Petrov possibly on his way out of Renualt?

Slam62 · 18 Nov 2011 at 21:43

that bloke Boullier seems more of a talker than a walker

pingwing · 19 Nov 2011 at 00:03

Flibster said:
There's still rumours about lack of payments to RenaultSport for the engines and asking Group Lotus for advances in the sponsorship fees to pay for... well, the teams wages.

Scary that they ditched Heidfeld *a paid driver* for Senna *a paying driver* to sit alongside Petrov *a paying driver*

Yeah its frustrating to see that a lot of hope and promise has ended up in this mess, especially as the one pay drive thing seems to be a regular thing at the moment and not really leading to all that much money for the teams (looking at the confusion towards Maldonardo at Williams and the debacle that is HRT too...)

At least they show that F1 isn't stable financially...

Flibster · 19 Nov 2011 at 00:43

pingwing said:
Yeah its frustrating to see that a lot of hope and promise has ended up in this mess, especially as the one pay drive thing seems to be a regular thing at the moment and not really leading to all that much money for the teams (looking at the confusion towards Maldonardo at Williams and the debacle that is HRT too...)

At least they show that F1 isn't stable financially...

Also the 'young driver tests' Not so much young driver tests, but pay driver tests. *sigh*

Indy500 · 19 Nov 2011 at 08:40

Flibster said:
Also the 'young driver tests' Not so much young driver tests, but pay driver tests. *sigh*

I think HRT were entered with the hope of the budget cap rules coming into place, of course it didn't turn out that way.

F1's been a tough place for privateer teams for some time, in the previous decade Minardi and Jordan were bought out but Arrows just went to the wall (no thanks to a certain Tom Walkinshaw). Peter Sauber runs on a strict budget which is why his team only moved substantially up the grid when BMW became involved.

Skeeter · 21 Nov 2011 at 14:44

Looks like Senna is out regardless....

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/3213/7323767/-Senna-out-Grosjean-in-at-Renault-

englishpremier · 21 Nov 2011 at 14:49

Grosjean did really well in FP1 in Abu Dhabi, in fact I think he was the highest placed Renualt in that session.

GravyMonster · 21 Nov 2011 at 15:31

Slam62 said:
that bloke Boullier seems more of a talker than a walker

TBH Boullier is just the puppet having his strings pulled from on high by Renault/Loltus management.

It's the same thing that happened at Toyota for years on end and we all know how well that worked.

Duke · 21 Nov 2011 at 16:18

I didn't really think much of Grosjean before but we'll see how it does again

Skeeter · 21 Nov 2011 at 16:19

He has gone away and proved he is a class above those around him in GP2 and in Auto GP. 2009 was to early for him, but I think he should do well in 2012.

EDIT: Missed that he also did well in the few races in the GT1 series he did.

Infact, looking at his form, you can see why Renault are interested in him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romain_Grosjean#Racing_record

He only did 2/3rd's of the Auto GP races and still won.

Guerrilla · 21 Nov 2011 at 16:20

He didn't seem anyhting special last time around but he was kind of thrown in at the deep end.

You'd hope as the current GP2 champ he would have something more about him now though.

Nismo · 23 Nov 2011 at 10:08

Kubica confirms he won't be ready for 2012...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/15853406.stm

Will be Petrov and Grosjean for me.

englishpremier · 23 Nov 2011 at 10:10

Grosjean to out perform Petrov by 33% in 2012 ;-)

Guerrilla · 23 Nov 2011 at 10:32

Shame for Kubica but was the likely outcome, hopefully he'll be back for 2013 in time for the regualtion changes which may end up being a better time for his return.

I guess Renault can use this as a year for seeing what Grosjean can do and getting some money out of the other seat.

Skeeter · 23 Nov 2011 at 11:32

The regulation changes are 2014.

Guerrilla · 23 Nov 2011 at 11:43

indeed they are!... Were they going to be 2013 at one point or am I just getting confused?

Guess he'll have a year to get to grips with things then... Still unsure he will ever acheive what some had him ear makred for before his accident though.

Skeeter · 23 Nov 2011 at 11:55

They were originally 2013 yes, with Inline 4 engines. Then they had the discussions and disputes about the engine format, and after they agreed on the V6 Turbo format, they decided they had better postpone the changes for a year to allow development of the engines.

Apart from a few tweaks around exhausts and other loopholes the FIA will likely close as teams find them, the engine and aero rules are pretty much fixed until the end of 2013, with new aero and engine regulations coming in in 2014.