Battle Of The Team-Mates: Renault F1 Team

Wednesday, 20 May 2009 23:39 Gunjan Shah

It never was going to be easy for rookie Nelsinho. Having the former two time World Champion as your team mate is like having a double edged sword. Sure, you have his experience and knowledge to help you, but it’s also a case where his reputation precedes him in the garage. And it gets even tougher when you are the new kid on the block and with a car which is not exactly the easiest to drive around!

Of course, as everyone knows Alonso’s always been Flavio’s blue-eyed boy. Even before he joined back Renault after his “Split” with the McLaren team, Flavio had always maintained that Renault’s doors were always open for him. And some of the French based team, who still had some resentment against him for joining McLaren, quickly swallowed it as he led them back to their winning ways towards the end of the 2008 season, winning the Singapore and Japanese GP back to back.

The season so far has seen Renault having to work extremely flat out just to feature in the points. But the disparity between the performances of the two drivers has been out there for everyone to see. Nelsinho has struggled to keep up with Alonso and has never really looked comfortable in the R29 this year. With no points to show against Alonso’s 9 points from the season so far, I am sure he is disappointed with himself.

So while Alonso goes out each race and gets the most out of the package given to him, Nelsinho ends up outside the points and on more occasions than one, as a result of his mistake. He has been out-qualified and out-performed every single time by the Spaniard this season. So no points for guessing who our Number One at Renault is: FA all the way!