Renault team boss Eric Boullier impressed by Nick Heidfeld sooner than he thought – Formula 1 Update
Renault Team Boss Eric Boullier has said that Nick Heidfeld impressed him faster than he thought and that after the German was tested, it was obvious that he will be the leading driver of Renault team as he is more experienced then team-mate Vitaly Petrov.
Boullier was talking about Heidfeld, in the Jerez testing, and said, “When he was testing at Jerez, I was listening on the radio and the way he was talking to the engineers, he was right there [settled in the team]. I was already half-convinced that morning.”
Nick Heidfeld was given one day in the new R31 car on the third day of Jerez test where he posted the fastest time of the day while managing 86 trouble free laps. Boullier said that with only one outing in the new car, Heidfeld was giving suggestions to
the technical staff about modifying the car. He further said that if he would have taken time to co-op with the car then it would have been perfectly understandable. However, ‘Quick Nick’ was in such a hurry to get into the Renault team that the other option
for Kubica’s replacement, Vitantonio Liuzzi, was left out without a test run.
He also said that as Kubica’s incident was so untimely that the first opinion that the management came up with was to hire someone with sufficient experience, fast drive and someone that can help the engineers with the development of the car.
Boullier said, “When you draw up this profile, and I added if possible [that we wanted] experience with Pirelli tyres and knowledge of having raced with KERS in 2009, it was obvious that was only one ticking all the boxes, which was Nick.”
Nick has been driving in Formula 1 since 2000 with BMW Sauber, Williams, and Jordan. He has more than 170 starts to his name, as he was also Kubica’s team-mate in 2007 when they both were Sauber drivers. Last year he was a test driver for the Pirelli Tyre
Company and drove the Toyota TF109 with the new rubber. Heidfeld is the second most experience driver on Pirelli tyres behind the seven times world champion Michael Schumacher who had an entire season on Pirelli tyres.
Boullier further mentioned that had Kubica’s accident happened in the middle of the season, they would have gone for someone who was part of the team or someone from the Renault driver development system like Fairuz Fauzy, Jan Charouz and Ho-Pin Tung.
It will be exciting to see how Heidfeld takes up the challenge with the Renault team. He has a lot to prove as the 2011 Formula 1 season is right around the corner.
Tags: