Aug.14 (GMM) By the Italian and Spanish press, Nelson Piquet has been quoted as expressing frustration about his role alongside Fernando Alonso at Renault
With pressure mounting on the 23-year-old Brazilian to show better in comparison to the former double world champion, Piquet reportedly admitted that the French team is built up around his Spanish teammate
“I have a teammate that is quite strong and the team looks towards him,” the European publications, including Spain’s AS and Italy’s Corriere dello Sport, quote Piquet as saying
“I would like a situation in which the team looks towards me,” he admitted
We reported in the recent winter period that Renault was the only team that weighted the bulk of pre-season testing towards one race driver
“Fernando wanted the most amount of time for testing and the team wanted it as well because they thought it was the fastest way to develop the car,” Piquet agreed
He also spoke about Renault’s team boss, Flavio Briatore
“He is not always right, and he can be very hard,” Piquet said. “You have to be able to ignore the bad things and absorb the good ones.”nnHe recalls times, such as in Singapore last year, when the team exercised perfect strategy calls for Alonso while “all the crap happens to me”
Eddie Irvine once likened being Michael Schumacher’s teammate at Ferrari for four years to being repeatedly hit over the head with a cricket bat
“It is very hard, yes,” Piquet agreed. “I would say that it is almost just like that.”n
