Kubica, Heidfeld' Eric Boullier explains

On your short list, was Nick Heidfeld an obvious favorite?
He was the one who filled the most boxes on the profile that we had established with our engineers. The only question concerned a possible erosion of his motivation after several years without success at BMW which would prevent him today from giving everything to get a time, or to exploit the tires. Hence the special exercise we had him do in Jerez. And which was very positive.

Have you not wanted to try Vitantonio Liuzzi?
Yes, because Liuzzi is much better than some people think. If we had more freedom for private testing, I would have been happy to calibrate it. And others too, voluntarily left behind or politically sacrificed. Unfortunately, the few days to which we are entitled prohibit us from any fantasy.

Have Pedro de la Rosa and Kimi Räikkönen been on this list?
Yes for the first, no for the second.

Could Robert Kubica's accident force a questioning of the team?s attack plan at the start of the season?
It is a little early to say this, but I assume that by force of circumstances we will be obliged to do so. It will not be a stop to our pretensions but a brake. And if we brake before a straight line we never reach the top speed we had set for ourselves. A lot will depend on how the team maintains the performance momentum it gets from the car.

Find an exclusive interview with Nick Heidfeld in your AUTOhebdo magazine next Wednesday.