Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Piquet and Bourdais - Time's Up!!

It has well and truly reached the sharp end of the season for some drivers who started the season with a blank slate and plenty to prove. There are a few question marks in the field at the moment but two of the biggest are...

NELSON PIQUET JR

Piquet has given it a red hot go but there is still doubt as to whether he’s done enough to hold onto his seat at Renault. As Martin Brundle rightly pointed out, there are a host of amazingly talented youngsters in the Renault Development programme who are snapping at his heels and who some would argue have done more to earn the seat. The names Lucas Di Grassi and Romain Grosjean should be striking the fear of God into poor Nelsinho right now. But all is not lost. It’s been a speckled season and an uphill learning experience but Piquet has shown some moments of great driving and I’m not entirely convinced he doesn’t deserve a ride somewhere else…


SEBASTIAN BOURDAIS

Bourdais is an easy one. Despite his incredible success in the US Champ Car Series he hasn’t adjusted to Formula One at all. Performance has been very average and he’s made some fundamental driver errors that can’t be continuously excused at F1 level. He’s been completely outclassed and outperformed by his young German teammate and worse… the Red Bull Junior Team development programme is also bulging with amazing talent just waiting to step up to the plate. Vettel is going to leave an empty seat at Scuderia Torro Rosso and rumour has is Berger is keen on Bruno Senna to fill that spot, but what about Bourdais’ seat? I would be surprised if Torro Rosso elect to keep him next year but two rookies might be a stretch for a team that’s beginning to perform.

Maybe there is an opportunity for Piquet to get an F1 drive in 2009 after all?