Having endured another 'difficult' weekend, the speculation over Nelson Piquet's future at Renault continues.

Once again, the Brazilian failed to make it through the first phase of qualifying, while in the race he crashed out on the forty-eighth lap, leading to the youngster admitting that he felt "extremely disappointed".

With the French team seemingly needing to rely on Alonso to score its points, there is already intense speculation as to how much longer the situation might be allowed to continue before action is taken.

Technical Director, Pat Symonds, who has worked with many young drivers over the years, has urged Piquet not to give in and to rediscover his self-confidence.

"It has been difficult for him, but he has put in some good races," said the Englishman in the team's post-Monaco Podcast.

"I've said it so often before, how much with a driver or a sportsman it's about self-esteem and believing in yourself," he continued. "All Nelson needs to do is to turn that corner and believe in himself and it will happen again."

To prove his point, Symonds reflected on Heikki Kovalainen, who also suffered a miserable start to his maiden F1 season.

"At this time last year a lot of people were thinking that Heikki was entering his last few races," said Symonds. "Canada was just an incredible weekend for him, because on Saturday could things really have gone worse? But he had a fabulous race on Sunday and he has never looked back."