Now that the first race of the 2010 season is out of the way and with time to reflect, it seems only one conclusion can be reached over Renault’s weekend. Disappointing.

An 11^thplace for Robert Kubica and a DNF for Vitaly Petrov after 13 laps was all they could achieve after a lacklustre race which saw an impressive performance by Ferrari at the head of the field. At the moment Renault can only dream of such a performance, let alone get the result, but can be encouraged by the cars’ performance on the whole.

11^thplace isn’t exactly great, agreed, but when you exit turn two facing backwards a high points finish seems very unlikely. For Kubica, 11^th place was the best he could have hoped for after battling through the field, even holding the fastest lap at one point as the fuel laden cars began to lighten.

As for his rookie team mate, Petrov seemed to have been branded an also ran in F1 before the season even kicked off but his performance over the course of the weekend and winter testing has suggested this is far from the case.

An impressive start and mayhem at the second turn saw Petrov running just outside the top 10 before he hit problems with his suspension, but his relative pace in all sessions suggests the guy’s got potential. Out of all the rookies Petrov certainly seemed the most competitive, granted all the others were in cars that couldn’t achieve more than a handful of laps at any one time, but even so.

Practice times suggested the Renault would be a mid-field runner along with the likes of Williams and the ever improving Force India’s. And qualifying proved this was the case as Kubica did well to get into 9^thplace although Petrov struggled and only managed 17^th.

Had Kubica not had his spin and had Petrov not retired then points were on the cards for perhaps both, but races aren’t won on ifs and maybes.

As Eric Bouiller stated on Renault’s website, “Overall, we can say that the R30 is a good basis to work from but we’re under no illusion about the amount of work ahead of us if we want to catch the teams in front.”

The race itself can only be described as a ‘nice’ opener and one which will hopefully set up the season for excitement and thrills, something this race lacked. It’s hard to determine whether the new regulations will be a success or not after just one race, but certainly changes to the cars’ aero packages and overall reduction in down force would certainly help the spectacle.

In any event with the F1 circus moving to the Australian Grand Prix in two weeks time, Renault will surely be looking to score some points and start to push ahead of the mid-field battle and challenge the big guns.

As Kubica suggests on Renault’s official F1 site “Now, we need to keep working and keep pushing.”

Join me and Victoria on Formula1FanCast.com’s Fantasy League Formula 1 2010. Our league is called Formula1Fancast.com and the league pin is 722. Try and beat us if you can, but be warned we’re good!

Related posts: