Ayrton would not have won anything in today's F1!

[kfzmeister]

Can you believe Piquet Jr?

Senna not good enough for today's F1 - Piquet Jr | News | Motorsport.com

[CaptainRaiden]

Another gem from Junior is circulating around:

Piquet Jr: Timing good for Grosjean | Planet F1 | Formula One | News, Standings, Results, Features, Video

Nelson Piquet Jr has downplayed Romain Grosjean's achievements this season, saying "there is no phenomenon", there's just "luck".

Piquet Jr was dropped by Renault midway through the 2009 season after which the allegations of crashgate - the 2008 Singapore GP - came to light.

Replaced by Grosjean, the Frenchman did not have a good time at Renault and was dropped only to return into 2011, this time under the guidance of Eric Boullier.

Grosjean's second stint at the team, now known as Lotus, has been a lot more successful as he already has three podium finishes to his name.

However, Piquet Jr reckons Grosjean's success is thanks to the car and if former team-mate Fernando Alonso was driving the E20 Lotus would be leading the Championship.

"Had Alonso been there he would be winning the Championship with that car," Piquet Jr told TotalRace.

"Sure he (Grosjean) has improved a lot but there is no phenomenon. Nothing compared to Alonso.

"He is luck is that after F1 he got another season in GP2, found a sponsor and returned to F1 as a paying driver, right?

"Then things were, how do you say, right in his career. Timing was very good for him."

He added: "He's had a lot of luck, came at a time with a team-mate who is a little weak and a very good car."

One out of three things have happened:

1. Nelsinho is smoking some really good stuff.

2. The "crash" at Singapore and the subsequent send-off from F1 made him lose his marbles.

3. Helmut Marko has taken junior under his wing.

[heliocastroneves#3]

Piquet is doing a good job in NASCAR but is still not happy with the fact that he never got a fair chance in F1 because he had Alonso as his teammate and Flavio Briatore as his teamboss. I don't think a lot of rookies do like that tbh.

[Rollo]

Ayrton won Grands Prix for Lotus in cars which were usually unreliable and I think would have won the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix had it gone to completion.

Piquet's comments show that he knows nothing of history. Maybe he'd do better playing his PS-Wii-Box

[kfzmeister]

Now he's sorta explaining his comments. Anybody shed some light on whether he has a point here?
http://www.auto123.com/en/racing-new...ampaign=racing

[Bruce D]

Well in a way his explanation makes sense. I do remember that Senna was good at engine development while Prost was better at chassis development, which is why they were such a super team at McLaren. And Senna was always running off to Brazil rather than doing winter testing. I remember in 1991 Gerhard Berger got very annoyed because he spent the whole winter testing the new Honda V12 engine, Senna arrived in Phoenix for the first race, said the engine wasn't good and then promptly won the race.

Senna would always have been a front runner in any car, although in this modern era it's doubtful how far he could have taken say a Marussia up from where it is. But as far as developing stuff is concerned I think Piquet Jr has a point here. But then again in the modern era how much development work do the current drivers do when compared to what was happening in the 70s and 80s?

[00steven]

Very ignorant statement. One, I would say, Piquet Jr. isn't even qualified to make.

[The Black Knight]

Another gem from Junior is circulating around:

Piquet Jr: Timing good for Grosjean | Planet F1 | Formula One | News, Standings, Results, Features, Video




One out of three things have happened:

1. Nelsinho is smoking some really good stuff.

2. The "crash" at Singapore and the subsequent send-off from F1 made him lose his marbles.

3. Helmut Marko has taken junior under his wing.

I pretty much agree with him about Grosjean and I do feel that Kimi is a bit weak and overrated.

However, I can't agree with him regards Ayrton. Pure speculation and nothing to back up his assertions. Ayrton was a great driver, far better than Nelsinho will ever be, so if he couldn't expected to win, Nelly definitely wouldn't.

[wedge]

Piquet Jr talking out of his backside as usual.

A despite winning in NASCAR's lower echelons he is a driver I hate to see succeed.

Well in a way his explanation makes sense. I do remember that Senna was good at engine development while Prost was better at chassis development, which is why they were such a super team at McLaren. And Senna was always running off to Brazil rather than doing winter testing.

Senna had Honda in his back pocket and it enabled him to have Ron Dennis under his thumb.

Pretty much why Prost left McLaren.

The reason why Senna had Honda in his back pocket was the work he did at Lotus. Not just the Honda engines. Lotus pioneered active suspension. Senna warmed to the technology whereas say Mansell wanted nothing to do with it. Can't remember which year but there was a Lotus with a clever ride height system.

Senna would always have been a front runner in any car, although in this modern era it's doubtful how far he could have taken say a Marussia up from where it is

There is only so much a great driver can do from polishing a turd. For instance Alonso got his Minardi regularly qualified on the penultimate row so I think Senna would have probably got third row from back. In a Caterham I think he would be fighting for points finish just as a Toleman in lesser hands would have been fighting for top 10 whereas Senna exceeded in getting points finish.

I pretty much agree with him about Grosjean and I do feel that Kimi is a bit weak and overrated.

Grosjean better in quali but Kimi is better racer. On balance I'd go for Kimi as he makes huge gains in races even though Grosjean is shedding his reputation as a lairy racer.

Kimi has better racecraft.

For instance in Hungary Grosjean took to much out of his tyre earlier in the stints but then had to switch to Kimi's tactics at conserving tyres and then attacking at the latter end of the stint. But by doing this Grosjean's final stint had no pace whatsoever whereas Kimi was blatantly the quicker car.

The other thing is Kimi is getting better with age adapting to this F1 malarkey. He should have won in Bahrain had he had more confidence but in Hungary he banged wheels with his own team mate.

[Jag_Warrior]

"Someone like Senna would not have won anything in F1 today," he (Piquet, Jr.) is quoted by Terra.

"He was very fast but he had no talent in terms of the technical and mechanical."

Yes, The Crashgate Kid is entitled to his (baseless) opinion. But considering that Piquet, Jr. does not have an engineering degree and Shigeru Uehara (chief NSX engineer at Honda in the early 90's) offers a completely opposite opinion, Piquet's words strike me as akin to Paris Hilton offering her opinion on the Higgs Boson particle. The reason the NSX wound up with a stiffer chassis than it originally had was because of Ayrton Senna's technical and mechanical input, according to Uehara. And from various accounts that I have read, it was the close relationship that Senna formed with the engineers (and other team members) that contributed to him being embraced and Prost being frozen out at McLaren.

Just drive your stock car/truck and try not to screw this one up, Nelson. Just accept your plight. No need to be bitter because you torpedoed your own career by lacking moral and ethical fiber.