And given the fact that his much younger and under-experienced teammate Vitaly Petrov scored a podium finish in practically the same car, some argued that the heat is already on the German driver.
Needless to say, Heidfeld fended off pressure claims from critics, saying that the time spent in the Great Circus has well taught him not to pay attention to those discussions. If anything, his teammate's result motivates him for the races to come, argued Robert Kubica's sub.
“I make pressure for myself yes, but I don't really worry about anything else,” said Heidfeld. “The most important thing is that the car is quick. Vitaly was able to score a podium with a good race, not just being lucky, but having a good race and a good strategy.”
“So on one side it makes it even more difficult to swallow that result - because you know what would be possible. But on the other side it is a huge motivation for the rest of the season and this weekend. Honestly I cannot wait to finally get started again.”
His first outing after Australia did not go down quite as expected, as the German experienced some suspension problems with his car that kept his running in Friday's FP1 to only 6 laps. However, he did got to set the 7th fastest time of the morning.
Following similar problems experienced by his teammate in the first practice session in Malaysia, Renault announced they will keep both cars in the garage for the remainder of the day in order to investigate and solve whatever problems they will find.
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