Nelson Piquet Jr. is refusing to let his latest retirement get him down despite rumours that he could be on his way out of Renault.
Rookie contentrating on Canadian GP as pressure mounts
Nelson Piquet Jr. is refusing to let his latest retirement get him down despite rumours that he could be on his way out of Renault.
The Brazilian rookie, who has seen the chequered flag only twice this season and has yet to score points, had hoped for a good showing in the Principality at the weekend.
However, having qualified a lowly 17th on the grid, race day brought yet more woe for the 22-year-old.
As the wet track slowly began to dry out, Piquet joined team-mate Fernando Alonso in becoming one of the first drivers in the field to switch from wet to dry tyres.
But Piquet's lack of experience of driving an F1 car in such conditions mitigated against him when he hit the tyre barrier at the Sainte Devote corner on lap 48.
"I had a difficult weekend and I am extremely disappointed," he admitted.
"The conditions on the track were changing, but we took the risk to switch to dry tyres when the track was still damp and tricky, which is when I went off and damaged the car."
Nevertheless, Piquet is hoping to bounce back at the Canadian Grand Prix, which takes place on June 8th.
"I will not dwell on this and feel sorry for myself," he said. "I must remain focused for the Canadian GP."
Rumours in the Monte Carlo paddock connected GP2 starlet Romain Grosjean or even former Super Aguri drivers Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson with the seat.
Confidence
But Pat Symonds is keeping faith with Piquet, believing his malaise stems from a lack of confidence.
Renault's director of engineering cited the case of Heikki Kovalainen, who was also rumoured to be on his way out of Renault a year ago before his season turned around in Montreal.
He said: "It has been difficult for him (Piquet), but he has put in some good races.
"This time last year, a lot of people were thinking Heikki was entering his last few races.
"Canada was just an incredible weekend for him because on Saturday could things really have gone worse?
"He had two major accidents, one of them in qualifying and it is still a miracle to me we got the car out in qualifying to get anywhere.
"Then he had a fabulous race on Sunday and he never looked back."
Symonds added: "I've said it so often before how much with a driver or sportsman is about self esteem and believing in yourself.
"All Nelson needs to do is turn that corner and believe in himself and it will happen again."
