Renault's official stance on the matter is that they will “evaluate” Heidfeld during the Jerez test, alongside Bruno Senna who will also race the R31 this weekend. However, the media started digging deeper into Renault's plans and found out that Heidfeld will almost certainly sign a deal with the Lotus-backed team to become regular race driver from March onwards.
“(Vitaly) Petrov is relatively inexperienced. In order to exhaust the full potential of the car, we definitely need a strong and experienced man,” an unnamed Renault source reportedly told Germany's Bild newspaper. Additionally, it seems Heidfeld already underwent a seat fitting for the Renault R31 at Enstone.
“And the team has already been talking with Heidfeld in the past years,” it added.
A few months back, before Renault confirmed Vitaly Petrov for the upcoming 2 years in F1, there were countless allegations in the media suggesting that Heidfeld is being evaluated by team principal Eric Boullier for the second seat at Enstone. However, due to reasons not related to racing necessarily, the team decided to stick with the Russian driver.
A new set of rumors connected to the Renault - Kubica vacancy situation appeared in the media earlier today, according to which Vitantonio Liuzzi will also be invited by Renault to test the R31 during the upcoming group test in Barcelona. And team owner Gerard Lopez did little to deny it.
“We all know that Nick is rather good, but we don't know what level he is in now, we don't know how he does with our car. Same goes for Vitantonio Liuzzi, same goes - I don't know - for Bruno Senna, who last year was in a team with a car that could do nothing,” said the Genii Capital boss.
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