The Tale of Two Men: Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica
It seems more than likely that Nick Heidfeld will be the man to replace the injured Robert Kubica in the Lotus Renault team for the 2011 F1 season. He will share testing duties with Bruno Senna over the weekend in Jerez but the team have effectively said that it’s Heidfeld’s seat to lose.
Yesterday, team boss Eric Bouiller said “Nick is here to be evaluated. Once we have finished our assessment of him, if we are happy then we keep Nick.’ Therefore, it would be a very safe bet to say that Heidfeld will be on the grid in Bahrain as a Lotus Renault driver.
However, it must be mentioned that the driver who he looks set to replace was the very man who nearly ended his career. Between 2007 and 2009, Heidfeld and Kubica were teammates at the BMW Sauber team and even though the German outscored his teammate in 2007 and 2009, Kubica was generally perceived to be the faster driver out of the two. Consequently, when BMW withdrew from the sport at the end of 2009, Kubica moved to the Renault team while Heidfeld was left without a drive for the 2010 season.
It was in 2008 when Kubica proved to everyone that he was the real deal by outshining his much more experienced teammate. The Pole displayed tremendous speed and was leading the championship after seven rounds but eventually finished fourth with 75 points as BMW were less competitive in the second half of the season. However, he was regarded by many as the ‘Driver of the Year’ and at only 23 was tipped to be a multiple world champion provided that he got into the right car.
Fast forward to 2011 and there were early indications that Kubica was finally in that position. During last week’s pre-season test in Barcelona, many were impressed with the speed that the Lotus Renault had shown and the team were confident that they could compete at the front. As things were looking so positive for the team, news broke of Kubica’s horrific rallying incident in Italy.
Last year, Kubica helped rebuild the team and it was it was made clear that he was at the centre of the outfit. Many believed that if Lotus Renault were to be considered as serious front runners in 2011, then it was paramount that Kubica would lead the charge. Therefore the accident came as a massive blow to ambitions.
However, the circumstances have presented Heidfeld with the perfect opportunity to prove to everyone that he still has the speed to compete at the front. The German will be desperately hoping that the Lotus Renault lives up to its hype so he can finally claim his maiden Grand Prix victory. If he performs well this season then he may just be able to extend his F1 career by a couple more years.
Nick, it’s over to you!
