Team reflections on podium finish.
By Renault F1 July 21 2008
Renault F1 Team driver Nelson Piquet Jr. has gone from zero to hero yesterday at the Hockenheimring. The Brazilian, who was under heavy criticism during the last months, took his first podium place at the German GP. The second place of Piquet was also the first podium finish for Renault this season.
Renault F1 Team driver Nelson Piquet Jr. has gone from zero to hero yesterday at the Hockenheimring. The Brazilian, who was under heavy criticism during the last months, took his first podium place at the German GP. The second place of Piquet was also the first podium finish for Renault this season.
Piquet was under fire as he only completed 3 of the 9 Grands Prix before coming to Germany. At Magny-Cours, the Brazilian finished in seventh position, bringing home his first 2 points for the team. And this while Fernando Alonso was able to place his car in the points on several occasions.
In the beginning of the season, Renault defended the rookie, but after 5 races, some members of the team declared in the press that Nelsinho had to up his game or that he would not complete the season. Even on Saturday, critics had a go at Piquet as he only qualified 17th while team mate Alonso would start the race in 5th position.
The young Brazilian needed a bit of luck, but during the final laps of the German race, Nelson Piquet Jr. proved that he has what it takes to be in Formula One. He kept his head cool and brought home the first podium for Renault in 2008. With this, the rookie surprised friend and enemy as everybody believed that it would be Alonso to bring home the podium places for the French outfit.
With this podium place also came 8 very important championship points for the team of Flavio Briatore. They passed Williams in the Constructors' Championship and are now at place 6, only 1 point away from Red Bull and two from Toyota, who is on Renault's targeted 4th position in the standings.
Hopefully for Renault, they can use this morale boost during the rest of the season to reach the fourth place in the championship.
Flavio Briatore, manager of Nelson Piquet Jr. and team boss of Renault, was very pleased with the result of his pupil: “Nelson had an amazing race. “He proved to be very fast towards the end of the race and was able to remain strong under enormous pressure. He was not able to hold off Hamilton who was much faster, but he was able to defend his second place strongly. I am delighted for him and for the team who really deserve this result.”
Pat Symonds was grateful to lady luck after a safety car at the perfect time helped Nelson Piquet Jr's race turn around completely and resulted in him finishing second.
"We were lucky, but I still believe we made our own luck and our decision to go long with Nelson paid off as the safety car came out at the ideal moment!" exclaimed Symonds.
"Nelson's driving after that was impeccable," he added. "He was under pressure and did everything we asked of him. I'd like to congratulate him and hope this is the start of a better time for him."
"Nelson's driving after that was impeccable," he added. "He was under pressure and did everything we asked of him. I'd like to congratulate him and hope this is the start of a better time for him."
The Chief Engineer of the ING Renault F1 Team reflects on the team's best weekend of the season.
Alan, how did you view the race?
AP: It's a fantastic result that rewards the efforts of everyone in Enstone and Viry over the last few weeks. It's also a reward for all Nelson's hard work. Obviously we had some luck today, but you have to make your own luck - without our decision to chose a one stop strategy, nothing like this would have happened.
At what moment did you take the decision to only stop once?
AP: Before the race we considered this possibility. The idea was to start Nelson on a very long first stint and then to adapt the strategy depending on how the race developed. When we looked at all the parameters, we saw that other teams did not have any problems using the soft tyres on a long stint and we decided to go this way with just one stop. It was the right decision.
Nelson was strong and didn't crack under pressure...
AP: He drove incredibly well. In the final laps he was still in the 1m16s range with his lap times, which is remarkable. His maturity also showed through. Nelson knew that Lewis Hamilton was coming back strongly: he realised that fighting him would not achieve anything, and might even give the chance for Felipe Massa to catch him. He made the right decision and decided not to resist the McLaren.
Will the result give the team a big boost?
AP: That is for sure, especially with new parts coming in Budapest. Then, after that, we will have a new aerodynamic package for Monza and a new front wing before Singapore, so we will continue to fight. Nelson should gain confidence from this result and it should help his approach to qualifying, which is where he is struggling at the moment.
Finally, are you optimistic about the possibility of taking fourth place in the constructors' championship?
AP: The podium in Germany has certainly helped because we are now only two points off this position. If we have the chance to score with two cars until the end of the season, we should be able to complete this mission without too much difficulty.
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