed by any measure, only accommodated. Mind you, this is not a problem with contemporary F1 unique to Piquet alone, but it can be argued to be the most visible atm with his current situation. More generally I believe the recent trends in the commercial structure, management, strategy and focus of technological constraints has worked against recognising, articulating and exemplifying what is the "nature of racing". This could very well be contributing to the longer term causalities that have led to reduced overtaking.
Also noteworthy is the oft-cited frustration with the "distant" F1, symptomatic not only of an ill advised PR micromanagement of the sport, but perhaps in the larger framework the removal of drivers from their own ambition and purpose as well. But now I'm veering pretty far from Piquet. In a way, this is also a chance for Alonso to rise up to a challenge. By now, he's acquired a lot of perspective on the ambitions and trials of rookies (
himself, Hamilton, Kovy) and presumably could with little to no effort buffer some of the pressure he knows to be unnecessary, while respecting Nelson's right to be "his own man". Not exactly mentoring, but behaving in an actively accommodating role.
Renault admit development dilemma
