Gerard Lopez, the Chairman of Genii Capital and Renault F1majority shareholder told the media earlier today that the final decision of keeping the Renault driver, Vitaly Petrov in the team for next season is not yet finalized.
He told the media that more consistent performances are expected from the driver to keep his seat safe with the team. He expressed a lot of excitement for the way the racer drove in Abu Dhabi saying that he expects to see similar
performances from him in the future as well.
Lopez explained to the reporters saying, "It's not done yet. As much as we have been happy during the course of the season, we were a little bit disappointed with the results coming towards the end of the season.”
He went on further , saying, "The one criticism we had of him and still have, to some extent, is not his pure speed but his ability to put together a whole weekend in a very focused and concentrated way. If anything in Abu Dhabi,
he showed that if he wants to, he can.”
The Spaniard added that the team has a lot of confidence in his driving skills and believes that he could very easily end up among the top five or six drivers but he needs to be more focused. The chairman very straight forwardly
said that the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has made them want to retain the young man for another season. But he believes that the matter still needs a serious discussion among the top management of the team.
The aggressive style of racing demonstrated by the Russian at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has not been witnessed in any of the practices, qualifyings or races all through the season.
Lopez further accepted the fact that Petrov brings considerable sponsorship money to the team but he insists that the team is not going to take the final decision on the basis of his financial contributions alone. Rather, he is
of the view that the final verdict would solely be given upon his form and performance all through the year.
The team is expected to announce the final decision during the first two weeks of December. The team Principal Eric Boullier is the real man deciding the driver’s fate.
Despite all these statements it is largely believed that the driver will be able to keep his position with the team for at least another year.
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