Nick Heidfeld says replacing Robert Kubica at Lotus Renault was difficult
Lotus Renault driver Nick Heidfeld has admitted that it was hard for him to take Robert Kubica’s place in the team after the Pole suffered an accident while rallying in Italy.
Heidfeld stated, “I did some intensive soul searching - probably more intensive than most others would have done - and now I would say that I have cleared the situation for myself.”
However, the German said that whatever happened was just a part of fate, and he wished that Kubica would recover from his injuries and get back to racing pretty soon.
Both Kubica and Heidfeld were team-mates in BMW Sauber from the 2006 to 2009. However, Heidfeld was left without a seat for the 2010 and 2011 season. The German was hired as a reserve driver by Mercedes GP last year, but ended up racing for the Sauber team
during the last five races of the season.
The start to the 2011 season was also similar for Heidfeld, as the veteran driver was in talks with Mercedes for a possible reserve driver role in the team. His fortunes changed after the first pre-season test at Valencia as Kubica was ruled out of the 2011
season. Heidfeld claimed that the opportunity given to him by Lotus Renault came as a big surprise, but he was delighted with it.
It is likely that Heidfeld will be competing in a complete season for Lotus Renault, which marks a sensational turn around for the veteran German, who was not going to be a part of any race in the 2011 calendar until a few weeks ago.
Heidfeld started official testing for his team and has been impressive in his outings so far. The former BMW driver topped the time sheets at Jerez and also had a very decent time in Barcelona. There are a lot of expectations from Lotus Renault for the upcoming
season. Although the team will be without their first choice driver, they will be eyeing a stronger season compared to 2010.
The only real concern for the team is that they haven’t been as consistent in longer stints as they have in shorter ones. Lotus Renault has also faced some reliability issues, which the team needs to sort out before the next testing at Barcelona, which kicks-off
from 8 March.
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