Vitaly Petrov has been catapulted to number one driver's spot at Lotus Renault GP in the absence of Robert Kubica.
Russian Petrov was set to continue his low-key introduction to Formula One as the experienced Kubica spearheaded Renault's challenge in 2011.
But with extensive injuries from a rally crash likely to rule his Polish team-mate out of action for the entire season, the 26-year-old Petrov - together with emergency replacement Nick Heidfeld - is now set to come under the spotlight far more than previously anticipated.
"I think the team should move forward because we cannot get frozen at one point," Petrov told formula1.com. "With Nick (Heidfeld), an experienced driver has joined us so that gives hope. Let's put it this way: life is like that - sometimes very unpredictable and cruel."
"This year we have lost Robert but we did find Nick, who comes with a lot of experience. But I also have much more experience than last season, with one year of Formula One under my belt and knowing much more, so the team can also work and rely on me."
Renault has struggled in the latest official testing sessions in Barcelona, with Petrov coming 11th fastest out of 14 participants on day two. But he cautioned against reading too much into the pre-season performance of the new R31 vehicle. "We had some KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) problems and it was quite tricky to find exactly where the glitch was," Petrov said. "But we've found it and eliminated it, so we are sure that this problem will not haunt us during the season."
"You could say that the bad made the good and I prefer to have problems during testing - that is why we are testing - to have a more carefree season."
"Forget about the lap times. Don't even look at them. Last season we didn't see that Red Bull would be so fast in the tests."
"Everything will be clear at the first race - until then everything is guessing, as everybody can be at the top of the time sheet at the tests if he so wishes - that's no miracle."
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