Kovalainen knows he took a risk by going to Caterham

In an interview with the Finnish channel MTV3, Lewis Hamilton recently stated that Heikki Kovalainen has proven to be one of the fastest drivers. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a very good car today, but he has shown repeatedly that he is strong, solid, mentally focused, and very fast.

After being the British driver’s teammate in 2008 and 2009, the Finn indeed chose to sign with the newcomer Lotus Racing – which has since become Caterham –, with whom his contract will expire at the end of the season. However, the Finn confides to the Brazilian website TotalRace that the Malaysian team was not his only option for 2010: « There were mid-field teams [but] I didn’t see a great opportunity there, so I preferred to join a brand new team. It was risky, but I don’t think I would have ended up in a better situation had I chosen a mid-grid team. I decided to start from scratch, change my habits, my preparation: in fact, I changed everything. Starting with a brand new team made me a better person, a better driver. »

The native of Suomussalmi confirmed that he once again wanted to fight at the front, but while some are sending him to Sauber or even Ferrari in 2013, Kovalainen claims not to know what his future holds: « I want to be able to fight for the podium all the time again, but I don’t know what my future will be: I don’t have much to say about it. However, at some point, I will have this discussion [with Tony Fernandes]. »

Meanwhile, many believe today that Kovalainen deserves a second chance with a top team, including Lewis Hamilton and Martin Brundle: “Heikki has simply shown humility and delivered results, he looks like a superstar and drives like one. I think he has shown that he deserves another chance with a top team,” thinks the Sky Sports commentator.

And you, what do you think?