I’ve always believed Petrov do be a good driver, fast but erratic in his first season much like Maldonado, which he got better in his second scoring a podium and almost a second before he decided to rally cross his way into a broken steering wheel, and then the cars performance dropped off considerably for the rest of the year.
He managed to match Kovalainen 10/10 this year in terms of race finishes even though he finished 2 less through no fault of his own too. I’m probably talking him up a bit but i’m fond of Heikki too but i just don’t think he wants to race so far down the field anymore so i believe if the team wants to keep any sort of consistency it needs someone who knows the car.
I think Van Der Garde has probably spent too long in GP2 and FR3.5 to go anywhere now, 6 years spent racing in the Formulas just below F1 just hasn’t got him where he needs to be.