Nelson Piquet has effectively ruled out the likelihood of Renault turning their season around in the manner they achieved last year.
Brazilian thinks last year's car was better
Nelson Piquet has effectively ruled out the likelihood of Renault turning their 2009 season around in the manner they achieved last year.
Despite starting 2008 on the back foot, the Regie's performance improved markedly during the second half of the season, with Fernando Alonso scoring back-to-back victories in the Singapore and Japanese grands prix.
The team's surge saw them collect 49 points in the final six races, a haul that elevated them to fourth place in the Constructors' Championship.
Although this year's campaign started in similarly downbeat fashion - Renault currently having one point less than at the same stage last season - Piquet has poured cold water of the possibility of a repeat.
"Last year I think we had a better car than this year," Piquet told
autosport.com. "Last year's was progressing better...or maybe it's that everyone else is progressing quicker.
"The development never stops. The key is to develop quicker than the other cars and it's not going to be an easy second half of the year for us.
"Now you can really see where the teams with the big budgets really make a difference, because you can have a lot of people working many hours a day and the small teams can't do this."
The Brazilian is not yet ready to write off Renault's season entirely, however, saying they can still fight for the top five positions.
"The middle of the pack is very close," Piquet added. "Hopefully for the next race there will be a few upgrades.
"The car looks okay and the team is always very optimistic that we can fight for the top five. In the first test in Portugal, it was way off the pace and we recovered. But it's still hard."
