Contrary to rumours, Vitaly Petrov is not out of the running for a 2011 Renault drive, according to team boss Eric Boullier.
Last week, several reports claimed that Renault are pushing ahead with their 2011 plans without considering rookie racer Petrov for the role of Robert Kubica's team-mate.
Seven drivers have already been mentioned as possible replacements for the Russian driver: Kimi Raikkonen, Nick Heidfeld, Christian Klien, Timo Glock, Heikki Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli and Kamui Kobayashi.
However, Boullier insists Petrov still has a chance at retaining his seat, he just needs to move closer to Kubica on the race-track - and start scoring regular points.
"We have a lot of drivers chasing us, but we will see," he told crash.net "I want to give Vitaly the support he needs to deliver, so we will wait as long as possible.
"If he doesn't deliver now, then maybe we will make the decision earlier, but we trusted in him, brought him in and, actually, he did match our expectation so why should we kill him?
"If you analyse session by session, race by race, you will see that, sometimes, he is very close and matching the pace of Robert. He needs to build his confidence and learn F1 as well. Let's say Hockenheim was 95 per cent what I expect from him - but now he needs to do it every race.
"If we see Vitaly doing well every race, and if we believe he is catching up quickly enough in terms of learning, he will be with us next year. But, next year, we need to have two cars scoring points."
