Piquet hopes to have turned a corner

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Piquet surname has been a millstone around Nelson Jr's neck throughout a frustrating rookie season in Formula One.

When you're competing with your Dad's legacy --three world titles -- as well as 19 other super-fast drivers, the learning curve is even steeper.

A corner may have been turned after the younger Piquet claimed second place at the German Grand Prix for Renault.

But he accepts that there was fortune involved, with the Brazilian leaping from 17th on the grid to the podium after he made his sole pitstop under the safety car, deployed for Timo Glock's shunt.

"I don't think that if you had the normal finish of a race I probably wouldn't arrive here starting from 17th. It was a bit lucky," said Piquet, who turns 23 on July 25.

"We started the race with a flexible strategy and if we had gone for an aggressive short first stint to try to overtake in the beginning I wouldn't have arrived here."

The Brazilian has struggled to come to terms with the demands of F1 after becoming the youngest champion in British Formula 3 history in 2004.

After a stint in A1GP, he spent 2006 battling it out with Lewis Hamilton in GP2, the feeder series for F1, before becoming Renault's test driver last year.

After Heikki Kovalainen departed for McLaren over the winter, Renault replaced one rookie with another when they plumped for Piquet to partner the returning Fernando Alonso.

Piquet has yet to out-qualify Alonso in 10 races and has turned in enough lackluster performances for rumors about his F1 future to start.

But even though the Hockenheim podium was Renault's first of 2008, Piquet is not expecting the vultures to stop circulating just yet.

"Obviously it's always good to get a result like this, but I don't think it's going to change much," he said.

"It's still difficult for me. I'm not saying that in Hungary, the next race, you should expect me on the podium. Obviously we're going to be fighting for it but for me it's getting a bit tough.

"We're getting there slowly, slowly, having some difficulties sometimes: qualifying, with the tires, I'm not getting used to them very easily. I think it's part of learning.

"I certainly need to improve and the car still needs to improve."

Piquet's F1 future depends on that improvement, but for now he has the praise of the notoriously demanding Renault boss Flavio Briatore ringing in his ears.

"Nelson had an amazing race," said the Italian. "He proved to be very fast towards the end and was able to remain strong under enormous pressure.

"I am delighted for him and for the team, who really deserve this result."