The role of reserve drivers?
For years F1 teams have used the role of the test driver as a way to introduce new drivers to the team and assess their pace. The likes of Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill used test driving contracts as their route into regular F1 race seats, whilst others such as Alex Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa have been able to sustain their careers through solid seasons in the test seat.
However, in recent years the role of the ‘test’ driver has shifted to that of ‘reserve’ driver. This is partly because there is little actual testing to be done, and also because reserve driver sells better to potential sponsors.
With the massively reduced number of F1 testing days throughout the season, opportunities are limited for reserve drivers to get behind the wheel, which restricts the value they can add to the team, and also their opportunity to get F1 mileage. Whilst I fully understand and support the restrictions in testing days for the teams in terms of the racing, there is surely an argument to set aside several days a season for teams to run reserve and rookie drivers.
The situation at Renault has clearly illustrated why this should be the case. From an external perspective it seems utter ludicrous that a team with four, yes four, reserve drivers should then go and recruit a fifth (Nick Heidfeld) to fill the hole left by Robert Kubica.
In particular I think that Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean could feel hard done by as both have in previous seasons been thrown into race seats without the opportunity to get some test days under their belt and therefore were perceived to underperform.
Whilst Heidfeld seems a sensible short term option, if he is in the seat for the whole season you wonder what that will give Renault. Heidfeld is a solid performer, but he has never had a standout performance, or indeed a run of races that have shown a touch of magic. The absence of Kubica seems like a golden opportunity to give a relative newcomer a good run in the car, with some pre-season testing, to show their full potential. Given that Renault have four young guns on their books as official reserve drivers it would have been super to see at least one of them given the chance.
The counter argument is that by running two inexperienced drivers in the car that they could end the season with fewer points than Britain in the Eurovision song contest, and a damage bill to match Vitaly Petrov’s from 2010. True, but then Heidfeld is hardly likely to be bringing the car home on the podium every weekend.
To put either Bruno Senna or Romain Grosjean in the car would be a huge risk, but if either showed their pace from F3 and GP2 on a regular basis, then Renault may just be sitting on a new star driver.
For an up and coming driver an F1 contract, or any description, is a dream come true. However if a driver signs up as a reserve driver to me there is an implicit understanding that if one of the principle race drivers should have to step down from their seat, that the reserve driver should have first refusal for the drive. Furthermore in order to bring through new talent teams cannot be afraid to be risk averse and offer drives to known quantities who are unlikely to deliver spectacular results.
