Tony Fernandes has already said that Heikki Kovalinen is 'very likely' to stay for 2012 with Lotus. The problem I have with this is that when he was at McLaren for two seasons, he was at the right team at the wrong time -he hadn't matured enough and gained enough experience to do well in a strong car-, now my fear is that he has come to the wrong team at the right team when he has come into what I think may be his prime. I'm worried that since he is stuck with Lotus that he has no way back up into the higher teams and that this is a waste of potential and that strong teams (such as Mercedes) will see that 2008-2009 will be wasted chances on Kovalinen's part. So I put it to you, Not606ers, can Kovalinen get back up there and show the teams what he can do and what his future would be? P.S. I realise that part of this article contains his years at McLaren alongside Hamilton and would like to point out that this is NOT a thread to praise or have a go at Hamilton, this thread is about a driver who never gets talked about and that if this turns into one of those Hamilton threads....there's not much I can do about it, but nevertheless DON'T DO IT!
Kovalainen is in a similar situation to Glock. Both are strong team leaders who deserve to better cars but it looks like for the rest of their F1 careers, they'll be confined to the back of the grid. Their only hope is that their current teams improve to become an establish part of the midfield (like Force India). We can see evidence of that from Lotus, while Virgin are aiming to show signs of progress in 2012 - however in both cases I doubt the teams will ever have their drivers regularly getting into Q2. On Kovalainen, I believe he is much better driver now than when he was at McLaren. It seems to me that the time spent at the back of the grid has made him more complete as a driver. He deserves better cars but where could he go?
Kovalainen was awful in '09, he's lucky he got a drive at all. Like Forza says, Glock is in a similar situation as are a few others who perhaps feel they deserve a better car than they've got, both Force India drivers fall into this, Kubica as well. That's what makes it all the more galling to see people like Massa and Schumacher wasting seats with strong teams. Kovalainen still has a few years ahead of him and Team Lotus are on the up, if he keeps driving well he may get a crack with a better team at some point, Jenson Button is a prime example of what can happen if you keep plugging away.
Wow, you guys have just made me realise I've been spelling Kovalainen's name wrong all these years (Kovalinen instead of Kovalainen) - i'll be pronouncing it like DC now to get used to it (even though I reckon it's cool how every Finnish driver has a billion 'k's in their name and always has 'en' in their surname). In any case, I think you're right about the similarities between Glock and Kovalainen and how they are stuck at their backmarker teams for now. They are both their teams' leaders and can provide the experience needed for their teams to get some points in the future. The only difference is that Kovalainen is not contracted to said backmarker for the next three years which can hopefully free his options up a little bit.
