Renault boss Eric Boullier says Nick Heidfeld not living up to team’s expectations – Formula 1 news
Lotus Renault GP team principal Eric Boullier has said Nick Heidfeld is not living up to the team’s expectations as a lead driver.
Since Heidfeld is a senior driver and is more experienced than Vitaly Petrov, Boullier was hoping for him to score better results and maybe help the team improve its performance in the 2011 Formula 1 season but that is not the case.
Instead, the team has been relying on Petrov more as he has been scoring points more consistently while Heidfeld is quite unpredictable.
Either way, the Russian driver is still 2 points adrift of his teammate in the drivers’ standings but his overall performance during qualifying, practice and the race has been more reliable.
“We rely more on Vitaly (Petrov) for performance, with Nick more suitable for the development of the car. He has not provided the leadership we wanted. He hasn't taken hold of the team,” said Boullier.
There were rumours that the team might replace Robert Kubica with Nick Heidfeld in the 2012 Formula 1 season or even before if the Polish driver returns sooner. It seems that the team is considering this option keeping in mind that initially, it was expected
that Petrov would be replaced by Kubica.
For the near future though, it is believed that since Nick did not take part in this weekend’s Friday Practice sessions as well, he might even be replaced by one of the team’s test drivers, Bruno Senna or Romain Grosjean.
“He (Grosjean) wasn't ready in 2009 and those seven races alongside Alonso did him a lot of harm. He's proved in GP2 this year that he's a very good driver and he deserves a chance,” said the team principal.
Boullier is the manager for Romain Grosjean as well and it seems that if Heidfeld does not perform up to the mark, there is a high chance he might be replaced by the Frenchman.
Renault are now in 5th place in the constructors’ standings 12 points adrift of their rivals Mercedes GP. It seems that Mercedes are performing much better than them now and Renault’s chance of bouncing back and performing like they did at the
beginning of the season is not likely.
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