Heidfeld's a gonner... Here comes Senna

[raymondu999]

Again; I think it's not about suing them for money. It's like when you bring out an empty threat. "Do it and I'll sue you!" to try to deter the other from actually doing it.

[gridwalker]

The threat in itself will be counter productive IMHO; Genii have deep pockets and you don't get to be a successful venture capitalist without good lawyers.

If I were in Lopez's position, I certainly wouldn't want someone who makes threats of litigation occupying such a privileged (and valuable) position within the team ... let him sue!

[beelsebob]

The threat in itself will be counter productive IMHO; Genii have deep pockets and you don't get to be a successful venture capitalist without good lawyers.

If I were in Lopez's position, I certainly wouldn't want someone who makes threats of litigation occupying such a privileged (and valuable) position within the team ... let him sue!

I get what you're saying, and pretty much agree that he's doing himself more harm than good, but the article asserts that Renault are struggling for cash. If that's the case, they're unlikely to want to foot the bill for a legal fight, and it may just work... Right up until the end of this year.

[marcush.]

is anyone thinking Senna would be able to outscore petrov in the remaining races ?

Senna has not impressed anyone in F1 yet he had difficulty to keep chandhok at bay so he might be as good as him maximum...remember Karuns showing in Trullis car ?
Boulllier is shouting attack vs Mercedes and his drivers are petrov and Senna...please excuse me Rosberg and Scumacher at least as a pair are far better drivers and scorers.So the car needs to make a serious jump forward .
I´m loking forward to it...bring em on!
Mercedes has one competitor less to worry about.

[Donuts]

is anyone thinking Senna would be able to outscore petrov in the remaining races ?

Senna has not impressed anyone in F1 yet he had difficulty to keep chandhok at bay so he might be as good as him maximum...remember Karuns showing in Trullis car ?
Boulllier is shouting attack vs Mercedes and his drivers are petrov and Senna...please excuse me Rosberg and Scumacher at least as a pair are far better drivers and scorers.So the car needs to make a serious jump forward .
I´m loking forward to it...bring em on!
Mercedes has one competitor less to worry about.

That's why all of this sounds very suspicious, especially beacuse nothing has been confirmed by anyone at LRGP(this whole thread is based on Eddie Jordan's opinion).

Could they really have money problems? One wonders why they have "GENII Exchange" taking so much space on the livery. How much did Group Lotus bring to the table? Last year I remember rumours that they were on the verge of a titlesponsorship with Mastercard, but nothing came out of that.

[ESPImperium]

is anyone thinking Senna would be able to outscore petrov in the remaining races ?

Senna has not impressed anyone in F1 yet he had difficulty to keep chandhok at bay so he might be as good as him maximum...remember Karuns showing in Trullis car ?
Boulllier is shouting attack vs Mercedes and his drivers are petrov and Senna...please excuse me Rosberg and Scumacher at least as a pair are far better drivers and scorers.So the car needs to make a serious jump forward .
I´m loking forward to it...bring em on!
Mercedes has one competitor less to worry about.

That's why all of this sounds very suspicious, especially beacuse nothing has been confirmed by anyone at LRGP(this whole thread is based on Eddie Jordan's opinion).

Could they really have money problems? One wonders why they have "GENII Exchange" taking so much space on the livery. How much did Group Lotus bring to the table? Last year I remember rumours that they were on the verge of a titlesponsorship with Mastercard, but nothing came out of that.

Sounds like they have money problems again. Id say there may be some truth behind the rumor, as some things EJ has been shot down before, such as Schumacher returning in a Brawn GP (or what ever the team was to be called in 2010) for a minimum of 2 years. EJ got laughed at for this, and it happened.

I think if Renault are in money problems, id recon that Senna being brought in for some of the Embratel money that could be brought in for his backside in a race seat could be a powerful thing. He also has other sponsors as well that didnt take a place on this Hispania F110 last year that secured him the race seat last year for arround €10m.

Renault were after a Mastercard title sponsorship, but that failed to materialise due to the Renautl management not weanting a Red and Orange car this year, and this was a deal wothh a reported €55m a year over 4 years. Instead they sold out to Bahar for €35m a year over 5 years. However they did need a €10m advance from Japan onwards to keep the team fighting on for the remainder of 2010 from FOM. Bernie obliged, and now Renault will have a estimated €20m shortfall this year unless they get space sold on the car for the rest of the season. and if Senna can bring in some money, that will narrow that shortfall.

I think this is a great opertunity for Senna, and if Heidfeld takes legal action, i think he will be laughed at, as his contract was up to the start of the summer break then a option could be taken by the team for the next 4 races and then a option for the rest of the season. It was all down to the speed of the Kubica recovery.

This also says to me if Senna gets that seat, id recon that for every FP1 that Grosjean takes the seat of Senna for all but India and posibly Singapore to get him aquanted fo F1 machinary again, with Grosjean taking the Renault seat in the two or three young driver days.

[raymondu999]

Well EJ always tells the world the opposite of common belief. That way when he is wrong he looks just like a silly old man, but when he gets it right he looks like a genius.

[Donuts]

is anyone thinking Senna would be able to outscore petrov in the remaining races ?

Senna has not impressed anyone in F1 yet he had difficulty to keep chandhok at bay so he might be as good as him maximum...remember Karuns showing in Trullis car ?
Boulllier is shouting attack vs Mercedes and his drivers are petrov and Senna...please excuse me Rosberg and Scumacher at least as a pair are far better drivers and scorers.So the car needs to make a serious jump forward .
I´m loking forward to it...bring em on!
Mercedes has one competitor less to worry about.

That's why all of this sounds very suspicious, especially beacuse nothing has been confirmed by anyone at LRGP(this whole thread is based on Eddie Jordan's opinion).

Could they really have money problems? One wonders why they have "GENII Exchange" taking so much space on the livery. How much did Group Lotus bring to the table? Last year I remember rumours that they were on the verge of a titlesponsorship with Mastercard, but nothing came out of that.

Sounds like they have money problems again. Id say there may be some truth behind the rumor, as some things EJ has been shot down before, such as Schumacher returning in a Brawn GP (or what ever the team was to be called in 2010) for a minimum of 2 years. EJ got laughed at for this, and it happened.

I think if Renault are in money problems, id recon that Senna being brought in for some of the Embratel money that could be brought in for his backside in a race seat could be a powerful thing. He also has other sponsors as well that didnt take a place on this Hispania F110 last year that secured him the race seat last year for arround €10m.

Renault were after a Mastercard title sponsorship, but that failed to materialise due to the Renautl management not weanting a Red and Orange car this year, and this was a deal wothh a reported €55m a year over 4 years. Instead they sold out to Bahar for €35m a year over 5 years. However they did need a €10m advance from Japan onwards to keep the team fighting on for the remainder of 2010 from FOM. Bernie obliged, and now Renault will have a estimated €20m shortfall this year unless they get space sold on the car for the rest of the season. and if Senna can bring in some money, that will narrow that shortfall.

I think this is a great opertunity for Senna, and if Heidfeld takes legal action, i think he will be laughed at, as his contract was up to the start of the summer break then a option could be taken by the team for the next 4 races and then a option for the rest of the season. It was all down to the speed of the Kubica recovery.

This also says to me if Senna gets that seat, id recon that for every FP1 that Grosjean takes the seat of Senna for all but India and posibly Singapore to get him aquanted fo F1 machinary again, with Grosjean taking the Renault seat in the two or three young driver days.

You are right that their might be some thruth(no smoke without a fire) in this rumour that has been going on for a while. If that is so, they(top five team + striking livery) are doing a lousy job of finding a title sponsorship. They should hire Peter Sauber! =D>

What will they do if RK comes back? I'm surprised that no polish company has shown interest in becoming a sponsor or title sponsor. The polish economy has been booming the last decade and they should have a lot of big companies on the verge of becoming international or allready established internationally.

[Tyler]

I think that engaging a pay-driver is a sign that Renault is finally pulling out, going back to being an engine supplier only.

Hasn't that already happened - I thought the team were Renault in name only, having sold their remaining shares to Genii?

Because, of course, suing the team that revived his dead career by giving him a slot as an emergency replacement is JUST what Nick needs to do to improve his future prospects.

This is like calling in a NATO air-strike on your own foot (which you should always save for times when shooting it just doesn't seem enough).

I think Nick's career in F1 is over now anyway.
I really don't see another team hiring him. I feel a bit sorry for him - I think he's done a fair job in the Renault - nothing special but not bad either.
By blurting out his dissatisfaction, especially the bits about Heidfeld's leadership qualities, to the press Boullier has effectively killed any chance of another team picking Heidfeld up.
Sure it's survival of the fittest in F1 but I think a lot of the blame should fall on the R31, the design team and the management.
It almost seems as if Boullier is trying to hide other problems within the team by pushing all the blame onto Nick.
I feel in a way that if Renault needed the money so badly why didn't they hire a pay driver from the beginning instead of putting Nick through all of this?
With regards to Senna taking Nicks seat - he's never impressed me and I can see him being outclassed by Petrov.
I think Grosjean would be a much better choice

[marcush.]

How much worth is in p4 in the constructors compared to 5 th or 6th ? How much will Senna add to the income of Renault?

I think their original calculation was a gamble on being 3rd due to
petrov improving ,Kubica fighting for wins and r31 as a competitive car.

That fell apart first when Heidfeld failed to score as good as Kubica was expected to do and in effect the R31 proved to be not quick enough to fight for wins.
Then Lopez and Bouillier realised their calculations would not translate into reality and their solution is to exchange Bernie money for Sennas.
To annoy Heidfeld they delayed development by uprading the facility in the worst moment and talked bad about him randomly accusing him of lack of leadership.
Sure Heidi was told the tunnel was going to close for upgrades and he accepted under protest-Kubicka would have gone public and would not have blinked a second before slaughtering lopez and Bouillier for their actions.If that is lack of leadership ..well then be it.

The problem is only Heidfeld is not willing to take the blame for the failure so they need to make a settlement.

[xpensive]

I guess there's some finger-pointing going on inside the team now that they are ditching their bizarre xhaust system, which nobody really seemed to understand, not my humble self anyway. Blaming a German driver seems like a cheap shot by the French.

I'd be surprised if Heidfield's contract doesn't stipulate that he'd be paid anyway, but if he's not, Senna's money would probably help the team's balance sheet somewhat, but I doubt if anyone would xpect the young Senna to do any better than Nick?

[cravenciak]

Senna confirmed @lrgp.com

[ESPImperium]

Heidfeld was getting paid for the first 13GP of the aggreement as long as the season started in Bahrain, but im not sure if there is a "Event cancelation clause" in the Heidfeld/Renault deal. I think that is the grey area. As for the races after he was getting paid for the option of each GP. Kubica was on a €15m deal this year, id recon that Heidfeld would be looking at a deal in the region of €400,000 to €600,000 a race, whitch is anywhere between €8m and €12m a season with podium and win bonuses on top.

Id recon that Heidfeld will have been paid up to arround €5.5m to €8.1m so far.

I am thinking that the bean counters at Renault have said to Lopez and Bullier that Heidfeld is a high wage earner with a poor track record this year, get rid now and save money on his wages and get Senna in as he can bring some sponsor monmey to the team now. Id recon this could narrow the €0m shortfall Renault will have down to arround €8m if they put Senna in as he gets paid the same each event anyways, regaurdless. Id recon that he will be on the usual Test & Reserve retainer that is €100,000 a event with a double your money bonus if you race, with a 20% bonus for points and a 50% bonus for a podium or better.

Id recon the bean counters are pulling management into a train of thought to get rid of Heidfeld.

However, Renault i mst say have the second most inept marketing and sponsorship department in F1 behind HRT. More or less every team on the grid has had at least one new sponsor added to their cars for at least one race this season. Id recon that if Renault got ahold of their sences they would get the sponsor money they need. If a chameleon needs to change its spots to survive, what does a chameleon do???

Renault need arround €225m to €255m a year in sponsor money, i think they shoulc have taken the Mastercard money over the Lotus money as i think a Yellow/Orange/Red car would have stood out on that grid formation a mile. As for Polish companies coming into F1 on the back of Kubica, many want to invest in other streams of sport like Football, Basketball and Rallying, the core sports of Poland.

I think that Renault are currently the best team for a takeover in F1, they have great staff and facilities, also have good drivers. However they need to get their marketing department into gear and get logos on their cars ASAP. But the need to ditch those exhausts with that, its brand damaging to see your product and your sponsors logos go up in a ball of flame in the middle of a GP or even in FP3.

If i were Renault id be thinking of getting sponsors onto the car in what has been seen in recent years with Brawn and now McLaren, areas of the car that are sold on a race by race basis to get money in. Brawn did it from Singapore onward in 2009, Sauber did it with Buger King last year for 4 GP and McLaren now are selling the rear facing side of the rear wing for between €1m and €2.5m a race, with Verizon taking the €2.5m Monaco only birth. McLarten are also selling a space next to the drivers headrest for up to €500,000 a race also.

[bhall]

Money, money, money, money...MONEY!!!

[Dragonfly]

I guess there's some finger-pointing going on inside the team now that they are ditching their bizarre xhaust system, ......

I read today that actually they gonna stick with it.
Link to AS