Kovalainen deserves a quick car

At the end of 2009, Heikki Kovalainen left McLaren, where he had won a race and featured on the podium three times, to join the all-new Lotus team, and suddenly found himself at the back of the field in a car that was not capable of points.

Fast forward to now, and the team has changed its name to Caterham, but has still scored no points and does not look likely to do so this season, unless the cars in front prove to be particularly unreliable. Significant progress has been made in closing the gap to the midfield, but for the time being the gap remains. Nonetheless, Kovalainen has spent his time at Caterham pushing to the limit, extracting every last bit of performance from the car in an attempt to get results. And his efforts have not gone unnoticed – as the Finn approaches the end of his contract with Caterham, there are rumours that he may be signed by a big team, perhaps McLaren or Ferrari.

Kovalainen left McLaren on good terms, and so a return to Woking is not impossible. With Lewis Hamilton looking more and more likely to leave the team, the probability of there being a seat available is steadily increasing, and Kovalainen’s name has been mentioned in the media as a possible replacement.

No seat has been the subject of more speculation than that of Felipe Massa at Ferrari. Every driver wants to race for the famous Italian team, and it has looked likely for some time that Massa will be replaced. Last week, Finnish television company MTV3 claimed that Kovalainen’s management had been summoned to Maranello to discuss a 2013 drive.

Whatever happens for Kovalainen next season, his efforts are clearly paying off. He is easily the most talked about driver in a “new” team (Caterham, Marussia and HRT), which is a direct result of his performance on the track. When he was at McLaren in 2008-2009, he was perhaps lacking a bit of experience. Three years developing a team like Caterham have given him time to mature as a driver. It is about time he had a chance to get back in a quick car and show what he can do.