How Kubica's accident might (in the long term) be an advantage for Renault...

[KobayashiFan]

Before anyone bites my head off, hear me out first. I'll start off by saying I'm not suggesting Kubica's injuries are a good thing. Neither am I happy about his accident, however most of the time there is a bright side to a bad situation. As is maybe the case here, and I'd liek to hear your opinions too.

So as you may know already, Robert has been revealed to be a very quite man within any team. He'll talk to the team about how to improve the car, but won't share any setup or telemetry data with his team mates. Now this could be why Vitaly Petrov struggled so much last year. With Robert being a closed man, he didn't have an experienced driver to guide him throughout the year. He was left to learn the tracks and setup, all by himself. Say what you want about Vitaly having driving some of the same circuits in GP2, F1 and GP2 are different. And the car you are driving will change how to drive the track. Basically, what I am saying is having an open, experienced team mate in your rookie season of F1 is very important. Even more so now with the reduced testing. It's all a no brainer really.

Now, Renault found a replacement in Nick Heidfeld. And while Nick is good at developing a car and feeding back information to the team, he is also a lot more open with his team mates. Despite Vitaly making quite a lot of mistakes last year, we did see some flashes of potential. And maybe all it will take to unlock his full potential will be an experienced driver to guide him throughout the course of the season. And it seems unlikely Kubica will return this year.

So come 2012, hopefully Kubica will return. And if Nick can help develop Petrov into a consistently fast driver, Renault will have two of them in 2012 in Kubica and Petrov. Providing that next years car is fast enough, (this is just a scenario, mind) this could be a very strong combination.

So, what do you think?

 

[PeterJB]

Even if Kubica returns next year, long term injuries like this will have probably hindered his driving abilities quite a lot. Just like Massa, hasn't been the same since his crash.

 

[KobayashiFan]

Even if Kubica returns next year, long term injuries like this will have probably hindered his driving abilities quite a lot. Just like Massa, hasn't been the same since his crash.

I see your point, however Kubica has a much stronger mentality. Also don't forget he suffered an accident during his Formula Three days in which his arm broke. To quote Wikipedia "At his delayed debut at Norisring, Kubica, driving with a plastic brace and 18 titanium bolts in his arm, won the race". Also, as we know his accident in Canada 2007 didn't seem to effect his confidence or skill. I'm not saying it will certainly be the same this time. But I have a lot of belief if anyone can bounce back, Robert can.

 

[Radracing]

A bit off topic with regards to drivers sharing setup notes. I know Massa was on pace with Alonso in the begining of the season but fell off. I think about the time with the team orders fiasco. My question would be does anyone know if Alonso shares his setup notes with Masa and if so did he stop sharing after the team orders scandal thus making Massa off pace?

 

[Ardius]

^The teams can provide the data to both drivers, thats pure conjecture.

As for Renault and Petrov, I don't really see Heidfeld suddenly becoming a great mentor to Petrov. People are making too big a deal of what rookies "learn" from experienced drivers, sure there are probably some who are more friendly than others, but most of the time rookies learn simply by watching their teammate, observing their setup changes and their telementary.
The team would have provided Petrov with Kubica's telementary to compare where he is slower and if he wanted he probably could have asked for Robert's setups (or the engineers suggested to try it).

To blame Kubica for Petrov's mostly rubbish rookie season is a little crazy. Its also in Heidfeld's benefit that he doesn't help Petrov, if Petrov is remarkably faster against him, it makes him look worse than Kubica, when I'm sure he would like to dominate Vitaly just as much and try to secure a race seat for 2012 if not at Renault, then somewhere else.

If Renault wanted an "advantage" they would fire Petrov and hire Kubica and Heidfeld or just simply started with that line-up in 2010.

 

[KobayashiFan]

^The teams can provide the data to both drivers, thats pure conjecture.

As for Renault and Petrov, I don't really see Heidfeld suddenly becoming a great mentor to Petrov. People are making too big a deal of what rookies "learn" from experienced drivers, sure there are probably some who are more friendly than others, but most of the time rookies learn simply by watching their teammate, observing their setup changes and their telementary.
The team would have provided Petrov with Kubica's telementary to compare where he is slower and if he wanted he probably could have asked for Robert's setups (or the engineers suggested to try it).

To blame Kubica for Petrov's mostly rubbish rookie season is a little crazy. Its also in Heidfeld's benefit that he doesn't help Petrov, if Petrov is remarkably faster against him, it makes him look worse than Kubica, when I'm sure he would like to dominate Vitaly just as much and try to secure a race seat for 2012 if not at Renault, then somewhere else.

If Renault wanted an "advantage" they would fire Petrov and hire Kubica and Heidfeld or just simply started with that line-up in 2010.

Just so you know, I wasn't blaming Robert. He's a closed guy, not on purpose. Thats just the way he is. And who knows, if Nick does well this year we may well see him at Renault with Robert next year.

 

[Furinkazen]

Also, Heidfield was a Pirelli test driver last year. Ok, admittedly it was in the 2009 Toyota, but he may just have a little advantage over the rest...

 

[Northstar]

Also, Heidfield was a Pirelli test driver last year. Ok, admittedly it was in the 2009 Toyota, but he may just have a little advantage over the rest...

I think that all the preseason testing eliminated any advantage they may have had, not to mention I'm sure compounds have been tweaked since than.

Plus, weren't all his tire tests at Mugello & Jerez?

 

[noisiaturismo]

Oh, as long as Petrov stays in front of Alonso with his Renault i am happy.

 

[Stradivis]

Even if Kubica returns next year, long term injuries like this will have probably hindered his driving abilities quite a lot. Just like Massa, hasn't been the same since his crash.

Massa ha been hindered by Ferrari. IMO.