Kubica sees the funny side at Renault launch
Robert Kubica doused his first media interviews for Renault with plenty of his characteristic dry wit at the team's car launch in Valencia.
The 25-year-old Pole signed as a replacement for his Ferrari-bound best pal Fernando Alonso but when rumours emerged at the end of the season that Renault were considering quitting F1 - just like his then employers BMW Sauber - Kubica was forced to consider his position.
Looking back now, as he puts the new Renault through its paces in Valencia at the start of pre-season testing, Kubica can only see the funny side of his scenario and raised huge guffaws from the gathered media.
"I have a funny story about Abu Dhabi," Kubica explained. "Some journalist came up to me and said 'Renault are going to retire from F1 why didn't you sign up with Toyota?'"
"Two days later Toyota retired. Maybe he misunderstood the names."
Another journalist in Spain also got a taste of Kubica's sarcasm when he asked him how he felt about not being able to challenge for wins with Renault in the upcoming season.
Oh, do you know already who will fight for the top?" Kubica asked.
"There are names like Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull but you never know. We have a good programme for February to improve the car so I hope I will get a quick prospect to fight at the top."
Kubica may be an old hand at dealing with the media but Vitaly Petrov was full of wide-eyed innocence as he was presented as Renault's second driver.
The Russian rookie let the cat out of the bag by sitting in Renault's motor home for much of the afternoon before the official launch and he was pretty open in his first interview too.
The 25-year-old is believed to be bringing £9m in backing and he revealed his father Alexander has fully-funded his F1 foray.
"He has put the money for me to be here," said Petrov. "There are no sponsors, no-one was helping from Russia but my father, who owns some hotels and businesses, and his friends were always putting in to help me."
Despite Papa Petrov's pushy parent tendencies, he has succeeded in getting his son all the way into F1 after encouraging him to take up motor sport as a boy.
When he was asked what motivated him to target a career in F1, Petrov responded: "Just my father. He bought me a car and then took me for normal road training. When I was five years old I was driving along without my father.
"But as a boy I didn't think about F1, I didn't know about Michael Schumacher or anybody else.
"Then I started being interested and started to learn jump-by-jump through the formulas.
"In 2008 my father said "are you ready for Formula 1?" but I said not yet because I still need time to understand, but in 2009 it changed a lot."
Unlike the majority of the grid, Petrov did not start his schooling by racing karts but began his career racing in the Russian Lada Cup eight years ago.
From there he joined the European single-seater series and finished as runner-up to new Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg in last year's GP2 Series before his big leap into F1.
Petrov Sr has not come to see how his son's first F1 test goes but Vitaly expects him to come to plenty of races this season to see if his high stakes gamble pays off.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~36~RS~)
People often ask how I came to be the Formula 1 lady for the BBC website. Well, after being dragged around vintage car rallies and auto jumbles by my Dad, motor racing got under my skin. I am now a fully paid-up member of F1's travelling circus after a year on the road as part of the BBC team. I look forward to bringing you more on- and off-track adventures here. You can also follow me on 
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I have noticed "Williams Hybrid Power" on the side of the new FW32 - are Williams breaking ranks from FOTA and using KERS?
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#1 They won't be but I believe that KERS in some form will be back and Williams are leading the pack in developing commercial systems for use in road cars.
I wish daddy had pushed me into F1!
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And it's GO GO GO...
I live in France out in the sticks and run my [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator] business. I haven't had a TV for 3 years but i have just installed a big screen in my clubhouse as i simply can't miss the F1 season this year.
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It will be interesting to see who is fastest in first day of testing. Virgin Racing will launch their car on Wednesday.
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Nice that you have your own blog now, Sarah. Even before 2009 you wrote some very good stuff.
Keep up the good work
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Looking at that photo of the new Renault, it reminds me of the old Jordan, been a while since we've had such striking yellow cars on the grid. Perhaps they want to move away from their traditional colour of blue as that was associated with the Piquet/Briatore scandal. Hopefully this is a fresh start for Renault and Kubica.
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the new Renault colour scheme is old school, but very attractive, shame Total have destroyed the front wing and rear wing with that red! But I'm sure it will help them amongst backmarkers, unless they are dare I say....backmarkers themselves!
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Elysium, yellow and black are Renault's traditional racing colours... the blue was a Mild Seven colour.
I think it's a shame that they haven't been a bit more inventive with their patterning, but I guess it's all about leaving "windows" for potential sponsors to fill, a la McLaren. Still, nice to have a bit of colour variation in the pack.
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Well it looks like Schumi is on form.... Of course we don't know the different fuel loads or any changes to the car between him and Nico. Looks like the rumours about Ferrari getting worrying news from the wind tunnel work weren't something they had to stress about.
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Just seen the times.... Kubica 2.5 seconds off the pace after 69 laps, looks like Renault might have some work to do before the season starts.
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Seriously, who designed their new look?
My god.. it's just.. awful.
They really didn't even take a look at how awesome Jordan made use of the black/yellow hornet combination did they?
The overalls arn't bad.. but the car is just horid.
Shivraj Gohil, I really don't see the same thing as you.. I really don't.
I'm all for a fresh start - one which they need - and I wish them all the best. They deserve some success this year, as most people connected with the team had nothing to do with the sucker punch they have had to take last year.
I'm really glad we still have Renault in the sport.
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Another nice blog Sarah,
Love the MARMITE (in every sense)paint job on the renault, just a little down hearted after the first days times. Kubica is a great driver and managed to ring the neck of the BMW sauber last year, hopefully this year will be a little less tiring for him.
Ferrari look good and its nice to see Massa back. Mercedes look like they made the shoe that fits schumi more so than nico.
Can't wait for more launches and testing. Bring on the 2010 season!
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The colour scheme just looks very junior formula to me.
Renault have generally used Yellow and Navy in most other series (TC/WRC etc) over recent years so not sure where the black comes from.
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hackerjack:
Renault Alpine A442; Renault Alpine A443; Renault RS01, Renault RE10 to RE60; and Renault 5 Turbo, to name but a few. Even the original launch colours of the Renault Spyder and most of the early '90s Maxi Megane rally cars were yellow and black. The scheme was (ab)used to death with the Williams-run Lagunas in the mid-1990s BTCC, before sponsors Nescafe sensibly stepped in and insisted that one of their colours (a nice deep green as it happens) was used instead. The blue was introduced as part of the sponsorship deal with Mild Seven, then expanded throughout the company to provide a corporate "look". But, it was only there as long as the moolah flowed; look how fast they dropped it when ING came on board.
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If they need a pay driver at half a mill a race, I dont blame them for going to halfords for the paint job. If it helps to stay in F1 so much the better.
PS can I say halfords on the BBC or is it generic auto spare parts paint supplier? I'll find out when I am moderated.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Why are BEEB web Journalists desperate to see ire between Hamilton and Button,it seems they write at least one story a week desperately reading between the lines looking for imagined simmering hatred. It's a sport not a soap opera,in the best season for quite some time it's pretty poor journalism
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