Fittipaldi sees Piquet as a great threat to Alonso

The former F1 world champion, Emerson Fittipaldi, wanted to warn Fernando Alonso about the challenges that Nelson Piquet Junior will pose for him at Renault.

Indeed, the Brazilian believes that with the experience accumulated this winter during testing, Piquet will be more threatening in 2008 at Renault than Hamilton was in 2007 during his season with McLaren…

« Nelson [Piquet Jr.] will be worse than Lewis Hamilton for Fernando Alonso, » confirms Fittipaldi to the Italian daily ‘la Gazzetta dello Sport’.

Nelson has a very good understanding of the race, he is very fast, and last year, he already did more than 15,000 km of testing as a test driver with Renault… For these different reasons, I think he will be much more problematic for Alonso than what the McLaren driver put him through.

Alonso experienced one of the worst seasons of his young career with McLaren last year, especially on a personal level. Following his return with the diamond brand, Fittipaldi predicts a bright future for him and a place as a contender for the 2008 title… if, and only if, Alonso’s return has sparked the necessary motivation within the French team’s staff.

« Thanks to Fernando [Alonso]’s skills, the performances of the engineers and Briatore were optimized. If Alonso manages to do it again in 2008… he can be world champion again. » Concluded the double world champion of 1972 (Lotus) and 1974 (McLaren).