The front facing exhaust was brilliant on tracks where you required aerodynamic grip but its major problem was it was very sensitive to downforce and the exhaust was blowing over the sidepods
When mechanical grip was more important ..it was found wanting - they admitted it struggled on slow speed corners
As for Heidfeld he did better than Petrov but you would expect that given he has over 150 GP experience and beaten some illustrious teammates on his CV
His qualifying was his achilles heel and interestingly slower than Petrov which is what concerned Bouillier. Therefore he was starting too far back and it was mainly damage limitation or fighting for scraps
Based on what Kubica achieved and Heidfeld being a good match against him at BMW then it was expected he would do the same given the opportunity of team leader and the knowledge of pirelli tyres and his own belief he can still be world champion
What does not help Heidfeld is his persona as some dour or quiet character - he is nicknamed Leidfeld in Germany translated as "Misery"
At best Heidfeld should have been behind the Mercedes and well in front of Force India's and Saubers which was not the case
Kubica really masks the car's and team deficiencies
There appears to be some uneasy tension between the guys at Enstone and Genii capital the owners ...throw in the plans of Proton - Dani Bahar's grand scheme next year will be important for the team.
The lack of resources or restricted resources meant Renault fell away alarmingly to the others
They've lost some key engineers like Bob Bell and the relationship with Kubica has broken down completely- how much will they rue letting him do rallying
The row over the Lotus name did not help either..now they've got the name its time to shut up and produce the goods on the track
Has anyone considered are Proton bothered that they run an F1 team powered by a rival car manufacturer?
Signing Raikkonen and Grosjean is a statement of intent...although the question mark remains do they have the resources to compete with the top 4