Piquet criticises ‘weak’ and ‘lucky’ Lotus duo

Former Renault F1 driver Nelson Piquet has criticised both Lotus drivers, branding Romain Grosjean ‘lucky’ and Kimi Raikkonen ‘weak’.

The 27-year-old says Grosjean, who replaced Piquet at Renault in 2009, has only stood out this season because he’s been paired with a weak team-mate in the form of Raikkonen who returned to F1 this year after a two-year absence.

“He has got a lot of luck, [which has] come at a time when his team-mate is a little weak and has a very good car,” Piquet told TotalRace.

“His luck is that he was not doing well in F1, another season of GP2, landed a sponsorship deal and returned to F1 paying, right? Then things went right for, how do you say, in his career. The timing was very good for him.”

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The Brazilian, who was paired with Fernando Alonso during his tenure at the Enstone outfit between 2008 and 2009, believes his former team-mate would be doing a better job than Lotus’s current line-up.

“If they had Alonso there, they would be winning the championship with that car,” he added. “Sure he [Grosjean] has improved a lot since the last time, but there he is no phenomenon. He’s nothing compared to Alonso.”