markconn58 - 17 May 2008 08:08 PM

rickoblue - 16 May 2008 10:55 PM

markconn58 - 16 May 2008 10:49 PM

jfme - 16 May 2008 12:35 PM

Renault needs to improve the car.

Just because a 2 x WDC finishes in the top 10 in a tractor, it does not mean his rookie teammate will do as well.

It just shows that the gap between a rookie and a world champion is much bigger in a midpack car than winning from pole in the fastest car of the grid.

Excellent point!

Or it could simply mean that the "other" rookie, was much faster than this one.

Or it could mean the other rookie was favored over his proven teammate.

You Fred fans will never let go of the fantasy that Mac screwed a 2X wdc for a rookie.
Pitiful.

Rusty Russ - 19 May 2008 03:06 PM

You Fred fans will never let go of the fantasy that Mac screwed a 2X wdc for a rookie.
Pitiful.

Can't tell for sure. What we do know is that Mclaren was not racing against Kimi, they were racing against Fernando...

jfme - 16 May 2008 12:35 PM

Renault needs to improve the car.

Just because a 2 x WDC finishes in the top 10 in a tractor, it does not mean his rookie teammate will do as well.

It just shows that the gap between a rookie and a world champion is much bigger in a midpack car than winning from pole in the fastest car of the grid.

exactly, it doesnt take much skill to drive a car that goes in the exact spot you point it while using a 2x WDC's set ups to aid your confidence. driving a car that doesnt go where you want it to go is a different story.

I'm not a Fred fan but I do see that with Renault, the combination of Renault engineering innovations and Fred's input has moved them from about 9-10th in the midpack to about 7th-8th for long run race pace, after 5 races and their car is improving.

We see that McLaren with Lewis and Heikki have to resort to running extra-ordinary strategies with a light fuel load and executing race craft perfectly in order to keep up with Ferrari's development for pace - especially long run race pace .


Ferrari stated that McLaren has picked up some ground on them in single lap pace after Catalunya but are working on that area now.


We'll never know if McLaren "screwed" ( I presume that to mean giving preferential strategic treatment in the second half of the 2007 season to Lewis) a 2 x WDC for sure. But I do get the sense that they must miss his contributions (from experience and firsthand detailed consistent driving impressions and pinpointed suggested solutions) to the discussion when you look at the relative rates of development change in 2008 ...this just after 1 major development round.

Another factor that could be hurting Piquet right now is that unlike with Lewis last year, Jr does not have the privilege of having access to Fernando's telemetry. If I'm not mistake this is a philosophy Renault have had for the last couple of years.

Even back when Fernando was still a young promise he did not have access to his more experienced teammate's info. Once even mentioning in 2004 on Spanish teli that he was prohibited to go to Trulli's side of the garage and that they were like 2 teams within the team. So maybe not sharing telemetry could be one of the factors hurting Jr getting up to speed quickly throughout the weekend.

If the teams want to win constructors championships the drivers should work together to find the best set-up in order to maximize points for the team. Also, working together, they can test and try twice as many options and set-ups instead of working on two different programs that are parallel to one another.

Hiding telemtry from each other sounds like a waste of time and is counter-productive to getting the most out of the car. Since there is no longer a third driver on Fridays, the drivers need all of the info they can get to score max points.

The team should come first, then the driver.

E46ZCP - 20 May 2008 03:24 AM

If the teams want to win constructors championships the drivers should work together to find the best set-up in order to maximize points for the team. Also, working together, they can test and try twice as many options and set-ups instead of working on two different programs that are parallel to one another.

Hiding telemtry from each other sounds like a waste of time and is counter-productive to getting the most out of the car. Since there is no longer a third driver on Fridays, the drivers need all of the info they can get to score max points.

The team should come first, then the driver.

Although this is a very logical and reasonable position -- If Renault in fact does NOT do it this way. Then, I think we must also consider the fact that Renault has won Back-to-back titles recently without doing it in the usual way.

I don't believe that a F1 team is not sharing data between drivers.

The drivers can think it is like that, but at the engineer level I don't think they are going to keep much things from each other. At the minimum the manager(s) of the engineering staff should be, and in my opinion are, interested in joining all data gathered from both drivers and looking how it benefits the team and not only a part of it.

It may seem as my intent, is in throwing Piquet Jr. under the bus (in starting a thread like this one..) but actually it is the exact opposite. I really enjoyed his down-to-the-wire battle with Lewis Hamilton in GP2, and (probably like Renault) expected much more of him.

Knowing this is a somewhat influential forum I am hoping to bring to light (imho)the severity of his situation early enough in the season for him to do something .. about it.

Something we should consider however, in comparing his somewhat dismal season start to Kovalainen's Renault stint. Is that.., yes, Heikki inherited an unruly Renault F1 car. Piquet Jr. also inherited an unruly Renault F1 car.. the main difference is that Piquet inherited an unruly car without traction control.

Nick Heidfeld mentioned that one of the reasons he believes he is behind his teamate this year is that the car is harder to drive this year. In other words.,Piquet has a tougher row-to-hoe in trying to make the car work than Heikki did. But, whatever Nelsinho needs to do, he needs to do it fast. Because if he is booted out of Renault with his current track record -- i think he'll be out of F1 for good.

I dunno, Heikki didn't have alonso last year to get his set-up's from and piquet does. That was a big advantage as most will suggest for hamilton's success last year as compared to this year so it should be considered.

On top of that piquet just qualify's too far behind alonso every weekend, how different can the car be.

Maybe Renault do not focus enough on his preperation ?

Isn't it your job to competitively drive and develop what you are given ?