Piquet aims to reverse form in France

Piquet has endured a difficult start to his rookie year, leading to speculation that his drive with the team could be under threat. But Piquet believes that Magny-Cours should be a stronger weekend for him than the previous two races at Monaco and Montreal and that he is on the cusp of breaking his poor run of results.

"This weekend should be much better for us," Piquet, who has failed to score a point in the opening seven races of the season, told autosport.com. "The track suits me and the car much better.

"We will also start off on Friday with a good setup which helps us enormously compared to trying to improve the car while the track is changing. Starting on Friday going in the right direction helps us."

Despite reports that Renault are considering Piquet's position within the team, the Brazilian says he will not let off-track pressures distract him and that he has the support of the French manufacturer.

"Every team in every sport everywhere in the world wants you to have results and if you don't it's not the best thing," he said. "They all know the car is difficult to drive and not reliable. Sooner or later things will go well. We just have to be patient, get the car sorted and everything will be better. If we do that here, this could be my strongest race so far."

Piquet comes into the French Grand Prix off the back of a crucial test at Barcelona, where he topped the final day after completing several qualifying simulations.

He pointed to the bad luck he has suffered so far this season as making a major contribution to his difficulties in reproducing that kind of form in a grand prix.

"We have been a little unlucky with having a few parts failures and me trying too hard," he said. "It's a combination of the two things."