Kubica/Heidfeld/Petrov

[jasonrobert]

I would like to put this question out there so i can understand everyones opinions....

(this is all purely hypothetical)

Lets say we are at race 14 in the season... Kubica is fully healed and ready to jump into a car.

Heidfeld is 2nd in the championship and within a race win of leading the championship, whereas petrov is only 7th and with half the points of heidfeld...

do you think Renault would replace Heidfeld with Kubica, even though Heidfeld has the most chance of getting the most points for the Constructors Championship...

OR will Renault replace Petrov with Kubica to maximise their potential for getting the most points?

I would personally go for a Kubica/ Heidfeld team but then this all depends on what Petrov does this year... judging by last year I will stick by Kubica/Heidfeld. I will re evaulate my opinion when I see what they are both like in the same car during a race.

[marcush.]

All hinges on Heidfelds ability to deliver.
As Team Renault I would take Robert to the track asap and give him the opportunity to drive in FP1.
As soon as he is ready to jump in and do a full distance ,the driver with the lesser points has to step down .Petrov is under pressure to deliver and is very lucky to have kept his seat for 2011.He can only hope to not being replaced when robert is ready either if it´s the last 1or two races and the title race is already over or Heidfeld has not outscored him significantly.
From what we saw from petrov last year he does lack consistency ...and Heidfeld is Mr.consistent....petrov is a quick driver otherwise he would not sit in the renault.

[mith]

That's very hard question. I was wondering about that scenario and my conclusion is, at the moment R31 is not looking like a championship winning car. Of course, it's still to hard to tell, but if they'll have driver fighting for championship, they won't kick him out of his seat. I think, the best idea would be to let Robert do some driving in GP2/promo video/FP1 to evaluate his speed and get him opportunity to get use to driving once again and than, if he'd be faster then the driver lower in standing, give him that seat to maximize team points. Of course there might be some clauses in each driver contracts saying, they have granted spot.

[manchild]

I think that people seam to be forgetting that Petrov shined in the end of his rookie season. From usual mistakes and inconsistency, he has become reliable and fast enough to make double WDC Alonso unable to overtake him in his fight for the title.

The praises of Heidfeld and prejudicial statements about Petrov's inferiority, remind me on the same time last winter when people were saying that Schumacher will wipe floor with Rosberg, and we all know how that ended.

Petrov is younger, he raced previous season unlike Heidfeld, and I think has more desire to win and prove himself. Heidfeld seams to have lost it years ago, and became another DC, just a good driver, but not motivated enough to give all of himself.

To end with Petrov's statement on Alonso's complaint: "I came here to fight". Heidfeld doesn't seam to have that attitude, and that's why I think he was beaten by Kubica in BMW despite having much more experience, and why he will be beaten by Petrov.

[WhiteBlue]

The betting money is on Heidfeld to beat Petrov 55:250.

[marcush.]

petrov looked quite out of his depth at times and he outright beat Kubica at times.I´d call that erratic.
Heidfeld may not be a stellar performer ...but who in F1 is? Hamilton,Alonso that´s about it,really.Heidfeld is a very competent racer and has done a lot of remarkable passes in recent years.
If even Renault does think they need an outdated driver to complement Petrov ,they should know better than us ...For whatever reason they decided after one test that he is the right guy.
Heidfeld was beaten by Kubica fair and square in 2008 that´s one of three ..?
In short,even with Heidfeld being replaced by Kubica sometime this year Petrov will end up with not even half the points Heidfeld will bring to Renault.That´s my view of it.

he had 5 points finishes and 5 dnfs in 19 races...when Kubica bagged 7 points per race in the same car...

[PlatinumZealot]

There is no way kubica is fit to even beat Petrov this year. His arms and legs would be as weak as a rat's by the time he's taken of those bandages. Look at my boy Valentino Rossi. Just a shoulder injury and up to now it's still not 100%. I mean Kubica better buy some spinach from Popeye if he wants to make it back much less even be a challenge to Petrov.

[nipo]

Well at times Petrov has shown some strength but he's far from consistent enough. I don't agree he actually shone any time even towards the end of the season. He had some luck finally to his side and he drove steadily so credit to him, but I've not seen anything particularly impressive.

If I remember right Petrov brings some good money to the team, doesn't he? I wonder how that's gonna factor in. In any case I think Kubica won't be driving in F1 until next year, so let's cheer for Nick and hope he does a great job to earn himself a well-deserved race seat somewhere next season.

[ringo]

I can't see him picking his nose with his hand this year much less turning a steering wheel and smashing buttons at 5g.
His broken elbow and legs also handicap him further.

Coming back this year to replace petrov would be an insult to the level of fitness that these current F1 drivers have.
Petrov is not that worthless and Kubica is not that super human. Also by 14 races petrov and heidfeld will know the car more than Kubica ever did from his few days of testing.
Heidfeld also has equaled a fully fit Kubica, i don't think Renault are missing anything in terms of speed and craft with Heidfeld. I actually see the as equals; Kubica having a little more flare and that's it.
A written off then welded up Kubica is unlikely to be an improvement over Heidfeld or the ever improving Petrov.

[netoperek]

Ringo, funny You mentioned current F1 drivers level of fitness. That is exactly the reason why so many people count on Roberts speedy recovery. Sportsmen are known for their extremally fast recoveries, because their bodies are so efficient and minds are so focused on goals. Unless there is some permanent damage that can't be fixed that will definitely prevent him from further driving, You can BET he will be back much sooner than You could possibly expect from such serious accident.

If Heidfeld == Kubica, why then Renault F1 was so excited to have RK in their team, while NH failed to secure a drive for himself before that rally accident? You cannot deny RK right to improve his skills over those past few years, that passed since he was more-less equal to Nick (who was considered as quick, reliable and certainly was very experienced driver, on top of his career, in a car build to his preferences these days), while calling Petrov "ever improving".
I do not intend to start fanboy wars here, just can't understand why You are so stubborn to discredit high rates of Robert Kubica's skills in F1 world, using arguments against him, that in fact could count for him as well.

[WhiteBlue]

You can see the different expectations in basically the same car if you look at the odds for Kubica and Heidfeld. Kubica's best was 19 versus Heidfeld's best of 44. So the betting money gave Kubica twice the chance before the accident than Heidfeld. I would say that is just about right. Robert was an exceptional driver before his injury and compared to Nick he seems to have some more luck of the type that you make for yourself by being daring and uncompromising.

Kubica's chance to do better than Petrov or Heidfeld after missing many races is entirely dependent of his recovery time and the strength he will have when he comes back. This is very hard to predict and I see that more as speculation than fact based prediction.

[Tamburello]

Kubica has been driving at a different level in the last couple of years. I think the days that Heidfeld could sort of match his pace consistently have passed. In fact, Heidfeld couldn't even beat rookie Kobayashi at Sauber.

Having said that, I don't Kubica will be pushed back for either driver given the scenario the OP presented.

However if Renault are not in a position to win any championships, he might get an outing or two to evaluate where he's at...

[PlatinumZealot]

Exactly.. NH couldn't match Koboyashi because

1. Kobayashi is faaaast
2. Kobayashi was as fit as super mario
3. Koboyashi was very familiar with the car.

Heidfeld just wasn't back to 100%

If Kubica comes back this year, which I doubt ,(especially if heidfeld has won a few races) I can't see him getting to within half a second of Petrov.

[Donuts]

Exactly.. NH couldn't match Koboyashi because

1. Kobayashi is faaaast
2. Kobayashi was as fit as super mario
3. Koboyashi was very familiar with the car.

Heidfeld just wasn't back to 100%

If Kubica comes back this year, which I doubt ,(especially if heidfeld has won a few races) I can't see him getting to within half a second of Petrov.

Well, there's a lot of assumptions! And you know what they say, assumption is the mother of all ---!

[PlatinumZealot]

Well I tihnk they are reasonable assumptions. Remember how we all thought MSC was invincible and he was going to destroy Nico? Well the reality of the situation was that MSC was out for 3 years, he's old, had no experience on the bridgestone slicks and not surprisingly Nico is a damn fast driver!

This is what I like to call the "reality factor" when it comes to making predictions.