Nelsinho Piquet allegedly has just three races left now to prove that he is worthy of his place in
Formula 1, following a massively disappointing start to his fledgling career in the top flight.
The young Brazilian has failed to either out-qualify team-mate
Fernando Alonso or trouble the scorers during the first six grands prix of the 2008 campaign, three times falling in the Q1 drop zone and holding an average starting position of just 15.3, compared to Alonso's five top ten qualifying performances, average position of 7.8 and nine points notched up thus far.
After a calamitous Monaco Grand Prix – with a brush with the tyres in free practice the prelude to a lowly 17th spot in qualifying and heavy contact with the circuit's unforgiving barriers on lap 47 on race day – rumours have intensified that the 22-year-old has now until only the British Grand Prix in July to substantially raise his game…or else face the exit door.
Super Aguri refugees
Takuma Sato and
Anthony Davidson, and
Renault test driver and GP2 Series front-runner Romain Grosjean, have all been mooted as possible replacements should Piquet continue to fail to deliver, whilst Swiss publication
Motorsport Aktuell suggests Alonso's scheduled running at the post Canadian Grand Prix test has been shelved so that his team-mate can be in the car on all three days.
On a different note,
Silverstone is also set to see the introduction of the Enstone-based outfit's significantly updated rear suspension package for the R28, according to Spanish newspaper
Diario AS. The team's engineers are said to be hoping the step will provide a boost of around two tenths of a second per lap, by helping to mitigate the problem most often identified by Alonso – the car's general lack of traction.
