Nelson Piquet junior

[ginsu]

I'm confused, ginsu. Hasn't Sato outqualified and outran Davidson this year?

Yes, he actually has. Technically, Sato would be the better choice based on experience and results. I think I'd just like to see Anthony in a proper car. I really like his attitude and I think he has a lot of potential, but yeah, if I was doing the hiring off of stats alone I would probably have to go for Sato

[vyselegend]

Well, Davidson is the young one, it is still time for him to leave Honda and bound himself with another constructor, while Sato is in a very tight relationship with Honda since so much time, I think it is unlikely he'll switch to the french manufacturer. Furthermore in the recent nationalist mood of F1 ( ), the press asking for germans to BMW, frenchs to Renault, japaneses to Honda etc...

Which lead me to think the Grosjean idea is the more probable, although not for this year. The good think is, despite that his titularisation would mainly be motivated by his french nationality, he is one hell of a good driver, very promising really. I've seen his F3 season last year, and I must say it is not only the results that were good, but the way it was achieved also. Despite playing the championship, he was never conservative and always attacked as hard as possible (the damp Barcelona race was memorable). Seing his GP2 debut (GP2 Asia champion & third in the current GP2 standings), I see some huge potential in the guy.

In my precedent post I underlined the probability of Renault retiring in case they loose ING sponsorship. Funnily enough, Carlos Ghosn immediatly responded (I bet he read F1 technical ) that retreat isn't an option, whatever the rankings says:

Renault to stay in F1 'for many years'

Now the question is, does it means he doesn't fear IGN loss threat?(having another joker in his cuff?) Or is it a way to seduce a new potential sponsor?

Back to our dear Piquet, I was left wondering this week end if he isn't just a victim of the new trend of placing rookies in top teams for their debut. Schuey started at Jordan IIRC, Alonso and Raikonen at Minardi... Actually before Hamilton it wasn't conceivable to bring a newbie in without the proper "backmarker year" playing as the official F1 tutorial...

Hamilton's case have proven a big succes, but it is a very particular one (Lots of preparation years, deep work with a sensational simulator etc). Heikki on the other hand had a hard time coping with too much pressure, and I think without his wonderfull open and positive mindset, and the providence of the "turning point" chaotic Canadian GP, he would have collapse before the season's end.

Nelsinho is described as introvert, darker type of mind, that doesn't sound good to me in terms of spiritual strengh necessary to face this sort of challenge. Miguel mentioned Renault have put a psychologist to help him, I hope it's a good one...

[Moanlower]

The couple of times Piquet broke a rear or front wing won't make much difference in Renault's budget. First because he didn't made much more damage averagely. He's probably the cheapest F1 driver at the moment. Thats what you get when you want Fernando in the team..

Most of the people here is stating how poor Nelson is, also comparing him to Heikki's last season. That's bullshit since it's impossible to compare the drivabilty of the car and how competitive the competition is.

Nelson had no luck to start his rookie season with the worst drivable car along with the Super Aguri's. He has proven that he can match the pace of Fernando but mad some crucial errors when it mattered during quali or race.

Renault is a diffecult team to start since there's a lot of pressure to compete for points. All these things together with the fact that he's missing enough confidence explains his situation. I'm sure he shortly (this weekend!) will show he's good enough for the job. And better than pay drivers such as Sato for instance..

[pieter1]

No way to compare Heikki with Nelsinho!
Piquet is NOT doing a "Kovalainen".
What I see is Piquet is showing no progression curve at all.
BTW critics awaited for the 4th GP because in last years 4th GP, Kovy had scored twice.

And come on man, Dornboos and Kartikheyan were pay-to-drive, Monteiro was not that fast, Scott Speed was a diary writing *sshole. Liuzzi had his opportunity as well as Klien and maybe these two are the best of this group you mention.

Heikki is a talent and now he has the right car in mclaren. maybe it was a too early move to go to a big team from heikki but alonso would nbe the nr.1 in the team and heikki wanted to compete not just be nr. 2 all the time... Nelsinho is not at the level of Heikki nor is he at the level of young Alonso (when he joined minardi he was already showing some promise and tons of talent). Alonso was good with a slow minardi and with a fast renault and mclaren but nelsinho is not able to fight with the majority of the drivers in this season with a good car even when alonso is...nelsinho was not prepared to join F1, it is too soon for this guy

[jaho101]

This was just posted by an CFD specialist for Renault, on Alonso's technical ability and knowledge:

No. I quite like the guy.

When it comes to car setup the driver is the one and final deciding factor. A driver won't always know what changes are being made to the car in the garage, or rather what changes need to be made in order to correct a certain issue/problem, but changes will be made on demand until the driver is happy with the car's handling.

The difference between Piquet and Alonso is that Alonso knows exactly what he wants changing every time he comes in. I usually listen to all the radio during the tests and stuff, and the amount of technical detail Alonso goes into is incredible. He'll come into the garage and say that in turns 4, 6 and 10 he's having poor traction through a certain portion of the throttle map when he is at 1/4 wheel lock - and then tell his engineer (he doesn't suggest, he tells) to soften the rear dampers by 1 click, to lower the rear ride height 2mm and that engine map #5 needs tweaking in the 10-11k RPM range.

Piquet just says "no grip" and whines like a little Brazilian b****.

I have so much respect for Alonso's technical knowledge. 99% of the public don't know how on the ball this guy is.

My respect for Alonso just grew by a whole lot, man the guy deserves a better car for sure.

[rkn]

Very interesting info, where was this posted?

[hyunterks]

2008 Piquet

Australian 16 Mar 2008 Renault 20 Ret 0 0
Malaysian 23 Mar 2008 Renault 13 11 0 0
Bahrain 06 Apr 2008 Renault 14 Ret 0 0
Spanish 27 Apr 2008 Renault 10 Ret 0 0
Turkish 11 May 2008 Renault 17 15 0 0
Monaco 25 May 2008 Renault 17 Ret 0 0
Canadian 08 Jun 2008 Renault 15 Ret 0 0

2007 Heikki

Australian 18 Mar 2007 Renault 13 10 0 0
Malaysian 08 Apr 2007 Renault 11 8 1 1
Bahrain 15 Apr 2007 Renault 12 9 0 1
Spanish 13 May 2007 Renault 8 7 2 3
Monaco 27 May 2007 Renault 15 13 0 3
Canadian 10 Jun 2007 Renault 22 4 5 8
U.S. 17 Jun 2007 Renault 6 5 4 12

Same Rookie season and test driver about 1 year and GP2 championship 2nd

first 7 races, Heikki had more bad car but got 12 point and run complete all races
Piquet have more good car than last year's car he,only two race, run complete and no point

Heikki >>>>>>>> Can't destroy wall >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> piquet

[tarzoon]

This was just posted by an CFD specialist for Renault, on Alonso's technical ability and knowledge:

No. I quite like the guy.

When it comes to car setup the driver is the one and final deciding factor. A driver won't always know what changes are being made to the car in the garage, or rather what changes need to be made in order to correct a certain issue/problem, but changes will be made on demand until the driver is happy with the car's handling.

The difference between Piquet and Alonso is that Alonso knows exactly what he wants changing every time he comes in. I usually listen to all the radio during the tests and stuff, and the amount of technical detail Alonso goes into is incredible. He'll come into the garage and say that in turns 4, 6 and 10 he's having poor traction through a certain portion of the throttle map when he is at 1/4 wheel lock - and then tell his engineer (he doesn't suggest, he tells) to soften the rear dampers by 1 click, to lower the rear ride height 2mm and that engine map #5 needs tweaking in the 10-11k RPM range.

Piquet just says "no grip" and whines like a little Brazilian b****.

I have so much respect for Alonso's technical knowledge. 99% of the public don't know how on the ball this guy is.

My respect for Alonso just grew by a whole lot, man the guy deserves a better car for sure.

In Monaco, he was deciding which tyres to fit in while racing in the rain. As far as I recall from recent times, only Schummi (the fast, talented one, not the other!) would do something like that. Also, he's the reason why Schummi decided it was time for him to retire.

About Piquet Jr., well, he's a normal rookie. In previous years, the rumors where that he kept winning due mostly to the extensive resources (i.e. cash) that he had. Not saying that he's not fast or that he doesn't deserve being there. Just that unless he shows something out of this world, he'll be dimmed by the likes of rookies like Heikki, Hamilton and even Kimi (even if he started some time ago, and if you recall, he was putting a good fight with Heidfeld in his first season).

[Moanlower]

Piquet showed a good pace at Montreal and made some nice passings in difficult conditions. Today he sets the fastest time in practice at Barcelona, it's even the fastest time this year.

[De Weberis]

Hello everybody,
My first post here...

It seems that Nelsinho is improving.

Nelson Alonso GAP
FP3 1:15.750 1:16.437

Q1 1:15.848 1:15.754 0.094
Q2 1:15.770 1:15.483 0.287

Of course Alonso was worried about Q3 in FP3, but in qualifying with low fuel, Nelson was much closer.
NAP stuck in the 1:15.750.
Unfortunatelly for him the midfield is very tight and 0.3 sec meant lots of grid spots.

Keep on going Nelson.

[vyselegend]

Hello everybody,
My first post here...

It seems that Nelsinho is improving.

Nelson Alonso GAP
FP3 1:15.750 1:16.437

Q1 1:15.848 1:15.754 0.094
Q2 1:15.770 1:15.483 0.287

Of course Alonso was worried about Q3 in FP3, but in qualifying with low fuel, Nelson was much closer.
NAP stuck in the 1:15.750.
Unfortunatelly for him the midfield is very tight and 0.3 sec meant lots of grid spots.

Keep on going Nelson.

Hi! Welcome to the forum.

You're right to encourage him, but this improvement is the least expected after the team gave him two testing days (cancelling Alonso's) at Barcelona, which programm I suspect was putting the accent on sheer pace, with qualy runs training, hence the very fast laps he recorded on his second day.

But it is true that his race attitude in Montreal was pointing toward the right direction, as he showed controlled agressiveness and determination before being let down by the brakes. Now, benefiting from the circumstances, he'll start 9th on the grid, which is his best starting slot, with a large window of strategies available. It will be THE occasion for him to break his duck, I sincerly hope he won't f*ck it up! Fingers crossed...

[vyselegend]

Well, it's done! Congratulations Nelsinho, this is quite a late awakening, but those first points are scored with style, overtaking Alonso was the cherry over the cake. =D>

Now it's important to build some confidence from this overall satisfying result, and keep the momentum for the next races.

[Moanlower]

Eat your heart out Piquet criticasters ! Booya !

[De Weberis]

Now Nelsinho belongs to history of F1.
Beyond scoring points, I believe he is the fifth son o a F1 driver to score points.
The pairings are:

The Hills.
The Andrettis.
The Rosbergs.
The Nakagimas. [the only one whose parent isn't a WDC]
The Piquets.

[modbaraban]

How about Villeneuves?