It’s not very often that I get down on one particular driver for long stretches of time. Now however I am. The object of my discontent is Nelson Piquet Jr. Yes I use the ‘jr’ because he simply isn’t his father. Piquet Jr. has been dreadful this his rookie season and I don’t see it getting any better. Rumors are flying around the paddock as everyone tries to get a feel for what Renault is going to do about him.

Forget the fact that his team mate is Fernando Alonso who will out drive him on any given day. Forget the fact that the Renault isn’t up to the pace of the lead teams. There are other rookies in F1 this year much better than Piquet Jr, Nakajima for example who continues to improve and does it without any frills, unlike Piquet Jr.

Shortly after he was signed to Renault, his attitude changed to what is usually reserved for those who’ve earned it. He dropped his father as an ‘adviser’ and also dropped the Jr from his name. He also proclaimed that he intends to become an F1 legend like his father (that was in 2005 actually). Add these together and I got an unsettling feeling about him. I said to myself, you need to be a rookie and leave the ‘fluff’ behind.

To date Piquet Jr. hasn’t really done anything in F1 for Renault and now he’s clearly losing confidence and the pressure is on from Flavio Briatore and so it should. Briatore wants to win as in the past and needs to have drivers who can get the most out of the car as it is. He has a top 10 car at best and top 10 points for Renault are achievable for Alonso at least, but for Piquet Jr., there is no points.

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Both Renaults bit the Monaco wall in the 2nd practice session this afternoon in Monaco. First was Nelson Piquet who half-spun and kissed the tire barrier from the rear. At a slow pace or maybe his normal pace he managed to get back to the pits with a damaged rear wing. It’s not going well for Piquet.

Next was Fernando Alonso who almost repeated the same move Piquet did at Sainte Devote corner but he missed the tire barrier and kissed the wall. Despite Alonso’s brush with the wall, he did post 7th fastest time. That’s both Renaults into the wall and on to the body shop.

Next in line was Jarno Trulli who liked the wall so much this morning he decided to do it again although only slightly at the swimming pool.

Que up another. Adrian Sutil took the front wing off of his Force India at the famous La Rascasse.

Of those who managed to go it unscathed Lewis Hamilton was tops on the chart 4 tenths ahead of a pretty fast Nico Rosberg. Have to check the fuel load in his car today. Nevertheless a good day for Nico in both sessions. Both Ferraris next in line followed by Heikki Kovalainen.

Jenson Button ran a good eighth with team mate Rubens Barrichello in 10th. Not bad for Honda on day one. Nick Heidfeld surprisingly ended the session with the 11th fastest time, but the ever present Robert Kubica Robert Kubica ran sixth.

Far to the back was Sebastian Vettel who hasn’t come to grips with the new Toro Rosso STR3, admitting that he is a bit lost in setting up the car.

One another note, there is one startled person in pit lane today who was strolling across and was almost hit by Lewis Hamilton as he exited his pit garage.

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It hasn’t been very long since Super Aguri vanished from F1 throwing their drivers to the dogs, but there is hope for Takuma Sato in the near future (if 2009 is near). He has been linked to Honda and weakly rumored to Renault by French Magazine Auto Hebdo.

Rubens Barrichello may retire at the end of the year although he doesn’t seem ready based on what he says, or he may be shipped out of Honda for younger blood. I tend to believe that this year will be Barrichello’s last year at Honda and he will be replaced by ‘?’

The weak rumor circulating is that Takuma Sato may test with Renault this summer along with Romain Grosjean as an option to replace Nelson Piquet who is having a dismal start to his rookie season. Renault are trying to be positive about Piquet improving, but how can they. He isn’t giving them any reason to believe he can improve.

Steve Nielson had this to say:

“Formula 1 is a business – it’s a very cut-throat business – and if people don’t deliver, they go the obvious way.”

This fit of Fernando Alonso with either one of these drivers is much more appealing than Robert Kubica joining Renault, but these are just rumors and facts won’t come for a while.

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Is it really only May? It is, and the start of ’silly season’ may have begun already for one driver anyway at least. The talk is around BMW-Sauber driver Robert Kubica and who wants him? BMW-Sauber have him this year and have an option on him for 2009, but now Ferrari and Renault have started early and are knocking on his door.

Kubica has driven his BMW ‘to the max’ so far this year and has out driven Nick Heidfeld in just about every race so now his stock is beginning to go up substantially. This hasn’t escaped the eyes and ears of Ferrari and Renault and they have begun poking him to see where he’s at with BMW.

This could all be ‘bogus’ and a ploy on the part of Kubica’s agent Daniele Morelli to ‘up’ his salary and it probably is, but 2009 is an option year for Kubica and maybe a better offer will swing him one way or another.

Problem is, Ferrari have Kimi Raikkonen and don’t plan on sending him packing any time soon. Renault have Fernando Alonso and they hope to not have him packing any time soon either. Where would this leave Robert Kubica then? BMW-Sauber, that’s where.

Kubica is showing a great talent with his aggressive driving style and will to win and with the stats to back him. This doesn’t jive with being a second driver to anyone. BMW-Sauber have a no number one driver policy and so far it works for them. Ferrari and Renault on the other hand have a history of number one drivers and blatantly so, despite weak attempts on their part to convince us they don’t. Felipe Massa is suffering with this and Fernando Alonso certainly wouldn’t take driver equality or number two status under any circumstance.

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After 3 races, there are a few drivers frustrated by their performance weather by their own driving or by bad luck and are looking to Spain and beyond to get back into shape. Adrian Sutil, David Coulthard, Nelson Piquet, Lewis Hamilton have all had to answer questions about their poor start to the season. Felipe Massa would have been on my list, but for now he’s recovered.

None of these drivers has had particularly good luck so far and that pretty much covers it yet bad luck or not, teams want more.

Adrian Sutil is one of those drivers. Mechanical in Australia, mechanical in Malaysia, and 19th and last on the grid in Bahrain. Given that, he has had some bad luck. On the other hand, his grid starts haven’t been impressive at all and are really highlighted by Giancarlo Fisichella’s performance. Sutil started Australia 22, Malaysia 20, and Bahrain 20 and by those figures alone he needs to pick up the pace. I don’t expect Sutil to match Fisichella, but confidence in him as an F1 driver would improve if he could close the gap even just a little on Giancarlo.

David Couthard has spent most of his time defending himself for on track incidents. In Australia he came together with Massa when Massa attempted a pass. Bahrain saw him involved in not one, but two incidents where he came together with Sutil resulting in a puncture. Later he and his mate Button came together in another overtaking maneuver. Some say David has no responsibility in any of these, and others say he needs to take some responsibility. Everyone has their opinion so I will leave it at that.

If David can have some clear races, points will come. Simple bad luck is the story of his season so far.

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It was almost a tear jerker of a moment when Fernando Alonso jumped back into the arms of Flavio Briatore just a few short months ago. Briatore was tooting his horn with a smile on his face saying we have a faster car and now we have our Fernando back. Oh, what a difference now.

The Renault camp for sure isn’t a happy one these days. The car that was suppose to start the road back to success in F1 has so far fallen even shorter than in 2007. Fernando Alonso who was suppose to be able to give front runners some sort of a challenge with the R28 has had to re-learn how to drive from the middle and back of the field. Not only that, but he is driving that car better than it really is. Now we are at the first test session since pre-season and Renault have to come up with something to improve the car and if they haven’t, it may be a long season.

Just to illustrate the difference from 2007 after 3 races to now in 2008 after the first 2 races, the charts below show how poor the start of this season really is.

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