Vitaly Petrov hits out at Renault

Russian F1 star Vitaly Petrov has hit out against Renault (now Lotus), stating the team treated him like a child throughout the 2010 season. Petrov made the big leap from GP2 to Formula 1 in 2010, after finishing the previous season as the series runner-up with Barwa Addax.

When Petrov first made his debut on the F1 scene, he was undeniably the No.2 driver to the much experienced Polish driver Robert Kubica. However, towards the end of the season Petrov began to show his potential, especially after his superb drive at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

In 2011, Vitaly Petrov was thrown in at the deep end with Renault, as Robert Kubica was severely injured during his rally crash. This made Petrov the unofficial No.1 driver, with the much experienced Nick Heidfeld alongside him for the opening few months of the season. Petrov started the 2011 season strongly, with his first and as of yet only podium with 3rd at the Australian Grand Prix. After that, the team gradually faded away and entered a grueling song-long battle with Force India.

For 2012, the Russian was replaced at the team as Lotus selected two new drivers’ to head their team in Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. With Petrov now racing alongside Kovalainen at Caterham, he can now express his frustrations at driving with the Enstone-based team.

“In 2010, I had some problems with my team, fighting with Mark Slade [Petrov’s race engineer]. He’s a very clever engineer, but it was not a good relationship. They put him up high because he had 20 years of experience and you are the child. If he told you to jump through a window, you must jump through a window,” said Petrov in an interview with AutoSport. “I respected him and listened to him all the time and jumped when he said. But I did the wrong thing. I had my feelings and I should have been more aggressive, but I was afraid I would say something wrong.”

Vitaly Petrov criticized the team after last seasons Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Russian TV, due to the teams apparent lack of lack of car development. Afterwards the Russian apologized to the team, yet the writing was already on the wall for him as he was replaced shortly after seasons end as 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen joined the team.

Petrov will be hoping that this new chapter in his F1 career with Caterham can be a successful one, and that he can become the teams first driver to finish in the points in 2012.