GP2 Feature - Xandi Negrao Interview
11/05/2006
Meet Alexandre Negrao. He's the man with the task of sitting alongside Nelson Piquet junior in the Piquet Sports team. And has perhaps the hardest job of any driver in GP2.
He's 'the other Brazilian' in the championship, the one lurking in the shadows of a team-mate with a famous surname, who hogs all the headlines back home in Brazil.
"Nelson has a good name," says Alexandre, who likes to be called Xandi. "But he's also very, very fast. He's hard to beat. But I'm learning a lot from him and I'd rather put myself up against him than someone who's really slow."
It is not a new rivalry. Xandi followed Nelson through the junior ranks of the sport, first in karting, then in SudAm Formula 3, then in British F3 and now in GP2 (both in 2005 and '06). He knows better than anyone else just how good Nelson really is.
Like Nelson, Xandi comes from a racing family. His father was successful on the domestic scene in Brazil and, despite his mother's best efforts to stop him racing, a career behind the wheel was inevitable from the day he was born three months after Nelson, in 1985.
"My mother would have preferred it if I had taken up tennis or golf," he says. "But that was never going to happen because racing is all that I've thought about since the age of 10."
It's not all he's thought about... Away from the racetrack, Xandi is just like many other 20-year-olds. He likes music - Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Coldplay and U2 - films and football.
"I've been to a couple of football games in Barcelona," he says. "It's an amazing experience and Ronaldinho is someone I'd really like to meet. He is so fast, a very special talent. I think God put something special into his legs."
As for his own talent, he struggled to get to grips with last year's Bridgestone grooved tyres. He ended the year with just four points (one seventh, two eighth places), while Nelson finished eighth and took a sensational win at Spa-Francorchamps. Things have, however, improved for Xandi this year with the arrival of Bridgestone's slick tyre.
"The slicks are a good improvement to the car," he says. "At the first test, the car was a little unstable, but we improved the balance and I now like it more than last year. It's great fun to drive."
At the Nurburgring last weekend, Xandi finished seventh in both races, his best performance in the GP2 Series. But he's not getting carried away.
"The standard of the opposition this year is very high," says Xandi, who finished seventh in both races at the Nurburgring last weekend. "But I have big hopes for the remainder of the season. I want to score points in every race and get a few podiums; I'll be happy with that."