Piquet Jr: I'm No Half Nelson

Nelson Piquet might be the son of a multiple world champion with the same name, but, as he tells STEVE COOPER, he's out to prove his own worth

Those expecting the young Nelson Piquet to be a chip off the old block will be in for a surprise. While his triple world champion father might have become infamous for being a slightly louche, lazing playboy with a cheeky grin for the ladies and a handful of wicked one-liners for the press, Nelson Jr is definitely removed from one of the biggest Formula 1 icons of the 1980s.

Like Formula 1's other current 'sons of', Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima, Piquet's reputation extends to surname alone, and there's little in his polite and focused approach that reminds you of his illustrious father. And that's no bad thing: nepotism may still open doors in politics, business and society, but it will only get you so far in motorsport. A famous dad may get your foot in the door, but forcing it open requires skill, dedication and focus.

And Nelson Piquet is quick to make that apparent. He dispensed with the 'Nelsinho' and 'Jr' tags at the launch of the Renault R28 last month in a bid to stake out his independence. And his approach to the year ahead suggests there will be no reliance on the family name, merely a steely determination to prove himself on his own terms - almost at any cost.

Of course, Piquet has come a long way without needing to trade emphatically on the family name: sweeping the SudAm F3 series in Brazil in 2002, winning the British Formula 3 Championship in '04 and finishing a close runner-up to Lewis Hamilton in GP2 in '06.

For any rookie, this list of achievements would make for a rather fine resume, yet Piquet has still to make his mark on F1, possibly because the Hamilton juggernaut had pushed him into bit-part status over the past 18 months.

Even worse, just as his single-seater career looked set to blossom, his transfer into F1 came at the wrong time, seeing him step up to the test role at Renault just as the French team stepped down, confused by the militant inconsistency of its R27 chassis.

Stymied by a lack of testing miles and an uncompetitive car, it became increasingly commonplace to see young Nelson standing silently at the back of the garage or looking bored on the pitwall. Was he in danger of becoming a piece of furniture at Renault, dependable and ever-present, but stuck in the corner and taken for granted?

Maybe he knew something we didn't. And whether that studied indifference came because he felt assured of a seat at Renault or because he knew he had little voice in the decision-making process, the rumours slowly gained credence that Piquet was the anointed one at Renault. Sure enough, he edged out the steady hand of Giancarlo Fisichella and the nascent promise of Heikki Kovalainen to occupy the second seat alongside Fernando Alonso.

"It wasn't something that happened overnight," Piquet says of his transition from tester to racer. "It was a gradual thing. Usually you find these things out in the summer, but the decision kept being delayed and I kept hearing things like 'maybe' and 'you've a good chance'. So when I was told I had the race drive in November it felt more like 'finally!' than 'Oh Jeez, I can't believe it!'

"Obviously, it was a relief because the answer came three or four months later than we expected, and it's everything I've been trying to achieve since I first came to Europe. But I have to focus and dedicate myself even more to try to achieve as much as I can because this is a unique chance that not many drivers get.

"It's also about being in the right place at the right time," he adds. "Last year, unfortunately, Renault didn't have a winning car so we struggled a little bit. If I'd come into F1 a year earlier, I could have had a season like Heikki's. Okay, it wasn't a bad year and he was still ahead of Fisichella in the championship, but still it wasn't the sort of year a driver would ask for in his rookie season."

Again, you sense this Nelson Piquet is very different from that Nelson Piquet. He takes his F1 very seriously, making it the very centre of his life and treating his career with caution and respect to ensure he doesn't waste this special chance. As much European as he is South American (his mother is Dutch and he was brought up in Paris until he was eight), Piquet very much fits the rookie mould freshly vacated by other honest, articulate and cerebral drivers like Kovalainen, Rosberg and Hamilton.

Equally, his pace in GP2 - where those other three also established their international reputations - suggests he will be no pushover: he gave Hamilton a serious run for his money and should also keep team-mate Fernando Alonso on his toes - at least over a single flying lap. But he's not expecting instant greatness and, while he acknowledges Hamilton did a superb job last year (being in the right place at the right time, again) he knows Renault's 2008 season will mainly be spent panel-beating the shortfalls out of a car that fell from grace last year.

"Our goal is just to improve and become the third-best team," he says. "If we get a few podiums, great, but that's going to be difficult. I'm ready for the start of the season but, of course, the more practice you get, the better prepared you are.

"This year, the team hasn't done as much testing as it did last year - we didn't go to Bahrain and the car was delayed a little bit so I only really started testing in February. I'd like another month of preparation before Australia, but I've just got to make the most of what we have."

That lack of preparation, although no fault of his own, could make those early races difficult, particularly after Kovalainen admitted his early-season mishaps were partly the result of his own unpreparedness last year.

Up against a double world champion, Piquet not only needs to prove he is a match for the Spaniard but will also, less overtly, be judged against Hamilton, who proved he could equal Alonso at McLaren in 2007.

And that won't be easy either. Hamilton was expertly geared up for his fight after completing thousands of miles of winter testing within an organisation he already knew very well. But Piquet readily admits he hasn't got enough winter mileage under his belt, and there's still that nagging doubt he won't be afforded the same equality at Renault that Hamilton enjoyed at McLaren.

That's not to say that Renault will consciously downplay the Brazilian's hand - although given Alonso's certainty that he's the team's number one, that's also likely - but because the team has traditionally lacked the resources to be able to mount a fully effective two-car assault to the same sustained level of teams like McLaren and Ferrari.

But Nelson isn't worried about being sidelined. "The car's always going to be the same," he shrugs. "Obviously, Fernando has much more experience and he's doing more of the talking at the moment, especially at the beginning of the car's development cycle.

"But there will be times when my car will be a bit better than his. He's not going to have a perfect car every time so there will be races where I feel more comfortable with the car or the track, so things will be up and down."

But when I ask how he's been getting on with Alonso during winter testing, there's a stumble and a telling pause. "Nhhh, yeah," says Nelson, looking for the appropriate words. "To be honest, I thought that in the beginning we were going to be working a bit more together."

It speaks volumes about just how independent the Spaniard remains after his bruising season with McLaren. But Nelson is realistic about the situation: "This winter's programme has been a bit difficult because I've been concentrating more on long runs and Fernando has been trying different components on the car, so we haven't been sharing much. When we get to the first race, we'll be doing exactly the same sessions at the same time, so obviously it's going to be much easier for us to work together."

And Hamilton? The Briton might have eclipsed the Brazilian to the 2006 GP2 title but the bald facts and figures don't tell the whole story: Piquet came flatteringly close to toppling F1's wunderkind.

Indeed, there are many who feel that Piquet is faster than Hamilton over a single flying lap. Piquet obliquely acknowledges this, only stating that Hamilton's race pace is more impressive than his qualifying speed, but does Nelson feel assured he can measure up against Lewis?

Again, he answers the question obliquely, his response veering off course as he delivers it. "It wasn't just the case that I scored a lot of points against Lewis in 2006; the wins and poles," he says. "It's the background to the situation. I built my team up from zero. I came to Europe with one engineer and two mechanics, and one of those was a car mechanic from a regular garage in Brazil. We won the British Formula 3 Championship with those guys.

"It was a bit different by the time I arrived in GP2, but there was still a culture difference; being far away from our families, not feeling at home. A British driver could be back at home every Sunday but it was different for us."

He suddenly stumbles out of story-telling mode, asking: "What was the plot? I started talking about everything..."

His digressions are lengthy but somewhat charming. Do they suggest he lacks a focus to his thoughts, that he's nervous and wants to fill the silence or that he's simply eager to please, happy to churn out more sentences in a bid to give his interviewer a surfeit of decent material?

I suspect it's the latter. Piquet may seem overly self- assured in many areas of his career, but there's still a sense of insecurity to his patter: he examines the exalted nature of his position with genuine reverence and talks up the successes of his F3 operation with an enthusiasm that more than borders on pride.

Clearly, this is a story he's dreamed of since childhood and is now living out on a daily basis. There's not the slightest jot of indifference or lack of commitment to his journey yet he seems utterly grounded and realistic about the task ahead of him - a sure sign of somebody prepared to work to achieve what they want.

It's a thread that seems to run through all of F1's famous progeny: neither Nakajima nor Rosberg have earned their success off the backs of their famous surnames. All are keen to not only prove their independence but also subtly distance themselves from the legacies of their fathers.

The Brazilian is no different. And while there are many reasons to fondly remember the career of his illustrious father, F1 2008 would do well to learn the phrase: there's only one Nelson Piquet...

Piquet Sr is proud of his son but has not got in the way © GP2

Sidebar: Ploughing a lone furrow

"I think I'm always going to be the son of Nelson Piquet," says Nelson Piquet. That's indisputable, although most second-generation F1 youngsters have invariably managed to carve out a reputation free of their famous fathers. Think of Damon Hill and you don't instantly recall Graham; remember Jacques Villeneuve in all his glory and you're rarely reminded of Gilles. But Piquet thinks it will be tough to shake off his father's past. "He was one of the sport's biggest champions," he says. "Look at Bruno Senna too; his uncle was so great that he's always going to be known as Ayrton's nephew. It's the same for me, and it's going to be hard for either of us to avoid that."

But while Piquet Sr's metaphorical shadow looms large over his son's career, his influence has been far less pervasive on a regular, day-to-day level.

"My father had just started a business back home in Brazil at the same time I began karting," Nelson explains. "Getting the business off the ground was really tough so, for many years, I built up my karting career by myself with some help from a local mechanic.

"We got used to not having him there all the time and it was a good lesson for me, allowing me to grow up independently. I couldn't imagine having him around all the time.

"Obviously, your parents want to be there for you. My mum is dying to come to Australia to watch my first F1 race, but I've asked her not to because she'll just be sat in the garage watching the TV anyway. What's the difference between that and sitting watching it at home?"

What about his father though? Surely he'll be travelling to Melbourne to see his son's first steps in F1? "To be honest, I don't know," says Nelson. "At the moment, I don't think he's coming. But knowing the way he is - he changes his mind every five seconds - that may change!"