Nick Heidfeld was signed by Lotus Renault GP as an experienced stand in to main driver Robert Kubica, who was seriously injured in a rally accident before the season started. He’s supposed to lead the line, but the past few races have been disappointing for Quick Nick, who is now getting a hurry up from his boss.
The German started the season outside of the points, but bounced back strongly in Sepang with a podium finish. However, the following four races saw him pick up less points than the 15 he got in Malaysia. He has also struggled to match the pace of teammate Vitaly Petrov in qualifying, damaging his chances of better results on Sunday. His head-to-head qualifying score against Petrov is 1-5.
When asked by Autosport what Heidfeld needed to do, team boss Eric Boullier said: “I don’t know. I need to sit down with him and understand his concerns and to have a fair understanding of the situation. It needs to be from practice one to be at least on Vitaly’s pace and it looks like there is always a delay, and qualifying if you are not ready car wise, balance wise and confidence wise then you cannot deliver on one single lap.”
On Heidfeld’s season so far, he said: “Let’s say good, but not good enough. Sunday is okay. Sunday’s pace is good, it is very good, but obviously the higher we qualify on the grid, the better the chance we have to score more points.”
Looks like Quick Nick will have to live up to his nickname quickly, especially on Saturdays. The next race is the Canadian GP from 10-12 June in Montreal.
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Why blame the driver?
fact is, your car sucks.
he’s not actually blaming the driver,
he or rather i say renault are expecting nick to do the same thing as robert do which is deliver the result despite the car is a crap or in other words do wonders with it.
robert is known for his ability to drive beyond the limit of the car or outdrive it. having said that, their current car is not actually that bad either. it’s the same par as Merc GP or a little bit better i say.
heidfeld is 6th on driver championship standing ahead of massa and rosberg
what boullier want to say really is..
“Nick… bring more sponsorship money… FAST!!!”
LoL
nick is always a driver that struggle in 1 lap condition (qualifying).. but always perform better in race; (consistency drive perhaps).
But Kubica is different, he always push the car to the limit every time.. that’s why we are miss him so much.
Kubica, get fit as fast as you can!!
This is not the same Renault team which RK drove for last season.
Looks like you don’t have a competitive package and while other teams
are making inroads esp Williams Cosworth and Force India Ferrari,
Renault seems to be falling behind since an impressive first race.
Blaming Nick is a lame excuse !!
Nick is a good solid driver but since Renault signed him up for this job instead of others, he has to meet or exceed expectations. Petrov started to perform better after some counselling sessions. Maybe Nick needs that too.
If he’s not satisfied with Heidfeld (personally, I think he’s highly underrated), I’d suggest replacing him with the reserve drivers at certain events.
the driver will surely improve with time as he becomes more accustomed with the cars and new teammates