http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=44447

Personally I really don't think he deserves it. Di Grassi is worth a try IMO, he was good in GP2.

Piquet was very good in GP2.

But he's rubbish in F1.

In 2006 Nelson Piquet became GP2 2006 vice-champion, with 4 victories, 7 pole positions out of 11 races
( and only 1 for Hamilton ), battling with Hamilton (in the superior ART car and team) till the last
race in Monza. He became the only GP2 driver so far, to gain all points during one GP2 weekend ( pole, win race 1, fastest lap race 1, win race 2, fastest lap race 2 ) both in dry and wet conditions in Hungary.

All very well and good, but he hasn't stepped up to the mark this year.

If Alonso goes, then Piquet goes. If Alonso stays (which I guess he will), then he has a chance of keeping his seat. IMO.

Piquet was the deciding factor in Renaults sole victory in 2008. Like it or not without Piquet they would not have a victory this year. That dedication and team spirit should be factored in for next year.

Alonso has won twice.

Ever since British F3, Piquet has been on a very clear learning curve. His 2nd seasons in BF3 and GP2 were much stronger than his 1st. I'm sure the same can happen in F1 and I really hope Renault give him the seat.

He has been in a terrible car for most of the season, give him a break, ok you may say alonso has managed but that is not putting the situation into context, alonso is a class driver. Give nelson another season and then judge him. All of his mistakes have been due to trying too hard to impress. He needs to start on a clean plate in oz09 and show us he is capable.

yeah he wan't that great in F1, yet - he's made it to the best car racing championship in the world, lets hope he learns something from Alonso and starts to perform at his peak

Alonso wasn't great at the start of the season either. Of late Nelson has put in some decent drives - I don't see a reason to dump him.

me neither tbh, i think he's shown enough good form this year to be a safer bet than a newcomer, plus he'll have the year's experience in hand, he certainly improved in the second half of the year. Get him into the new car asap i say, give him some miles

Piquet has driven well in the last two races, but it is really too little too late.

The guy has been uber-verage throughout his career apart from a one-off year in GP2.

Maybe he will keep his drive, but I'd like to see di Grassi get it.

If Alonso confirms for Renault next season, in the next week or so, then i fully expect Piquet to keep his seat for next season also.

What do you expect him to say?

'Yes I sucked a lot this year compared to my team-mate, and there's no way Renault will sign me for next season. This is the end of my Formula One career, now I'll talk to daddy and see if there's place for me in some other race series. Bye."



Of course he's 'confident' about retaining his race seat. And when he is dumped he'll act all 'surprised'. :yawn:

Agreed. Actually Nelson has been quite good in the races lately. However, his qualifying performances has been dissapointing. Not even once has he outqualified Alonso..

Nevertheless, I think he's absolutely earned a Renault drive for 2009. I don't see how a switch would benefit Renault at all.

Not great at the start of the season?
His double pass on Kimi/Heikki and owning Ron on the last lap of the Australian GP in a car that was slower than the Honda was great!

Once Renault car became better Nelson showed some very good drivings. IMHO they should give him one more year.



Alonso admitted in press conference yesterday he overdrove the car in first part of the season simply because it was crap.

I think Nelsinho deserves a second season.

Formula One is clearly a very hard series to adjust to in your first year.

I think Piquet has steadily improved, and has been very impressive on a handful of occasions.

Though I'm not sure if Renault will be able to forget his awful start to the season.

Piquet had harder task than rookies from 2006 or 2007. There are no more electronic aids, Renault car was crap and in bad car it's much easier to make mistakes.

He was superb in F3. I think that having debuted in a tricky car, against a driver as good as Alonso, after a year of testing with little testing, he's been running to stand still all year.
Qualifying was one of his strengths below F1 so there's no reason to think he won't sort that out.

Heaps of drivers need a season to get used to a series. They learn for a season, then perform in the second. Scott Dixon was like that in the states. Lewis Hamilton needed two seasons of Formula Renault then Formula Three before he became a championship contender.

For that reason I think Nelsinho deserves season number two. But given the pressure cooker of Formula One it may not be possible.

Grandprix.com reported a month or so ago that Renault was trying to offload Piquet to Toro Rosso who in return wanted cash to take him. A great shame.

Nelson Piquet has an excellent record on the matter of qualifying on slick tyres,
during his last campain on slick tyres during the GP2 2006 Championship, Nelson
took 7 out of 11 pole positions. Lewis Hamilton achieved 1 pole position during the
same GP2 2006 campain.

In 2009 Formula One will return to slick tyres, less aero downforce and will be
according to Fernando Alonso much more GP2 like than ever before.


GP2 2006 Championship :

Place Date Result qualifying
Piquet Hamilton

Valencia, Spain 08-09 April 1 3
Imola, Italy (San Marino) 21-23 April 6 3
Nürburgring, Germany (Europe) 05-07 May 1 3
Barcelona, Spain 12-14 May 1 3
Monaco 26-27 May 12 1
Silverstone, Great Britain 09-11 June 1 * 3
Magny-Cours, France 14-16 July 5 4
Hockenheim, Germany 28-30 July 3 7
Hungaroring, Hungary 04-06 August 1 8
Istanbul Park, Turkey 25-27 August 1 5
Monza, Italy 08-10 September 1 3


* ( Piquet later stripped off best time in Silverstone for passing under yellow)

Piquet is no worse than Sato, does everyone agree?

And Sato had the Honda drive for many races, despite finish only a few times on the podium in a car that was regularly there in the hands of Button.

Yes, I agree but that does Piquet no favours.

I thought Sato under-delivered for most of his career, save a couple of good races for Super Aguri last year.

Sato seems a good guy and was a reasonable talent but has had his shot at Formula One.

I think Piquet Jnr deserves another year.

5Live seem to think Di Grassi has already been signed by Renault to take PK's drive.

While it is true he has had his problems in the first half of the year, he certainly turned things around in the second half. I´m not only referring to his very fortunate 2nd place, but generally speaking, he has been a lot closer to his teammate in both practice and the race. I have the feeling he is the type who needs a bit more time to adjust to the challenges of F1, and Renault would be making a big mistake if they let him go after only one season.
Please remember Fernando Alonso is not just any old teammate. And yes I know all about Lewis blah blah blah, but this is a completely different kettle of fish.

That seems to tally with the report on grandprix.com a few weeks back.

They suggested that the decision had already been made and that Piquet had been offered to STR.

One of the best posts evah!!

Yeah, lets conveniently forget that Heikki pressed the speed limiter by accident on the front straight... TROLL!!

A second and fourth place can't really be classed as rubbish even though he lucked in to the second place. Alonso is in many peoples eyes the best in the world and he lucked into his win in Singapore. Piquet has been pretty close to Alonso this year, granted not as close as hamilton was last year, but the situation was very different. No traction control for one thing.

I think he deserves a second year as does Bourdais

I am not convinced at Nelsinho. The fact that he has a great financial backup and the Name and he still hasn't secured a drive for the next year speaks for itself - what comes to teams' willingness to keep him. The fact is, that he has been outside top ten more than he should have been because of his own fault. Luckily for him especially the lousy qualifyings have served him well - with freely chosen tactics and fuel loads combined with luck he's been able to get some positions without which he would have been replaced with Grosjean or di Grassi already. Or Sato, which would have been the most interesting choise.

But he may have a future with Honda, and somehow i believe that it would serve him good. It is up to him, but now he should really start to deliver. With Renault he's been too comfortable outside the car and too uncomfortable inside the car.

'Piquet confident of Renault drive for 09'

In the Renault Clio cup perhaps...

To be fair to him he's been great in the past few races but generally rubbish before that (except Hockenheim) so his drive is hanging by a thread. His performance at Interlagos might be the defining factor perhaps. Then again maybe not as I can't read Flavs mind but we will see. If I had to bet I would out my money on Di Grassi though.

Add to those things that there were seemingly never-ending allegations in previous formulae that his dads team/s were involved in some very very dodgy goings on (and not on the track) that ultimately resulted in a number of on track successes for him.

You can see in his driving that he's never had to fight for anything in his entire life. He has no spirit in the car. He's possibly one of the dullest drivers (on track) of the last decade.

Alonso is tough to have as a teammate, but on balance, Piquet has not been pretty close to him; most of the time, he has been miles behind, especially in qualifying. He has gotten better along the year, but he still very rarely looks like keeping up with Alonso. 4th without SC intervention was a decent result, but Alonso was far in front of him, winning the race.

But it's easy to make allegations, especially when they concern a driver people are eager to think the worst of. It's a good way of explaining an opponents speed (not least to yourself). Or destabilising him or her. Or getting the press on your side. It was claimed in GP2 that Piquet had had some extra testing but he hadn't.

I don't think I agree about the second part, either, although so much of that is in the eye of the individual. He has been more subdued than he would have been with a little more certainty, I suppose.

EDIT: I remember Autosport talking about his exciting style in F3. Anyway, my liking is as much for drivers who quietly, infuriatingly get on with their job as much as it is for aggressive, flamboyant ones.

I remember such alligations from the Brazilian F3 too...

I have looked up for the qualifying differentials between the two. I think the current qualy system makes Piquet look worse than he is. Often 0.3-0.4 seconds difference means he is out in Q2 and Alonso is in Q3 and then further improving his position.

But when we look at these numbers, is he really bad and slow? With the exception of 2-3 occasions he has been about 0.3-0.4 seconds off the pace of Alonso who is arguably the best driver on the current grid. Is that really so bad?

China: 0.258
Japan 0.403
Singapore: 1.066 (Q1)
Monza: 0.333 (Q1)
Belgium: 0.474
Valencia: 0.309
Hungary: 0.315
Germany: 0.272 (Q1)
Silverstone: 0.123
France: 0.287
Canada: 0.905
Monaco: 0.287 (Q1)
Turkey: 0.732
Spain: 0.795 (Q3), [0.090 (Q2)]
Bahrain: 0.445
Malaysia: 0.422
Melbourne: 1.423 (Q1)

* Note: I have compared their times in the Q session where Piquet managed to get in. In most cases it's Q2, I noted where it's Q1 or Q3.

And

Brazil: 0.047

See? That's what I was talking about. In Q2 Piquet was only 0.047 seconds off Alonso's pace - but with that Alonso got through to Q3 and Piquet didn't...

It still is 18-0.

¿When was the last time a driver didn't beat his teammate in qualifying once in the whole season?

How can you say Piquet's China drive was good, when he lost to Alonso by 38 seconds and narrowly managed to get into the points in the third best car. You are rating the car, not the drive. People are complaining that Kovalainen is a waste of seat, but want Piquet to carry on - logic?

Brazilian press saying Piquet renewed with Renault for one more year.

Ricardo Rosset in a Footwork Hart was beaten in every qualy session by Jos Verstappen . . . . believe it or not.

I also personally prefer Di Grassi over Piquet. Yet for Renault it would mean to start the third season in a row with a rookie (Kovalainen, Piquet, Di Grassi) and I think some stability and continuity stands any team in good stead.

Especially if they want to challenge for the WDC with Alonso next year...

http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/paginas/gra...1/502321_1.html

So Nelsinho gets a reprieve. It was a tough rookie season, but he survives to see another year. He is already scheduled to test the 2009 car.

That means that Di Grassi will have to wait.

0-18 and after his solo spin-out at Brazil I just cannot see how Nelsinho can be retained (by any team).

Despite being a rookie, he was embarrassing. :\

I'm not a big fan of the guy but he was punted from behind by DC and it looked like his cars just snapped this time.

No Nelson hasn't been confirmed for the race seat at Renault for 2009.