Renault driver Nick Heidfeld hopeful of reaching the 2011 championship table summit – Formula 1 news
Formula 1 Renault driver Nick Heidfeld has shared his feelings about the ‘wish’ of the team. He said that they are eager to stay ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari and want to go to the top in the remaining races of 2011 season.
Renault kicked off to a strong 2011 season, since both the drivers Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld settled with third-place finishes in Australia and Malaysia, respectively.
The German driver Heidfeld is driving very well in place of Renault’s injured driver, Robert Kubica. However, he put his hopes towards the next race weekends of the season and said that the team will continue to develop its new R31 car at a rapid rate, so
both drivers can stay ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari and also challenge the winners, Red Bull and McLaren.
He told the reporters, “We are working very hard. The team has made big improvements over the last one-and-a-half years, and if we can keep that development speed up, we can maintain the early-season momentum.”
The 33-year-old driver went on to add, “It's certainly not going to be easy because we are competing with the likes of Ferrari now, who we will definitely try to beat. Mercedes seems to have improved, and McLaren and Red Bull are still ahead, but the team's
ambitions and targets are clear - we want to go to the top.”
Renault had a positive start in the first two events of this season, held in Australia and Malaysia, but it was unable to complete its perfect weekend in Shanghai, as its car experienced some reliability problem in the qualifying round. There was also a
conservative strategy work on the Chinese track from the team drivers. Due to that, they failed to finish their strong run among the strong competitors of Formula 1.
Petrov’s car had some engine problem during the Shanghai race. As a result, he could not manage his place in the top ten.
Renault team boss Eric Boullier discussed the Chinese race and said, “Vitaly's engine problem was not our fault obviously, but we could have clearly briefed our drivers on how to get rid of this. But that was not done.”
He further added that his team cannot afford to have any poor race weekends in the 2011 season, as they were looking forward to this season’s win.
The Renault boss explained that if a driver has a wish to play with the ‘big boys’ of the sport, then he has to run perfectly on the grid, so his team needs to be ready to manage everything during their races.
The season’s fourth race will take place on May 8, 2011 in Turkey. It will be interesting to see how Renault manage its run among the top competitors of the first three events of this season.
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