Renault
have moved to defend the performance of rookie ace Nelsinho Piquet in the opening three races of the 2008Formula 1
campaign, despite the young Brazilian enduring an even more turbulent start to the season than that suffered by predecessor Heikki Kovalainen last year.Indeed, rumours were already beginning to circulate about the safety of Kovalainen's seat this time twelve months ago – with Renault MD Flavio Briatore doing little to pour cold water on the speculation – but it seems that this time around the Régie have learned their lesson about judging too soon, after the Finn went on to become one of the season's stars come the summer. Pat Symonds is insistent Piquet can do the same.
“I think he has had a damn good start,” the French concern's executive director of engineering toldPlanetF1.com. “It's been rocky, but that only goes to emphasise how good he's been.
“Before the start of the season a lot of people were wondering how it would go, and when he had a very difficult Australian
“He bounced back in Malaysia very strongly, though, and he has been extremely strong here [in Bahrain]. I know ultimately that Fernando [Alonso] out-qualified him, but that is nothing to be ashamed of.
“Through practice Nelson was doing a damn good job in developing the car and really getting on with it, so I am very pleased with the start to his year other than the fact that I feel we as a team have let him down a bit.”
Piquet retired from both the Australian and Bahrain Grands Prix, though his sole finish – in Sepang – was just over 20 seconds shy of double world champion team-mate Alonso. There have also been a number of rookie errors along the way – including getting caught up in the first lap fracas in Melbourne and spinning on oil on lap two in Sakhir – but he is adamant he is continuing to learn all the time.
Grand Prix
it probably just served to focus on ‘was it all going to go wrong?'“He bounced back in Malaysia very strongly, though, and he has been extremely strong here [in Bahrain]. I know ultimately that Fernando [Alonso] out-qualified him, but that is nothing to be ashamed of.
“Through practice Nelson was doing a damn good job in developing the car and really getting on with it, so I am very pleased with the start to his year other than the fact that I feel we as a team have let him down a bit.”
Piquet retired from both the Australian and Bahrain Grands Prix, though his sole finish – in Sepang – was just over 20 seconds shy of double world champion team-mate Alonso. There have also been a number of rookie errors along the way – including getting caught up in the first lap fracas in Melbourne and spinning on oil on lap two in Sakhir – but he is adamant he is continuing to learn all the time.
“I made a good start and the car was working well,” the 22-year-old reflected of his desert adventure, “then I suffered a gearbox problem. I tried to continue but it became dangerous, and my engineers asked me to retire so that we would avoid a penalty in the next race.
“The result was not what we wanted, but I was able to learn a lot again this weekend and that is what I need to keep doing. I will now try to prepare as best I can for the next race, and try to make the most of the next test in Barcelona.”
Alonso has been pessimistic of late about Renault's chances of making any significant progress in 2008, claiming the R28 is only the eighth-quickest car in F1. He has expressed his concerns that should the Enstone-based squad's aerodynamic developments – due to come on-song in time for his home grand prix in Spain – not prove the catalyst for a leap up the grid, then nothing will.
“The result was not what we wanted, but I was able to learn a lot again this weekend and that is what I need to keep doing. I will now try to prepare as best I can for the next race, and try to make the most of the next test in Barcelona.”
Alonso has been pessimistic of late about Renault's chances of making any significant progress in 2008, claiming the R28 is only the eighth-quickest car in F1. He has expressed his concerns that should the Enstone-based squad's aerodynamic developments – due to come on-song in time for his home grand prix in Spain – not prove the catalyst for a leap up the grid, then nothing will.
“The first three races were not as good as we expected,” international news agency Reuters quotes the downbeat 26-year-old as having mused about his Bahrain showing, when he came home in tenth spot, more than 20 seconds away from the final points-paying position. “We were not aiming for a podium or anything like that, but being in the points was not too difficult we thought. This weekend we have been around twelfth or 13th position in all the free practices and qualifying, so we need to make a bigger step.
“There is a new package for the Spanish Grand Prix, and we have confidence that we will improve the car. It is just a matter of how much the others will improve as well, so we are a little bit concerned about our performance at the moment.”
“There is a new package for the Spanish Grand Prix, and we have confidence that we will improve the car. It is just a matter of how much the others will improve as well, so we are a little bit concerned about our performance at the moment.”
crash.net
No comments:
Post a Comment