vitaly petrov, so far , so good ?

[lebesset]

after a hard first day at winter testing in valencia I was sitting in my motorhome sipping a restoring pre-prandial gin&tonic when one of those satellite uplink trucks slipped onto the end of the line

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx14 ... 1007-1.jpg

being a curious type [ in both senses of the word ] I wandered over to have a word ;last minute job I was told , so we have no accreditation which is why we have to do the interview in the staff parking area where the motorhomes are lined up

in due course a russian registered A4 turned up and mr petrov and his manager got out

while the TV guys were setting vitaly up for the interview I had a chat with oksana , who told me vehemently that he wasn't just a pay to drive driver , he got there on merit , yes he brought sponsorship but that is part of the business now ; interview ,she said ,was for the main evening news in russia
I kept referring to him as vassily , that's ok she laughed , everybody does ! I must say I was quite impressed by her , good english , quick mind , businesslike

the interview wasn't exactly done high tech ....oksana phoned the newsroom at the studio on her mobile phone , handed it to vitaly , and he talked to the presenter in russia on that while the TV crew sent the pictures

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx14 ... /F1008.jpg

I must say vitaly looked a little stunned by events , wouldn't you be the day you signed a F1 contract with a team like renault ?

anyway , he came over and posed so that I could take a photo , shake his hand and wish him luck

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx14 ... /F1009.jpg

but you won't be surprised that I paid extra attention to him the next day , and like the way he started ; with only one car you can't do anything silly , but he still showed a fairly aggressive approach without going over the top although looking a bit ragged ; I no longer get to see GP2 so have no knowledge of him , but he looks to be a racer ; wonder why he didn't get a warning for weaving down the track behind hamilton last time out , nobody made him do it !

pre-season at valencia was very interesting , well worth a visit ; the circuit is a bit mickey mouse , but being a stadium circuit you can see everything , you can wander from stand to stand ; you can buy a premium ticket for over the pits , but as the cars/drivers always go into the garages , you don't see much , better outside ; very cheap , how does $15 for 3 days sound ? bet it will be more next time with the numbers that arrived this time !

no doubt the teams stay at the bigger city hotels , but there are a couple of small towns close by where no doubt more modest hotels [ and prices] are available

there are some minuses ...absolutely no information at the track , I had no idea the petrov deal had been done ,they don't even confirm drivers ; and although there is a strong wifi signal it is encrypted for the use of vip visitors ...any codebreakers out there ?

anyway I feel it is so far so good for petrov , but will have to wait and see ... great for F1 to have a star from the east [ play on words intended ]

no doubt many will have heard the old saw about women marrying men expecting to be be able to change them , and men marrying women expecting them to stay the same
so why do renault sign petrov and then complain he is 10Kg heavier than his team-mate !

[WhiteBlue]

so why do renault sign petrov and then complain he is 10Kg heavier than his team-mate !

Because their other driver delivers better results and goes the extra way to shed as much weight as possible for the team. So why not ask the lower performer to catch up. F1 is about optimizing everything to the n-th degree. Drivers must expect to be asked those things.

[lebesset]

so why not ask him before they signed the contract ?
or do you think they are stupid and have only just realised it is important to them ;or maybe they didn't notice how big he is ?
if this is his 'fighting' weight it is what he should stay at

[WhiteBlue]

so why not ask him before they signed the contract ?
or do you think they are stupid and have only just realised it is important to them ;or maybe they didn't notice how big he is ?
if this is his 'fighting' weight it is what he should stay at

How do you know they haven't mentioned the physical program before? Are you speaking for the guy? I would have thought that the team being in that business for 29 years knows what to do.

[lebesset]

I have just gone by the announcement that renault have made today that they have asked him to reduce his weight
you think that they did it 2 months ago and made it public today ?

[Hangaku]

I would have thought that the team being in that business for 29 years knows what to do.

Largely irrelevant to be honest. F1 teams are always making oversights and / or mistakes.

[WhiteBlue]

I have just gone by the announcement that renault have made today that they have asked him to reduce his weight
you think that they did it 2 months ago and made it public today ?

Well, what if he is just that little recalcitrant and needs some added motivation to catch up with Kubica.



Kubica scored an average of 10 points per race while Petrov scored zero with the same car.

[lebesset]

Petrov has been in exactly 3 races , in two of which his car failed .
His team mate has been in F1 since 2006.

[...]

[Mr Alcatraz]

after a hard first day at winter testing in valencia I was sitting in my motorhome sipping a restoring pre-prandial gin&tonic when one of those satellite uplink trucks slipped onto the end of the line

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx14 ... 1007-1.jpg

being a curious type [ in both senses of the word ] I wandered over to have a word ;last minute job I was told , so we have no accreditation which is why we have to do the interview in the staff parking area where the motorhomes are lined up

in due course a russian registered A4 turned up and mr petrov and his manager got out

while the TV guys were setting vitaly up for the interview I had a chat with oksana , who told me vehemently that he wasn't just a pay to drive driver , he got there on merit , yes he brought sponsorship but that is part of the business now ; interview ,she said ,was for the main evening news in russia
I kept referring to him as vassily , that's ok she laughed , everybody does ! I must say I was quite impressed by her , good english , quick mind , businesslike

the interview wasn't exactly done high tech ....oksana phoned the newsroom at the studio on her mobile phone , handed it to vitaly , and he talked to the presenter in russia on that while the TV crew sent the pictures

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx14 ... /F1008.jpg

I must say vitaly looked a little stunned by events , wouldn't you be the day you signed a F1 contract with a team like renault ?

anyway , he came over and posed so that I could take a photo , shake his hand and wish him luck

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx14 ... /F1009.jpg

but you won't be surprised that I paid extra attention to him the next day , and like the way he started ; with only one car you can't do anything silly , but he still showed a fairly aggressive approach without going over the top although looking a bit ragged ; I no longer get to see GP2 so have no knowledge of him , but he looks to be a racer ; wonder why he didn't get a warning for weaving down the track behind hamilton last time out , nobody made him do it !

pre-season at valencia was very interesting , well worth a visit ; the circuit is a bit mickey mouse , but being a stadium circuit you can see everything , you can wander from stand to stand ; you can buy a premium ticket for over the pits , but as the cars/drivers always go into the garages , you don't see much , better outside ; very cheap , how does $15 for 3 days sound ? bet it will be more next time with the numbers that arrived this time !

no doubt the teams stay at the bigger city hotels , but there are a couple of small towns close by where no doubt more modest hotels [ and prices] are available

there are some minuses ...absolutely no information at the track , I had no idea the petrov deal had been done ,they don't even confirm drivers ; and although there is a strong wifi signal it is encrypted for the use of vip visitors ...any codebreakers out there ?

anyway I feel it is so far so good for petrov , but will have to wait and see ... great for F1 to have a star from the east [ play on words intended ]

no doubt many will have heard the old saw about women marrying men expecting to be be able to change them , and men marrying women expecting them to stay the same
so why do renault sign petrov and then complain he is 10Kg heavier than his team-mate !

Nice!!
But not all together nerd-worthy!
I submit this thread as evidence, that even the most interesting, and novel post is reduced to being bashworthy fodder

[DaveKillens]

I like Petrov, and think that so far, his performance is credible. Obviously, in the team-mate wars, Kubica wins hands down. But I believe that even Kubica is under-appreciated by many fans, and he's one of the best.

So far, Petrov has displayed respectable pace. And he hasn't performed any major screw-ups. Without a doubt this young man has a lot to learn, but with Kubica as a teammate, he will learn a lot. While his car has been on pace, Petrov displays a nice blend of aggression with common sense. He has raced some cars hard, but clean.

So far, so good.

[WhiteBlue]

Petrov has been in exactly 3 races , in two of which his car failed.
His team mate has been in F1 since 2006.

I haven't actually checked into the reasons for Petrov's failure to score but by the example of Kubica it is clear that the car is capable of points finishes. I find it entirely plausible that Renault would have a look into why Petrov is pointless. Pointing him towards Kubica's highly professional diet and physical preparation seems one clearly reasonable measure in this context. After all Malaysia is the most demanding track of the season when it comes to physical fitness.

[timbo]

I haven't actually checked into the reasons for Petrov's failure to score

Maybe you'd better analyze and report back?

Watching closely for Petrov here. Giving better impression than Grosjean last year, but R30 seems to be quicker than expected.
One thing I noticed is that Vitaly works too much, he's a bit nervous with his streering, but again there were reports that he struggled with setting up brakes to his liking.

Let's wait and see, I hope he will learn fast -- learning is his strong side as he is a late starter (only came to racing in his teens).

[Mr Alcatraz]

Tazio Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:21 pm


WB could you start posting wcc odds, I have a crazy feeling that the best bargain is going to be Renault. I don't think they are anywhere near as terminal as their situation has been portrayed. What better way to resurrect a team that by all accounts is going away, than to have a strong season. Plus from what I've seen VP is actually the real goods. RK is RK. If the odds are long enough I may have to touch that proposition

The jury is still out on V.P.
He hasn't left anyone yearning for Roman Gros#*%n
@ 40 to 1 It's was only a pipe dream. It still is

[lebesset]

had a message from someone who read this thread ...said go here

http://www.formula1.com/

register and watch the video clips from australia

then let someone persuade you that petrov isn't a racer with potential
if it had been alonso the press would have wet themselves at his ability to thread his way through ; if it had been hamilton they would have said nothing , just normal


ok , so he spun on lap 9 in the changing conditions , but considering his previous F1 experience had been 13 laps before his car broke .......

his suspension collapsed in the next race ,so maybe it is petrov who should be geeing up renault , I know their policy has always been to concentrate on the number one driver , and now they have kubica who would blame them ...but even so ....

just a small addendum for anyone who might decide to go to pre season at valencia [ if that is where it is in 2011 0

beside the main entrance is a car park marked for VIP's and teams ...there is no gatekeeper and you can just drive in ; DO NOT BE TEMPTED ...you won't drive out !
the valencia council ran a nice shuttle service with car transporters , any vehicle without the correct accreditation went straight off to the city pound , don't ask how much it cost to recover , I don't want to know personally
but no doubt a nice little earner for the council!!! you should have seen the taxi queue

[WhiteBlue]

I haven't actually checked into the reasons for Petrov's failure to score

Maybe you'd better analyze and report back?

Petrov DNFed in lap 13 of the Bahrain GP with suspension damage due to running wide over a curb.

Then I ran wide over a kerb in turn 12 and it seemed to damage the right-front suspension at that point. I came into the pits to have the car checked over, and that was when we realised that the suspension couldn’t be repaired so I had to retire.

In Melbourne he spun out into the gravel in lap 9 on fresh slicks in his out lap which was also a clear driver error.

I made a good start to gain eight places and enjoyed the first few laps in the wet when I was inside the top ten. We made a change to slick tyres at the same time as most of the field, but when I was on the slicks I got caught out in the braking zone for turn three and got stuck in the gravel.

In Sepang he retired in lap 34 with a gear box problem which was a clear technical fault.

The first half of the race was great fun and I enjoyed fighting with the cars around me, especially the battle with Hamilton. Then, in the middle of the race, the car just stopped and I think it was a problem with the gearbox.

So he lost one race due to a technical failure and messed up twice when he was in reach of points for the team. As I said if he was an experienced racer he should have 10-20 points given the chances he had. He did not grab those points due to mistakes and those are the facts. One probably has to expect that kind of result from a rookie. Di Grassi, Grosjean or Alguersuari were having similar problems but that wasn't the real issue here.

My point was that Petrov still needs guidance by the team to settle into an F1 racing driver job and if they tell him to shed some weight (which is logical compared to Kubica) he should listen to the team.