Nelson Piquet Jr feels the FIA's proposed introduction of a standard engine in Formula One in 2010 may well be positive move.
By Shreyas Sharma
F1 giants like Ferrari and Toyota have even threatened to pull out of the sport if the governing body goes ahead with its plans.
Piquet was in New Delhi for the Renault F1 Roadshow, organized at the historic Rajpath on Sunday, and opined that a standard engine would actually prove the superiority of good cars, and lead to a far more open world championship. The Brazilian said: "I think it's more fun. The problem was that when they (FIA) put a freeze on engine development, some teams continued to develop it a little bit. That's why the gap between the big teams and the medium teams got wider. So a standard engine would give the smaller teams a chance to catch up. If all the teams spend similar amounts, it can be something interesting. It can bring more out of the driver, and the teams will be encouraged to set up the car better. It's only the engine that'll be standard, the car development will still continue. So whoever has the best car will be quicker."
Looking back on his first season in F1, the son of former triple world champ Nelson Piquet Sr said it had been a learning experience for him, and with Renault confirming him for 2009 as well, he is confident of a much better season. He said: "I had one year to learn, and hopefully next year I'll be much closer to them (the rest of the field), and fight race-by-race very closely."
Piquet, who finished 12th in the drivers' standings with 19 points, and was out-qualified by teammate Fernando Alonso in all 18 events, admitted that a lot of improvement was still needed for him to be competitive: "I need to do better. Qualifying obviously wasn't my strong point, but race after race, I was getting quicker. I was quite unlucky a lot of the time, but by the last race, I was only a tenth off Fernando. So next year is going to be much better."
The 23-year-old also said that he had high expectations from India as an F1 destination, now that he had been to the country and driven here. Piquet said: "India already has an F1 team (Force India), they have a very good GP2 driver in Karun Chandhok, and are now coming up with a Grand Prix in 2011. They have the whole package!"
By Shreyas Sharma
F1 giants like Ferrari and Toyota have even threatened to pull out of the sport if the governing body goes ahead with its plans.
Piquet was in New Delhi for the Renault F1 Roadshow, organized at the historic Rajpath on Sunday, and opined that a standard engine would actually prove the superiority of good cars, and lead to a far more open world championship. The Brazilian said: "I think it's more fun. The problem was that when they (FIA) put a freeze on engine development, some teams continued to develop it a little bit. That's why the gap between the big teams and the medium teams got wider. So a standard engine would give the smaller teams a chance to catch up. If all the teams spend similar amounts, it can be something interesting. It can bring more out of the driver, and the teams will be encouraged to set up the car better. It's only the engine that'll be standard, the car development will still continue. So whoever has the best car will be quicker."
Looking back on his first season in F1, the son of former triple world champ Nelson Piquet Sr said it had been a learning experience for him, and with Renault confirming him for 2009 as well, he is confident of a much better season. He said: "I had one year to learn, and hopefully next year I'll be much closer to them (the rest of the field), and fight race-by-race very closely."
Piquet, who finished 12th in the drivers' standings with 19 points, and was out-qualified by teammate Fernando Alonso in all 18 events, admitted that a lot of improvement was still needed for him to be competitive: "I need to do better. Qualifying obviously wasn't my strong point, but race after race, I was getting quicker. I was quite unlucky a lot of the time, but by the last race, I was only a tenth off Fernando. So next year is going to be much better."
The 23-year-old also said that he had high expectations from India as an F1 destination, now that he had been to the country and driven here. Piquet said: "India already has an F1 team (Force India), they have a very good GP2 driver in Karun Chandhok, and are now coming up with a Grand Prix in 2011. They have the whole package!"
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