Petrov confirmed at Renault-Lotus (also: bear deficates in woods)

[Big Ben]

It's common racing knowledge that if you are in front of another driver and that driver is on the attack, then you will be slower. Plus, he had over 45 laps on his tires when Robert finally pitted and changed to the options (the quicker tire).

What I'm saying is that if Vitaly would've been on the same strategy as RK he would've beaten him.

In your, as you admit, shortsightedness, you have missed Vitaly's commendable racecraft. He hasn't shown that he could be a future WDC, but he's better than many current F1 drivers with similar experience.

yes... if you actually need to defend ... maybe I wasn't too focused and missed all that late breaking and defending moves that slowed down Petrov.

[DexDexter]

Perhaps I've been to focused on the battle at the top of the table. But in my shortsighted approach I've see one Renault driver often interfering in that top battle by getting up there while the other one only interfered when the top drivers dropped by chance at his level. And what are you saying there? That Petrov sacrificed his race just to keep Alonso behind him? if that's the case perhaps LH's statement about RBR's step brothers is more accurate than one would think.

Maybe I watched another race but as far as I can recall FA didn't even come close to making a serious attempt to overtake the Russian. That was the most disappointing part of that race. So am I the only one who didn't see that great defending from the Russion in Abu Dhabibi? After 5 laps I knew that only a car failure could change anything.

It's pretty evident that the sole reason you don't like Petrov is the fact that he cost your idol the WDC which was great. IMO he just about deserves another chance.

[Robinho]

IMO opinion he just about doesn't deserve another chance, definately not in a seat of the calibre of Renault. It was a one man team this year and i have seen very little to suggest it will be different next year. If anyone deserved more of a chance it was the man Petrov replaced, Grosjean, who was soundly beating him in GP2 and did no worse in his half a season with no prep than Petrov has in a full season with testing. I also think Hulkenburg and Di Resta desevre a crack ahead of Petrov too.

He's not rubbish, by any means, but i think there are those 3 at least who should be ahead in the queue IMO

[jens]

IMO opinion he just about doesn't deserve another chance, definately not in a seat of the calibre of Renault. It was a one man team this year and i have seen very little to suggest it will be different next year. If anyone deserved more of a chance it was the man Petrov replaced, Grosjean, who was soundly beating him in GP2 and did no worse in his half a season with no prep than Petrov has in a full season with testing. I also think Hulkenburg and Di Resta desevre a crack ahead of Petrov too.

He's not rubbish, by any means, but i think there are those 3 at least who should be ahead in the queue IMO

I agree. In terms of "deserving" another chance, he should have gone to Virgin Racing to try to prove himself in a backmarker team against a solid benchmark like Glock. The seat of Renault is not for "training", this should be for producing real results.

Hard to believe that a driver in the calibre of Petrov has locked a seat of a Top5 team basically for at least three years. People tend to complain, how unfair F1 is and how many talented drivers don't get proper chances - well, here you can see, how...

In contrast funny, how people are fed up for instance with someone like Buemi at STR, who hasn't underperformed embarrassingly in the car at this disposal and IIRC has even beaten Petrov a few times this season despite a clearly inferior car.

[Big Ben]

It's pretty evident that the sole reason you don't like Petrov is the fact that he cost your idol the WDC which was great. IMO he just about deserves another chance.

feeling better now? and I have anger issues

[Big Ben]

IMO opinion he just about doesn't deserve another chance, definately not in a seat of the calibre of Renault. It was a one man team this year and i have seen very little to suggest it will be different next year. If anyone deserved more of a chance it was the man Petrov replaced, Grosjean, who was soundly beating him in GP2 and did no worse in his half a season with no prep than Petrov has in a full season with testing. I also think Hulkenburg and Di Resta desevre a crack ahead of Petrov too.

He's not rubbish, by any means, but i think there are those 3 at least who should be ahead in the queue IMO

careful there buddy... by the strange logic of some you might end up being a Alonso fanboy if you say something against any driver that finished ahead of the Spaniard at some point. I'm sure you don't want that. Just say he's awesome and leave it.

[jens]

I wanted to add one more thing. People used to complain about the presence of factory teams in F1 and that they don't care about the sport. But I have to say that departure of Renault has paved way to a really blatant business-orientated team - Lotus Renault GP. Bahar ja Lopez keep repeating the "importance of marketing" all the time. And Virgin Racing isn't even interested in succeeding - it's all about "cheap business" for them. At least car manufacturers aimed to succeed and hired people accordingly.

[DexDexter]

feeling better now? and I have anger issues

Yep, a little poke at you feels good and since I don't throw any insults at anybody, no harm done, right

[Malbec]

Dazzla, I couldn't have said it better myself. The rookies just aren't given enough time to bed in anymore. Yes he screwed up plenty of times, but when he was on it he looked very impressive considering the total absence of testing.

He deserves a second year but he will now need to up his game.

I don't think Petrov was that impressive at all. After all he was far too inconsistent not only compared to Kubica but also to the other two rookies Hulkenberg and Kobayashi. At some races he was far off Kubica's pace, at others he couldn't keep it on the road. There were only one or two races where he was as quick or quicker than Kubica. I think the fact that people are talking about him in a good light is largely due to his performance at Abu Dhabi where he trailed his teammate yet again but didn't fold under the pressure of having Alonso on his tail.

As others have said Petrov should be either at a real tail end team or out of F1 totally. There are more 'deserving' drivers out there.

It does say something about the size of the Lotus deal that 'Renault' still needs Petrov's Russian money instead of a driver who is more talented but brings less money.

[wattoroos]

the thing i dont get or i dont think i will ever get is why a 2 year deal when they could have had a 1 year deal with a 1 year option he didnt do well enough to deserve two years straight up