Piquet Jr: It's too early to make predictions

RENAULT

Friday 15th February 2008

Nelson Piquet Jr is refusing to predict how this year's Championship will pan out, saying one can't judge based on lap times from testing.

Despite winning the titles in 2005 and 2006, Renault endured a difficult season last year. Instead of racing for victories as they had become accustomed to, the team found themselves battling to even score points, finishing the season third in the standings, a massive 153 points behind Ferrari.

And although Ferrari are already being billed as the team to beat this season, Renault's newest race driver believes it's too early to say whether Renault will be up there challenging the Italian stable for the race wins and the World titles.

"It's very difficult to predict. Everybody keeps asking that," Piquet Jr told Autosport. "Some days we are quicker than BMW, and some days Williams are quicker. So it's difficult to predict.

"Last year we were always trying to see where we were and we thought we were close to McLaren and Ferrari and we were very far.

"So something we learned from last year is that we shouldn't worry too much, because even if we are close or not, we will still be pushing 100 percent to make the car quicker.

"So, to be honest, some days we think we are very good, some days it doesn't look we are too strong. It depends on what everybody's doing.

"Our plan is to improve. How much we are behind we are only going to find in Australia."

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