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.
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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.
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