Tweet
Enlarge PhotoRenault Formula One driver Vitaly Petrov of Russia walks in the paddock area ahead of... Vitaly Petrov woke up to the downside of Formula One fame with a jolt when a fellow passenger broke the Renault driver's slumber to demand an autograph on a flight home to Russia.The rookie, the first racer from his country to compete at the top level of the sport, experienced the unsolicited wake-up call after he finished seventh in China last month to score his first points.
Until that point, as he told reporters ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, he had been struggling to come to terms with his new surroundings while also enjoying relative anonymity.
"Just now I start to believe I am here in Formula One and I always wake up and want to come back next weekend," said the 25-year-old, surrounded by reporters in the Renault motorhome.
"In the first two races I was still not feeling I was a Formula One driver but later on it's getting more and more.
"In Bahrain I saw about two Russian flags. In Australia it was also two. But when I came to Shanghai there were about 15 or 20. Also in the TV and newspapers, they react much more to me now," he added.
"One time I was flying to Russia and one person woke me up and said 'please give me your autograph'.
"Because from China it was hard to fly (with flights cancelled due to the cloud of volcanic ash over Europe) so I took economy class to go out quickly and I was sleeping when they came to wake me up."
Petrov failed to finish his first three races and has been outqualified and beaten by Polish team mate Robert Kubica in all four to date.
However the Russian's performance in Shanghai showed that he has definite potential.
"What happened in China and what I did before that shows that I have not come here just for fun, I want to show something good," he said.
"I believe in myself and my team and soon we will be getting even better results but I just need time to learn a lot of things in Formula One.
"Of course it's a new challenge, new for me how the team is working and Renault have helped me a lot to understand a lot of things," added the driver from Vyborg, near the Finnish border.
Kubica, a race winner with BMW-Sauber, finished second in Australia and fourth in Malaysia and has shown what the car is capable of.
Petrov said that was no surprise but was confident he could rise to the challenge.
"(Robert) knows...the track, he knows where Formula One cars need to brake and how the car is feeling. For me it's new and I need to adjust my driving style to Formula One," he said.
"If it were a GP2 car, of course I would be two seconds quicker than him but in an F1 car he is still quicker. It's a little bit everywhere. He's not quicker in every corner. It's just that he has more experience."
(Editing by Miles Evans.
To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds
