Nelsinho Piquet announces 2005 drive

[Kicking-back]

British F3 champion Nelson Piquet jr will drive for the HiTech-Piquet team in the 2005 GP2 season.

[climb]

Good for the series, to have him on board

[climb]

... oh, and, at this point it would be very interesting to see Nico join too.
Such an intriguing duel would become reality, at last.

[Kicking-back]

I think that series is Rosberg's most likely destination.

It's good to have got the British F3 champion signed up - as it strengthens GP2's case as the place to be.

[Tweed]

Piquet to be teamed with Negrão, wasn't he originally part of Carlin's F3 plans for 2005?

[strider]

Yes, Negrão was due to be part of Carlin's F3 plans for next year, but he is also close to the Piquet family, which probably explains the move. I think it's a mistake on his part, but Carlin won't be bothered if they get to keep Danilo Dirani, as seems likely.

[mllevy]

i won't say nelsinho isn't a good pilot, but with his name, money and media coverage (specially in brazil, where no one knows about formula 3 but may have already heard his name) things become much easier...and xandy too, he has also a famous father in brazil !

[Kicking-back]

Piquet has won the South American and British F3 titles - you don't do that with no ability.

Sure people can snipe "he had money" but motorsport has always been about that.

[Turbo_Era]

Just don't think Piquet Sr made a wise decision to line up a brand new team with Hitech.

Piquet Jr clearly struggled his 1st and 2nd year in the UK every time his crew didn't get the setup right straight away.

No doubt Vargas is competent, they got more right than wrong in Britain as a new team for 2 years... but it won't be easy against the old F3000 gang.

[Kicking-back]

I think the new cars will mean an ex F3000 team has no advantage over an F3 team.

It's a totally new chassis, engine and tyres.

[Turbo_Era]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
I think the new cars will mean an ex F3000 team has no advantage over an F3 team.

It's a totally new chassis, engine and tyres.

But we know the tracks and got a better idea about setup than any new comer.

Don't think Hayle nor Vargas will do that well in European tracks.

It's a new car... but HP wise, this ain't a Mugen Dallara!

I think it will prove avery tricky year for that colaboration. Although i am sure that they will be looking very openly at attaining a petrobras junior team type sponsorship having two south american drivers and an x formula one champ to help promotions. But not sure how the coming together of the two teams will go and when things dont go to plan how the south americans will react because they do not know the circuits unlessthey have been running a european test plan outside of view very possible. But logistics pits stops engineering circuit knowledge personnel its a very big undertaking! I think the likes of Isport International will probably prove one of the best options for a talented driver.

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by Turbo_Era
But we know the tracks and got a better idea about setup than any new comer.

Which team are you?

[Turbo_Era]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
Which team are you?

Replying in private.

[Turbo_Era]

Originally posted by farcnield
I think it will prove avery tricky year for that colaboration. Although i am sure that they will be looking very openly at attaining a petrobras junior team type sponsorship having two south american drivers and an x formula one champ to help promotions. But not sure how the coming together of the two teams will go and when things dont go to plan how the south americans will react because they do not know the circuits unlessthey have been running a european test plan outside of view very possible. But logistics pits stops engineering circuit knowledge personnel its a very big undertaking! I think the likes of Isport International will probably prove one of the best options for a talented driver.

They are stubborn.. Nelsinho had lots of offers. Except from Christian... but the reason behing that was that Piquet Sr didn't want to make any commitment to Arden.

It surprised me they won the Brit F3 with a very limited database and only one car/driver gathering track information. They are ambitious, for sure.

[Russfeld]

Arden doesnt rate him

[Turbo_Era]

Originally posted by Russfeld
Arden doesnt rate him

Because Mr. Piquet Sr ignored a piece of paper presented by Christian during Jr's tests.

[Russfeld]

a PFO letter?

[Turbo_Era]

Hopefully Arden will get Jordan... then you will know how Christian works. Not that different from Flavio.

Anyway, good luck Hitech Piquet, you will need.

[AnotherSpy]

Hitech hired Gary Davies about 4 month ago. He was Wirdheims engineer at Arden in 2002, since then he has been senior engineer with 2 brand new International F3000 teams, ISR and Ma-con. They both had very good results in their first year of racing. His track record and experience will help bring Hitech and Nelosn the results.
Hitech have been running 2 Dallara Nissans around all the european tracks since Nov, so they have been getting track experience, Nelson and Xandy have been learning the tracks and to drive a car thats very similar to a GP2. It all looks good to me!!

[luke]

As far as I'm consered it's great news, I hope Nelsinho does well next year, good luck to him.

Although it was just a matter of time.