Petrov hits out at Renault
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With Petrov recently hitting out on the team, adding in not so subtly “I can’t say anything bad about the team because it says so in my contract,” I wonder if the tension would lead to Renault breaking contract with him early. I don’t remember Renault having any such history of breaking off contracts early. Though
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96306
Maybe Senna-Grosjean at the start of the 2012 season then?
Renault can’t drop Petrov for two reasons:
First of all, he brings money to the team. Money that they need.
Secondly, and more importantly, if they drop him, they will have effectively said “if you criticise us, we will just replace you”. Petrov’s comments make it pretty clear that he has been frustrated with the lack of progress for a while now and he has only hit out at them as a last resort to try and get them to listen. He has evidently been raising issues within the team, but they have fallen on deaf ears. Both Renault and Petrov want the same thing, they’re just going about it in different ways. If Renault react to this by dropping Petrov, any replacement driver is going to be apprehensive about signing up.
Excellent point PM. I initially liked Boullier as Team Principal there a lot, but he really needs to get his organization figured out. Getting rid of Heidfeld was a mistake, getting rid of Petrov would be a second mistake.
Unless, they traded the Russian Petrov to a Russian team, Marussia for a certain Timo Glock.
A hungry Glock with a good car for the first time since 2009 paired with a comeback Kubica would be an electric line up.
Will that happen? I highly doubt it, it would be more likely to see Senna and Grossjean.
Unless, they traded the Russian Petrov to a Russian team, Marussia for a certain Timo Glock.
More likely they’d trade for Pic, to get the French connection going. But Pic and Senna would be a very weak line-up.
The reason why Petrov can say these things so openly is because he knows Renault need him more than he needs them.
@prisoner-monkeys would there still be a French connection outside of the engines, and Boullier? It would be owned only by Genii (Luxembourgian) and Lotus Group (Malaysian).
It’s not even the works Renault team anymore
@raymondu999 – By “French connection”, I mean a French driver. Eric Boullier is a part of a taskforce (and you know things are serious when they start throwing around words like “taskforce”) dedicated to getting the French Grand Prix back on the calendar, and their favoured means of doing that is getting a French driver into the sport to improve the sport’s profile in France.
Petrov has apologised:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96328
From the sounds of things, he went straight to Renault and apologised in person before making it public.
You have to wonder why Quick Nick was fired, if Renault have effectively made no upgrades. Maybe he told them he didn’t want to be roasted, literally. He is still only a couple of points adrift, of Petrov, and only did 11 races.
Boullier has been ineffective as a team principal so far, I think he is unwilling to accept the responsibility that comes with being a team prinicipal
Well… I expected Petrov to apologise. Sure, the Renault car hasn’t been strong this year and the team has had its share of blunders, but at the end of the day, Petrov still isn’t good enough to earn or retain that Renault seat.
Eric Boullier says he considers the issue to be closed. Petrov actually gave that interview just after Abu Dhabi, but apologised straight away, realising that he had spoken in anger. It just took a week for the whole thing to trickle down to the English press.
Petrov still isn’t good enough to earn or retain that Renault seat.
Right now, the Renault is barely capable of fighting for points. Petrov is certainly worthy of that at the very least, given that he completely overhauled his approach to the season.
I think that with Boellier having said its ok after Petrov apologized and stipulating it was right after the race and it just shows the drivers competative nature I would even take it as a boost to Petrovs profile. It surely makes him more of a personality!
It surely makes him more of a personality!
It does. Far too many drivers these days are a little too homogenous. Like the Red Bull drivers – Vettel, Webber, Buemi, Alguersuari and Ricciardo – who are all mostly interchangeable and stick to the party line. I could not really summarise the personalities of Buemi, Alguersuari and Ricciardo if I tried to, aside from “they’re Red Bull drivers” and “Alguersuari moonlights as a DJ”.
And Petrov needs a bit of personality. I’m sure he has one, but one thing that I have noticed about Russians is that they almost always have an endemic lack of emotion when speaking English. Quite a few of my friends are Russian, for some of them even go so far as to preface their conversations with descriptions of their emotions; ie, they will say “I am feeling happy because x” so that there can be no mistake as to how they feel.
If ever you hear some of Petrov’s interviews – be it in the press conferences or on the gridwalk – he usually sounds completely neutral (although after Mark Webber, he has some of the most hilarious facial expressions). So a little emotion in what he does is no doubt a good thing
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