Piquet 'needs to turn things around'

Wednesday 14th May 2008

Renault's sporting manager Steve Nielsen admits Nelson Piquet Jr needs to start fulfilling his potential soon, but is nevertheless confident the rookie can turn things around.

The Renault driver has failed to finish three of the season's five races, while his 11th place in Malaysia is his best finish to date.

Nielsen, speaking in Renault's post-Istanbul podcast, believes Piquet has shown glimpses of his potential in Barcelona and Turkey, but all his good work went unnoticed because of mistakes.

"Nelson had a good race in Barcelona, unfortunately he made a mistake, but the Friday, [and in] Saturday qualifying, certainly, he did an excellent job and then made a mistake in the race," Nielsen said.

"So I think rather than say he's had a disastrous start to the season, it's a bit of a curate's egg - 'there is good bits and bad bits'

"He needs to start having more good bits than the bad bits, and he needs to start doing that as soon as he can because Formula One is a business, it's a very cut-throat business, and if people don't deliver they go the obvious way.

"But I'm sure Nelson can turn it around."

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