Renault F1 chairman Gerard Lopez told Autosport the interest of Kimi Raikkonen in coming back in F1 is not enough to convince him to change his 2011 lineup.
"There's a certain rally driver that wasn't interested in Formula 1 but now has made contact and is interested in coming back to F1, funnily enough with us, but we're not there yet," Lopez said.
The chairman also discussed the financial factor involved in the decision-making process. Kimi Raikkonen would be paid like a star whereas Vitaly Petrov would most probably bring along many sponsors of its own.
"We use Formula 1, and we have to push our team to succeed because we use the platform to do business. And you know, it's a question of image," Lopez continued, explaining his team will do its best to maximize its budget in order to fight for next year's title.
Petrov has been doing a decent job at Renault this year according to his boss, which means the decision to trust him for another season behind the wheel would not necessarily be motivated exclusively on money.
"He's a good driver. Vitaly was second in the GP2 championship last year and could easily have won that championship if he hadn't had six failures last year,” Lopez defends.
"He is also a driver that has 250 million Russian-speaking people that are convinced in him, so we'd be stupid not to assume that there is a business behind that. But we have to build the driver. He is to us a very important element, just as Robert [Kubica] is."
All in all, Lopez is telling us one thing: although signing with Raikkonen would give Renault a big boost of image, it is not necessarily the best option for the team that would rather save this money on car development.
The 2007 Formula 1 Champion now World Rally Championship driver's return to F1 might not be as easy as he would have certainly liked to think about it.
"There's a certain rally driver that wasn't interested in Formula 1 but now has made contact and is interested in coming back to F1, funnily enough with us, but we're not there yet," Lopez said.
The chairman also discussed the financial factor involved in the decision-making process. Kimi Raikkonen would be paid like a star whereas Vitaly Petrov would most probably bring along many sponsors of its own.
"We use Formula 1, and we have to push our team to succeed because we use the platform to do business. And you know, it's a question of image," Lopez continued, explaining his team will do its best to maximize its budget in order to fight for next year's title.
Petrov has been doing a decent job at Renault this year according to his boss, which means the decision to trust him for another season behind the wheel would not necessarily be motivated exclusively on money.
"He's a good driver. Vitaly was second in the GP2 championship last year and could easily have won that championship if he hadn't had six failures last year,” Lopez defends.
"He is also a driver that has 250 million Russian-speaking people that are convinced in him, so we'd be stupid not to assume that there is a business behind that. But we have to build the driver. He is to us a very important element, just as Robert [Kubica] is."
All in all, Lopez is telling us one thing: although signing with Raikkonen would give Renault a big boost of image, it is not necessarily the best option for the team that would rather save this money on car development.
The 2007 Formula 1 Champion now World Rally Championship driver's return to F1 might not be as easy as he would have certainly liked to think about it.