Vitaly's miserable weekend

[keysersoze]

So, he refuses to use the F-duct on Friday and puts himself behind the eight-ball. Then, on Saturday he gets within seven-tenths of Kubica in FP3, yet barely gets out of into Q3 with a low 1:49.

Then bam! In his first run in Q2, he bangs in a low 1:48 to be P6, and then nicks the tire wall, ending his qualifying. But wait, few are improving, and with less than two minutes left he's still P10. Three drivers edge him out and he lines up P13. If he would've kept it together, there is little doubt he could've made Q3.

For the race, the equally luckless Alguesuari, gridded just in front of Petrov, must start from pitlane, and Vitaly dives inside Kamui to claim 10th. Things are looking up.

Then the SC period begins, and Vitaly is the leading driver to pit, and comes out around 12th. Now things are looking promising indeed!

Then it all falls apart.

After two laps he still can't get by Glock, and there's an impatient train behind him. Hulkenberg gets a good run and nudges Vitaly aside. But the Russian loses THREE places, and is now at the back of the conga-line behind Glock.

Late in the race, running 11th (but only one second from Sutil in 8th) the leading cars come up behind and Vitaly is forced to give away, but no one else does. So even though he's right on their gearboxes, he gets lapped on the final lap.

So what, 11th place pays no points, so no big deal, right? But now there are penalties being handed out to Hulkenberg and Sutil. If Vitaly would've held station instead of allowing Fred and Vettel by, he would have finished 9th after the time penalties were handed out to AS and NH.

[Sonic]

^^^

Got something against the guy? He didn't have a stellar weekend but then neither did a certain 7 times WDC.

[Saint Devote]

It is easy to talk and say a driver should have done this or the other. Similarly, Boullier is still not satisfied with Petrov and talks as if he has the racing acumen of Flavio.

What do theyexpect? Just look at Hulkenberg at Williams' performance and he is a driver that came into F1 with a resume equal to Hamilton.

There is no testing, the cars of today are extremely finicky and most of it is a load of bull snot really.

Boullier says that finance is not a problem, wants to talk to Raikkonen and is pressuring Petrov - unlike REAL racing people at Williams who have said that Hulkenberg must have time to learn.

Further, how can Boullier compare Petrov to Kubica? It is a ridiculous comparison.

Since he joined as Renault TP, it seems that Boulliers attitude or arrogance has expanded with the performance of Renault.

And the impatience of F1 is disgraceful and I thinkhas a lot to do with the stupid regulations on testing.

[Retro Formula 1]

What do theyexpect? Just look at Hulkenberg at Williams' performance and he is a driver that came into F1 with a resume equal to Hamilton.


Utter rubbish yet again.

He won a national BMW series, Euroseries F3 and one off masters and GP2 after a years practice in Asia. Oh, and the Disney series A1GP :tweetie:

I think you will find Lewis won championships in Formula A cart in European and World Cup, Formula Renault UK (which is just about the most competitive national championship), the Bahrain Superprix, F3 Euroseries, Masters of F3 and GP2 at first attempt.

How's that equal?

[Ranger]

By 'a years practice' of GP2 do you mean, participating in 2 of 6 rounds and doubling the points haul of his full-season team-mate, a current F1 driver?

Both are damn impressive CV's. Nico hasn't had a good year but there have been glimpses of brilliance, moreso than any other rookie this year.

[maximilian]

In a way, Petrov is actually unlucky that the Renault is so competitive this year. Most of us didn't expect a thing from them, and many were the detractors that lamented Kubica's "bad" career move joining them (I think even Kubica wasn't so sure at some point!). With Renault being so competitive, not only is more expected of Vitaly (after all, in a backmarker team, it doesn't matter all that much if your pay driver finishes 12th or 14th, but when it comes to regularly expecting to earn points, that's a different tune), but also suddenly all sorts of other drivers are knocking on the door for that seat!

Certainly it isn't quite fair to compare Petrov with Kubica, given that he is "just" a rookie, going up against an experienced and much-hyped previous race winner. However, then again, comparing a driver with his team mate is really the ONLY fair comparison out there, as they are the only ones using equal equipment, and as such Petrov just doesn't look too promising.

Also, it's not so much whether it's fair to compare, but rather what Renault needs. Rookie or not, the question is whether they can afford another season with a #2 that scores 10% of the points of their #1. That's just too big of a gap, regardless.

[keysersoze]

^^^

Got something against the guy? He didn't have a stellar weekend but then neither did a certain 7 times WDC.

Um, nothing. He's the driver I cheer for and I'm frustrated for him.

[Sonic]

Um, nothing. He's the driver I cheer for and I'm frustrated for him.

I feel your pain. What turned you into a Petrov fan?

[I am evil Homer]

Utter rubbish yet again.

He won a national BMW series, Euroseries F3 and one off masters and GP2 after a years practice in Asia. Oh, and the Disney series A1GP :tweetie:

I think you will find Lewis won championships in Formula A cart in European and World Cup, Formula Renault UK (which is just about the most competitive national championship), the Bahrain Superprix, F3 Euroseries, Masters of F3 and GP2 at first attempt.

How's that equal?

Exactly....nowhere near equal.

[steveaki13]

"All Drivers are Equal, its just some are more equal than others" ;)

[keysersoze]

I feel your pain. What turned you into a Petrov fan?

Malaysia

[truefan72]

I too like the guy. give him some time he will get better. Petorv has shown that with enough time, he will rise to the occasion. I don't want his career to end before it has begun.

The situation is a bit complicated by the fact that kimi is knocking on the door. And to be honest if I were Renault management I would take kimi and have arguably the 3nd strongest pairing behind the mclaren and RBR team.

But if petrov finishes the year, i am pretty sure he will go into 2011 much better and more competitive

[ShiftingGears]

This weekend certainly didn't do him any favours for next year!

[Dave B]

Petrov's showing all the classic signs of a driver who knows his drive is under threat and is over-compensating by trying too hard, leading to even more errors.

[jens]

But if petrov finishes the year, i am pretty sure he will go into 2011 much better and more competitive

I presume the same was said about the likes of Piquet Jr, Nakajima, Bourdais, etc. "Give them one more year and they'll come good." A couple of good performances don't change the overall picture, the general trend has shown that Petrov hasn't been able to improve during his rookie season unlike the likes of Hülkenberg, Kovalainen, etc. IMO Petrov is pretty much in the class of the Piquets and Nakajimas of this world.

Perhaps it's time for Renault to stop gambling on underperforming rookies. Considering their position in the pecking order, they need two drivers they can rely on being capable of accumulating decent amount of points. If they fail to get Räikkönen, I'd certainly try to sign someone like Sutil or Glock.

[truefan72]

I presume the same was said about the likes of Piquet Jr, Nakajima, Bourdais, etc. "Give them one more year and they'll come good." A couple of good performances don't change the overall picture, the general trend has shown that Petrov hasn't been able to improve during his rookie season unlike the likes of Hülkenberg, Kovalainen, etc. IMO Petrov is pretty much in the class of the Piquets and Nakajimas of this world.

Perhaps it's time for Renault to stop gambling on underperforming rookies. Considering their position in the pecking order, they need two drivers they can rely on being capable of accumulating decent amount of points. If they fail to get Räikkönen, I'd certainly try to sign someone like Sutil or Glock.

each case is different, as each driver is different and not cut from the same cloth.
NPJr was always overrated imo and no amount of years was going to help him out.
Nakajima was good his first year and had a dip his second year, but I still feel he was good enough for an F1 seat.
Bourdais was a bit of an enigma. i have no doubt that the guy knows how to drive cars well and the situation at STR was, well, just lousy.

my point being that every situation is different, but the problem with F1 these days is that nobody has enough time to develop adequately. The thing that all the top drivers have in common is that they all had time to develop. Except Hamilton who is a phenom and perhaps other teams are unrealistically looking to other drivers to emulate his level of early accomplishment.

[Sleeper]

each case is different, as each driver is different and not cut from the same cloth.
NPJr was always overrated imo and no amount of years was going to help him out.
Nakajima was good his first year and had a dip his second year, but I still feel he was good enough for an F1 seat.
Bourdais was a bit of an enigma. i have no doubt that the guy knows how to drive cars well and the situation at STR was, well, just lousy.

my point being that every situation is different, but the problem with F1 these days is that nobody has enough time to develop adequately. The thing that all the top drivers have in common is that they all had time to develop. Except Hamilton who is a phenom and perhaps other teams are unrealistically looking to other drivers to emulate his level of early accomplishment.
Hamilton also had the advantage of going into a season with a car he knew like the back of his hand, no rooky will ever have that again with the current testing restrictions.

[Duchess]

As a Petrov fan myself (watched him through GP2 in 2008) I was really frustrated for him after Singapore because it was just a bundle of bad luck IMO. I really do think it's unfair to start shoving rookie drivers to the side after a few races for "under performance" especially when there's zero testing and the poor guy's raced at less than half the circuits on the calendar.

As Truefan72 said, all the good drivers (save Hamilton and Vettel arguably) had time to develop. Jenson & Mark have been in the sport nearly 10 years and they're just now reaching (or have reached) WDC levels, and they had testing before! I forget where I heard this, but apparently Petrov has a little notebook where he writes down essential particulars like braking zones, racing lines, and other characteristics of all the tracks he's never raced at before to help him learn how to handle each circuit before FP1. That's dedication, and I'd hate to see his career be shoved to the wayside when he's shown such potential.

[AndyL]

It's a good point; even Hamilton and Vettel had more practice than the current new boys when they entered F1 (Vettel was a Friday driver and Hamilton had several full tests with McLaren during his GP2-winning year).

Perhaps the question should be, which rookie has done better than Petrov since the current testing restrictions came in. I'm struggling to think of anyone. Perhaps Kobayashi, but he's had plenty of problematic races too.

[maximilian]

Perhaps the question should be, which rookie has done better than Petrov since the current testing restrictions came in. I'm struggling to think of anyone. Perhaps Kobayashi, but he's had plenty of problematic races too.
Kobayashi may have had his problematic moments, but so far he has outscored Petrov, despite Petrov undeniably having a MUCH better car throughout the season.

[Duchess]

Kamui is only 2 points ahead of Petrov in the standings & only because he placed 8th at Spa instead of Petrov's 9th. Up until Spa, Petrov was ahead.

[maximilian]

Kamui is only 2 points ahead of Petrov in the standings & only because he placed 8th at Spa instead of Petrov's 9th. Up until Spa, Petrov was ahead.
Uuuuh, like I said, he outscored Petrov. Given how Kubica has scored this season, the Renault is definitely a superior car compared to the Sauber. As such, I rate Kobayashi's performance higher than Petrov's.

[steveaki13]

Thats a good point.
All the rookies in the last few years have done a brilliant job just to compete.

Look at this season (Not including Kamui as he raced last year)
Days of Pre Season Testing.

Petrov 7
Hulkenberg 7
Di Grassi 5
Senna 0
Chandhok 0

These 3 drivers only get that amount of time in an F1 car before being put into the caldron of a Grand Prix Weekend.
As for Senna & Chandhok we now how they were thrown in the deep end.

Compare them to the likes of David Coulthard who If I am right was a Williams Tester for about a Year and a Half. (Maybe wrong)

So really I think they have all done a pretty good job when compared to drivers from the past.

[jens]

Kobayashi has definitely performed better than Petrov. Let's not forget that Renault is also a superior car to Sauber, which has been falling apart in half of the races.



Jenson & Mark have been in the sport nearly 10 years and they're just now reaching (or have reached) WDC levels, and they had testing before!

I don't think Button is a proper example here, since he was rather inexperienced and young, when he got his chance at Williams in 2000, but managed to make his mark quickly. Besides that him and Webber have reached "WDC-level" now only because finally their cars are good enough for that - driving-wise they have always been impressive (okay, except Button in 2001).

Another thing regarding Petrov is that he is already 26 years old and has had as many as 3.5 seasons in GP2. It's not like he is some massively inexperienced youngster in motorsports. I'd have more understanding for someone, who struggles in F1 after having competed only for a single season in GP2. Time is working against Vitali and he seems kinda slow in adapting - it also took him an age to become competitive in GP2.

[Tazio]

:s ailor: I hope he sticks around!

jLEz7E8bDrw

[Tazio]

Interesting comment by Eric Boullier:


Q: And there is still former world champion Kimi Raikkonen in the picture…
EB: He contacted us. But once again, our main issue at the moment is whether we should keep Petrov. Only if this question is negated we will look for replacement. Regarding Kimi, I would have to speak personally with him first, look him in the eyes to see if I see enough motivation there for him to return to Formula One. It doesn’t make sense to hire somebody - even a former world champion - if you cannot be sure that his motivation is still one hundred percent. Why should you invest in somebody who leaves you guessing?
http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2010/10/11337.html
:s ailor:

[Garry Walker]

As Truefan72 said, all the good drivers (save Hamilton and Vettel arguably) had time to develop. Jenson & Mark have been in the sport nearly 10 years and they're just now reaching (or have reached) WDC levels, and they had testing before! They never had great car before now. But they were impressive from their first race on, Petrov has been failing for almost every race.



I forget where I heard this, but apparently Petrov has a little notebook where he writes down essential particulars like braking zones, racing lines, and other characteristics of all the tracks he's never raced at before to help him learn how to handle each circuit before FP1. Well, if he does that, then he deserves a seat at Ferrari, huh?



That's dedication, and I'd hate to see his career be shoved to the wayside when he's shown such potential.Such potential? When? Where?

[keysersoze]

Such potential? When? Where?

Well, off the top of my head:

1) Going nose-to-tail and wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton in Malaysia for several laps, being passed and then executing a re-pass.

2) In the wet at a race early in the season (forgot which one), passes Webber and Schumacher late in the race on consecutive laps to climb to 7th, IIRC.

3) In Turkey, he was solid in qualifying as well as the race. Beat Kubica in one or two free practices, and was on his pace during the race.

4) Outqualifying and out-racing Kubica in Hungary.

5) Passing both Nico and Michael in intermediate conditions at Spa.