Piquet: « I don’t need to beat Alonso »

Nelson Piquet denied that his goal for the 2008 season was to beat his teammate.

The Brazilian recruit is teamed with the double world champion Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard, who was a McLaren driver last season, found himself at the time face to face with another rookie by the name of Lewis Hamilton.

But Piquet draws a comparison between his current situation and that of Heikki Kovalainen, who in 2007 found himself alongside Giancarlo Fisichella.

« Fernando is a teammate, I don’t need to beat him, so I have a bit less pressure than Heikki last season. He had a teammate who was at the end of his career in the person of Giancarlo Fisichella, » said Piquet in the columns of the Sunday Express.

Piquet, test driver for Renault last year, revealed that Kovalainen was specifically tasked with beating Fisichella in his times.

« Flavio wanted Heikki to beat Giancarlo because he believed he was much stronger than him, and he was. But it doesn’t always work that way, » he added.

Finally, Piquet accuses not only Hamilton but also the leader of McLaren, Ron Dennis, of having deliberately sought to harm Alonso.

« Fernando was part, last year, of a team that could be described as a little ‘crazy’ and that made somewhat ‘crazy’ decisions. »