Gray Matter: Piquet Jr's clock ticking

Eurosport - Thu, 11 Jun 21:24:00 2009

By all accounts the clock is ticking for Nelson Piquet Jr - but how much time does he have left?

2009 Monaco GP Renault Piquet - 0

The Brazilian, son of three-times world champion Nelson, joined Renault at the start of last season after showing promise to match his heritage in the lower formulae - but since he arrived in Formula One he has consistently struggled to perform at the top level.

His biggest problem is that he has been racing against two-times world champion Fernando Alonso, the man who ended Michael Schumacher's run of domination in 2005, but statistics show the Brazilian has struggled to even come close. So far, he has never beaten Alonso in qualifying or a race and in his first year he averaged 6.5 grid places behind his team-mate and, when the pair both reached the flag, finished a little more than two places lower than the Spaniard.

Last season, though, he was given the benefit of the doubt, he was settling in, learning the ropes - and in most races Renault were not good at all. Even though he was out-performed by Alonso, he had good performances in some races, particularly Hungary (where he took his first podium with an impressive second place) and it was enough to suggest to his team bosses that he had talent to persist with.

This season, it was time to step up.

Renault, of course, have again not delivered the best car by a long shot, but Piquet has continued to struggle against Alonso and in qualifying Alonso has made it into every one of the top-10 shoot-outs while Piquet has failed to make it through Q1 three times and has yet to make it into the final round.

The races have seen him fare little better. In Australia brake failure spun him off the track, Malaysia saw every driver struggle in heavy rain then more rain in China saw him have "a few moments" during the race.

Finally, in Bahrain, the conditions allowed Piquet to have a solid race and he finished just two places behind Alonso, raising praise from team bosses Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds having lapped consistently within Alonso's times in a race where the Spaniard said he was pushing the car to its maximum.

It was a relieving vote of confidence, but in Spain he was lapping much slower than Alonso, possibly due to damage early in the race, and in Monaco he was hit from behind in what was probably his most promising race to date this season. At the last race, in Turkey, bad luck struck when a brake problem forced him into a spin in qualifying, putting him 17th on the grid, and he could do little to improve that in the race.

His statistics versus Alonso so far this year are worse than they were last and Renault have highly-rated test driver Lucas di Grassi waiting in the wings. Although it seems Piquet is keeping his rival on the bench for now, the next race could be one of the most crucial of his career...

Award-winning sports journalist Will Gray has worked in and around Formula One for more than a decade, providing detailed technical insight as well as live news reports and features for newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph and Daily Star, AFP and Reuters news agencies and a variety of magazines. He has also been an F1 expert on TalkSPORT and Irish radio.

Will Gray / Eurosport

Comment 1 - 20 of 20

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  1. Nelson is going to stay in Renault the whole­ season.
    Clear as a crystalball,you don´t have to think­ about that anymore.
    The car is the big problem,not the­ driver...even if he have done some mistakes,
    but all­ the drivers do misstakes !

    From Mia, on Wed 17 Jun 9:17PM

  2. Button and Alonso never drove together at Renault.!­
    Alonso's first teammate was Trulli, then­ Villenueve for 4 races, then Fisichella and now­ Piquet!!

    From Walking quiet, on Sat 13 Jun 5:27AM

  3. Button tasted Alonso's dust when they were in the­ same team, but look at them now. Alonso is an­ exceptional driver in an uncompetitive car. Put Piquet­ in another team and he'll look like he deserves to­ be in formula one. I think he's just unlucky to be­ put in a team with Alonso and an uncompetitive car.

    From EamonA, on Fri 12 Jun 2:23PM

  4. he makes Scott Speed look good

    From liam, on Fri 12 Jun 1:58PM

  5. i think he should be admired it can't be easy­ driving in a team owned by flav and where alonso is the­ star boy! he's not been great but hes not that bad!­ monaco not his fault and only 2 places behind Alonso­ at turkey, come on give him a break! though I have to­ thank him for the crash at Singapore in front of us,­ that made me finally shut mr know it all who knew­ nothing next to me up as he was shouting Alonsos­ crashedAlonso crashed, I was like no he hasn't­ that's piquet! will always love him for that...

    From Joanne, on Fri 12 Jun 1:44PM

  6. it is an ex-clock, it has ceased to be, the clock is no­ more, popped its cloggs and gone to meet its maker...

    From Pablo from Bolivia, on Fri 12 Jun 1:27PM

  7. GRAY MATTER SAY'S PIQUET JR'S CLOCK IS­ TICKING,HE COULDN'T CLOCK AT TIME ROUND A RACE­ TRACK.PUT BRUNO SENNA IN THE SEAT HE COULD DO A BETTER­ JOB.

    From clive, on Fri 12 Jun 1:14PM

  8. THE GEM IS YET TO BE UNLEASH

    From Eu, on Fri 12 Jun 12:15PM
  9. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    He washed out, get rid of him already and put another­ Brazillian there, Bruno Senna perhaps the guy doing­ well in sports car and GP2 Renault and Flavio could use­ him

    From Iceman jr, on Fri 12 Jun 8:05AM

  10. It's not necessarily true that Piquet is a bad­ driver. The problem is that Flavio has always looked­ for the next "gem" after Fernando. but lack­ of patience is showing that he is under developing all­ his drivers. Some forget that Alonso tested roughly ­ one and half years with Renault developing the car.­ Maybe the only thing that will bring out Piquet's­ talent is time and continuity.

    From Santi, on Fri 12 Jun 6:56AM

  11. Santi is right 2008 Piquet was 2nd in Germany, in­ Hungary he was 6th I think,

    From Walking quiet, on Fri 12 Jun 6:42AM

  12. Alonso's first year wit Renault he almost doubled­ his teamate (Jarno Trulli) 55 pts to 33. not bad for­ his first year in a decent car.
    Piquet has never­ impressed me until the ding @#$% battle he had with­ Hamilton at Turkey, then to finish just 2 place behind­ Alonso with probably the worst Renault this decade!
    He­ can hold his head high

    From Walking quiet, on Fri 12 Jun 6:32AM

  13. the article is wrong. Piquet never got a second place­ in Hungary, it was Glock. Piquet got second in Germany­ though

    From Santi, on Fri 12 Jun 5:31AM
  14. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    this driver is possibly a bigger looser than­ barrichello

    From captain_pimp99, on Fri 12 Jun 3:16AM
  15. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    let him have the big bushy-eyed one`s seat,he dont need­ a trimmer.

    From Burt, on Fri 12 Jun 2:41AM

  16. how pretensous is will
    Alonso in qualifying or a race­ and in his first year he averaged 6.5 grid places­ behind his team-mate and, when the pair both reached­ the flag, finished a little more than two places lower­ than the Spaniard.
    utter b.o.l.l.o.c.k.s. writen by a­ m.o.r.o.n

    From Demo, on Fri 12 Jun 2:27AM

  17. It would be so Flavio-like to fire the driver for the­ shortcomings of the 2009 Renault car. Oh well, not much­ of this will matter after tomorrow.

    From Red Ears, on Fri 12 Jun 1:51AM

  18. So its make or break for him maybe,at Silverstone.

    From wizzo, on Thu 11 Jun 11:41PM

  19. time to go. get Anthony Davidson in He can test and­ race born racer.

    From William S, on Thu 11 Jun 11:35PM

  20. yeah right....do i need to say more?

    From petike, on Thu 11 Jun 10:59PM
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