Is Nick Heidfeld making the best out of his third chance?

[Richard]

Hampus - no one said he was stellar, and no one said Renault sack people for fun. The point is that many people think he achieved a realistic expectation of getting as many points as his team-mate.

Renault selecting a rookie tells us that they don't expect to challenge Mercedes for 4th, and believe Petrov on his own can get enough points to stay ahead of Sauber. So that gives them the freedom to experiment with a rookie for the end of the season.

The rush of sponsorship announcements shows that cash was a big part in Senna getting the seat.

The strategic reasoning is that even if Senna scores no points, they'd be in the same position in the WCC, but have the added benefit of extra sponsorship.

They only needed to ensure they could pay off Heidfeld's contract for as little as possible. They messed that up and got dragged to the High Court. That shows how much cash was on offer from Senna.

[HampusA]

"That shows how much cash was on offer from Senna."

Had this been true, Senna would have had a seat in an F1 car a long time ago.

[Richard]

Renault got extra sponsors when Senna signed for them. That's cash.

As you point out, it might not be enough to get Senna a seat for a full season. however, it is enough to get a seat for the last few races with a team who have nothing to lose. It is also enough to make it worthwhile for Renault to pay Heidfeld for the rest of his contract.

[marcush.]

Just why did Lopez and Boullier bash Heidfeld publicly????
becuase they are clever and well measured business men ?

If Heidfeld was NOT meeting set goals ,the two would have sat down with him and told him :
Nick ,you may be a nice bloke but we need more .You obviously could not deliver the three wins we would have now if Robert was still here.He could have driven around the deficits of the car no question (as he did 2009)and he would of course put in extra effort and a big thumbs up for us closing down the windtunnel for weeks in midseason at a time when we struggled to understand the direction the car should take.

Even if they struggle for money it would have been a very possible option to ask Nick to step down and pay a severence fee or keep him as friday tester just in case..

They chose to take a different route .Basta . Bastards .

This is not about maximising points score -wich was Lopez/Boullier words on the renault website the week before Spa !
Nothing against Senna but Heidfeld would have scored in Spa so already they have not scored at least one extra point ...and even worse: Force India has scored better again..

[HampusA]

There is no other cause then the fact that Heidfeld did not live up to expectations.

I don´t believe the BS about Senna bringing in giant loads of money because if he really would have had that much sponsor money he would have had a solid seat from the start.

Just like Maldonado, which has way better credentials then Senna.

[andrew]

...

As for the topic in hand, as far as I know, Heidfeld was let go as he was not meeting expectations, or at least that is what I read last week.

Senna was then brought in which makes sense as he is the reserve driver. He also brings with him a couple sponsors.

Preseason, Renault thought they had a front running car however this has not turned out to be the case. They chose Heidfeld initially as he is a seasoned driver and it makes sense to put a seasoned driver in a car that they thought was going to be a race winner. Seems pretty straight forward to me.

[marcush.]

To put more fuel into this:
Why is it important who is right and even worse why should people make your opinion to theirs ?
Your conclusions are very different to mine and my reasons for having them are as good as yours ,simple as that .

You just decided to ignore the main facts :the Renault is not quick enough to win a race ,and it never was this year.....
Heidfeld has scored an average of 3 points per race ,considering the pace of the car this is not a bad result and surely no reason to fire a last minute stand in.

just compare to :Trulli, for example.or Liuzzi .or kobayashi who is truggling to match Perez in Qualy ...
In reality the word of disappointment and not delivering is just hilarious considering Renault is who is not living up to their own targets and let their drivers down too often.
but then ok ,Heidfeld is done he was never that good anyways (as Schumacher ..)and Formula 1 will be a better place with Senna replacing him ...
Let´s look up the picture in another 5 years and compare their achievements ..mind you senna is so impressive he found his only drive so far with HRT getting kicked out there cos he bitched around about Kolles within the team...
Btw -Senna promised to take more risks in the coming races as his seat is secure ..

http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/news ... 90511.html

How much more risk can you take ? Throw the car into the pitwall leaving the Garage for FP1?