Many people, including several of our own members here on Wheelnuts, expected Piquet to push Alonso very hard from the start at Renault, considering he had a full season testing with the team.
But it wasn’t until the 8th round of the season at France that Piquet finally began to match Alonso, and even scored a podium before the Spaniard with a fine second place in Germany (although this was more down to circumstances than pace).
But throughout the season there was rumours that he could be replaced with Renault tester Lucas Di Grassi, and must have been mightily relieved to have been confirmed for 2009.
Having been out-qualified 18-0 by Alonso last season, Nelson must begin to improve his form and at minimum match his team-mate, otherwise his F1 career will end at the final race in Abu Dhabi.
Jarno Trulli- Toyota
The Italian vertern is moving into his autumn years of his F1 career, and needs to perform well in 2009 in order to make sure he can make it last longer.
Jarno joined the team back in 2005 and for the first half of that year looked like he could finally take the team’s first win. But fast forward 4 years and there is still no win. For most of the time in between Jarno has seemed to resemble a mobile chicane, holding drivers up instead of pulling away from them.
And despite a strong mid-season last year, with a podium in France, it has to be said that he was matched by team-mate Timo Glock.
There was rumours of him being replaced for 2009 by Toyota protégé Kumai Kobayashi, and Jarno will need to show just how good he is in 2009 so that he doesn’t suffer the same fate as compatriot Giancarlo Fisichella and settle for a lower-ranked team in order to stay in the sport
Mark Webber - Red Bull Renault
Out of all the drivers I have listed, Webber looks to be under the most pressure for 2009.
The Australian is moving into his 8th season of F1 having raced for Minardi, Jaguar and Williams before moving to Red Bull, yet only has two podiums to his name.
Although he out-performed a fading David Coulthard last season, he faces a far bigger challenge this year in the shape of recent winner Sebastien Vettel, possibly the hottest talent in F1 right now.
And with Red Bull continuing to run their driver programme, they constantly have new drivers pushing to get into F1. Webber will need to match Vettel in 2009 otherwise he could be ousted by the likes of Sebastien Buemi or Brandon Hartley.
Nico Rosberg - Williams Toyota
Having been touted 12 months as a possible placement for Fernando Alonso at McLaren, how Rosberg must be regretting staying with Williams.
He had a poor season in 2008, despite two podiums, and was often matched by his rookie team-mate Kazuki Nakajima, with the Japanese driver scoring more point-scoring races than Rosberg.
With Williams continuing to slip back down the field, Rosberg will have to re-consider his future at the end of the season, otherwise he could do down in history as yet another wasted talent
So there it is—my list of drivers who could have career-defining seasons in 2009 - but do you agree with what I have said?
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