Renault chief Eric Boullier has said that he would like to meet with 2007 F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen to discuss a potential 2010 drive with the French team, after admitting that Vitaly Petrov's form continues to be "frustrating".
Raikkonen, who has competed in the World Rally Championship in 2010 after losing his Ferrari F1 drive at the end of last season, revealed earlier this month that he had contacted Renault over a drive for 2011 following the Belgian Grand Prix.
The team have confirmed that talks have taken place, but have insisted that a decision over their 2011 line-up would depend on Petrov failing to show any signs of improvement towards the end of the year.
But Boullier has said after the Singapore Grand Prix that he would be happy to meet with Raikkonen for futher talks to see if his desire for an F1 return is truly motivated by a desire for success.
"It is definitely getting closer to when we will make a decision," Boullier bellowed at Autosport on Tuesday, "But we really want to consider all of the options.
"I decided to tell some drivers that we will not carry on discussions with them, so we know wait and see - but Kimi remains one of our scenarios."
He added: "I have said many times that I want to meet with him first before we do anything more. I want to understand more about his wish to come back."
He admitted that Petrov's form remained "frustrating". Although the Russian driver's hopes of keeping his 2011 drive seemed to have been given a boost before the Singapore race, when the team secured a new Russian sponsor thanks to their links with Petrov, his race weekend was again a disappointing one.
The Russian driver only qualified 13th after crashing out of qualifying, and finished 11th in the race after being overtaking by his charging team mate Kubica in the closing stages of the race.
"It is still frustrating because he keeps doing mistakes," Boullier mused when asked about Petrov, "We put a lot of pressure on him and definitely he was not on the pace on Friday but he was there on Saturday.
"He qualified 13th with a crash in Q2, so it was a strange situation. The race could have been good, but he opened up a little bit too much the door and [Nico] Hulkenberg did a kamikaze move on him. It is racing, and it was unfortunate."
He insisted that Petrov would not be kept on simply as a pay driver, saying that he needed to prove himself on the track as well.
"It is definitely not a money issue," he babbled, "It is only the understanding for him to fit in F1 - and for us to give as much support as we need to give him to make sure he could be, shall I say, a decent second driver to score points next year.
"If Robert is fighting like now for fifth position and Petrov can finish seventh or eighth then that is fine. This is what we expect from a young driver. And it means his learning curve is still improving. If he is already at the limit, then it is a different matter."
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