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Renault will wait to decide Petrov's fate
Renault will wait to decide Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov's Formula One fate, team principal Eric Boullier said on Friday.
The Frenchman also dismissed speculation about his team's finances, telling Reuters that they had important new sponsors in the pipeline and the funding they needed to develop next year's car while improving the current one.
Petrov's future has been the subject of much speculation, with the 25-year-old struggling to score points and yet to be confirmed for 2011 in what is the best race seat still potentially available.
Boullier, appointed principal in January and at 36 years old the youngest in the sport, said a decision would not be rushed.
"We have a lot of drivers chasing us but we will see. I want to give Vitaly the support he needs to deliver, so we will wait as long as possible," he said at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
"If he doesn't deliver now, then maybe we will make the decision earlier.
"But we trusted in him, we've brought him in and actually he did match our expectation so why should we kill him?," added the Frenchman.
Petrov has scored in two out of 11 races so far, finishing seventh in China in April and 10th in Germany last weekend, and has seven points to Polish team mate Robert Kubica's 89. However Boullier had no doubt the Russian was quick.
"If you analyse session by session, race by race, you will see that sometimes he is very close and matching the pace of Robert. He needs to build his confidence and learn Formula One as well," he said.
FAST RUSSIAN
"Let's say Hockenheim was 95 per cent what I expect from him. But now he needs to do it every race.
"If we see Vitaly doing well every race and if we do believe he is catching up quickly enough in terms of learning, he will be with us next year. Next year we need to have two cars scoring points."
When Petrov joined this year as the first Russian in Formula One, there were plenty of people who saw his arrival as more commercially motivated than sporting.
He had finished runner-up in the GP2 support series but lacked the experience in go-karting that most aspiring grand prix racers have.
"The first time I told people he is fast, everybody looked at me and said: 'Yes, yes we don't believe you'," laughed Boullier. "They say he is more Russian than fast. Now everybody says: 'Ah, maybe he's fast'. He is."
Boullier is also chief executive of Gravity Sport Management, owned by Gerard Lopez's Luxembourg-based Genii capital who bought a significant stake in the team last year after a racing scandal that forced the departure of former team boss Flavio Briatore and left Renault under a suspended permanent ban.
A recent request from the team, blocked by rivals, that they be advanced money due from the sport's commercial rights holder later in the year led to speculation that they might be struggling for funding but Boullier denied that.
"There is absolutely no problem of budget, the opposite," he said. "We have the sponsors and more money coming. The only thing is, we would like it earlier than expected to be able to develop the car.
"The same teams who spread the rumours in the paddock did not accept (the request for an advance). So we have found already another solution and it's done."
Renault still lack a title sponsor following the departure of Dutch-based financial group ING last year but Boullier said the team were working on that.
"We have more than a couple of contacts and more than a couple of companies and big groups interested but until it is signed and paid, I can't tell you if we will have one," he added.
"The synergy between Renault and Genii is very good and we have signed a couple of sponsors this year already and have some more coming. We have a lot of discussions for next year as well. It's going in the right way."
