GPWizard F1 Forum
F1 News & Discussions => General F1 Discussion => Topic started by: Dare on January 14, 2013, 12:42:03 PM
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from Planet F1
Heikki Kovalainen has only himself and his management to blame for not continuing with Caterham, according to Mike Gascoyne.
After three seasons with the backmarker outfit, Kovalainen, who previously raced for McLaren and Renault, has been left without a seat for this year's Championship.
The Finn recently admitted his "surprise" at failing to land a drive, saying he thought "after last season and the last couple of years I thought I'd be in a better position on the market."
And although Caterham still have one place open for this season and could theoretically retain Kovalainen, Gascoyne has ruled the 31-year-old out of the running.
"It is actually a great shame," the Caterham Group technical officer told crash.net.
"Heikki is a very talented driver, but last year his management did not handle him very well and he has not done himself any favours.
"It is a tough environment out there for everyone. He has had three years with Caterham, was paid well, and he should have shown more respect about that."
As for the one driver Caterham have signed for this season, Charles Pic, Gascoyne admits finances did play a role.
"Charles is a young guy," he said. "He has some financial backing and he has done a decent job against a more experienced team-mate, Timo Glock.
"Let's see now if he rises to the occasion."
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Maybe lack of performance is also a big contributing factor, Heikki finished the season three places behind his teamate in the final standings after all.
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I put Heikki in the class with other drivers that
had a drive with a top team and under achieved.
DC is another
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Agreed - he had his chance to wow at Ferrari and didn't. Opportunity missed. Not fair, but F1 rarely is.
Oops, for some reason my sunburned head was thinking of Mika Salo :-[
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Heikki drove for a good team (Renault) and a great team (McLaren) and in those three seasons failed to impress. I think he was somewhat fortunate to have got an extra three seasons.
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Heikki's overall performance was not as consistent as the outfit expected to be. And when they compare it with Vitaly Petrov, I think the team realizes that he had done almost the same job with salary as the driver who brings the money to the team. Though initially I was disappointed to see this guy, but after thinking about it, I think Caterham have done something that they have to do in order to survive. Hopefully they will pick up from the next season..
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I will never make it as a team owner because I want Heikki in the sport because he seems to be a nice guy! He is always smiling, he makes himself available to fans (in my experience) and I think he is a good ambasador for the sport.
I know the results were not great in 2012 but my unreliable memory seems to think that he had quite a lot of bad luck that was not of his making. I still rate him as a driver.
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On the whole, he wasn't as impressive as he had been in his two previous seasons with Caterham, but he was nowhere near as poor as Trulli had been, so I'm disappointed that he didn't get another year. Assuming the car is close enough to challenge for places in Q2, I think that he would have driven as he had in 2010, and 2011.
It was clear that he was losing patience with the management of the team towards the end of the year though, so the writing was on the wall.