Renault bullying Heidfeld

well that's the opinion of Eddie Jordan, The Irishman suspect the renault team management are guilty of "bullying".

The former F1 team owner and boss, now a pundit for British television, is referring to Eric Boullier and Gerard Lopez's outspoken criticism of Nick Heidfeld's results and leadership qualities.

German veteran Heidfeld replaced injured regular Robert Kubica this season, but now Renault test drivers Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean are being linked with the seat.

Irishman Jordan told Sport Bild he has a theory about the pressure being put on Heidfeld.

"It could even be described as bullying," he said.

"They probably want to wear him down so he throws in the towel voluntarily."

Jordan, however, has a high opinion of 34-year-old Heidfeld.

"For me, he is Mr Consistency. I know this because Nick drove for me for a year. 2004 was a very difficult year for Jordan financially, and we could not give him the car that he deserved.

"The same is true also at the moment of the Lotus-Renault," he added

Source: motorsport.com

So they reckon Vitaly Petrov would make a better team leader?

Or maybe they're just cutting their losses for this season and looking to the future. Either way, going with 2 relatively inexperienced drivers is quite a gamble and they'll be relying mainly on the engineers to figure out the cars' shortcomings.

Heidfeld may only be an average driver, but the one thing he does have is years of experience. Also, judging on results so far, Petrov isn't really superior to him. He may have out-qualified Heidfeld 6-3, but in terms of race results and points scored, they're nearly identical (Heidfeld being 2 points in front of Petrov).

Renault's biggest problem IMO is car development. Out of all their options, Nick would seem the best option to assist the engineers and give them the driver feedback they need. I can't see either Bruno Senna or Roman Grosjean doing a better job.

Lotus-Renault are doing something similar with Jarno Trulli. Always a better qualifier than racer, but his years of experience seem to be helping them close the gap to the midfield runners.

IMO though Heidfeld has never performed the same since the BMW days, sure he has experience, but that isnt showing through yet. I agree though, not sure Petrov is the best team leader however he does have potential, but needs guides from a better driver then Heidfeld. Kubica would have fitted the bill nicely. THough it will be interesting to see what Kubica is like when he's back.... after all look at Massa, he's not been the same since the Hungarian accident.