- Lotus news
Kovalainen ready for 'a top team'
Heikki Kovalainen is using his time at Lotus to show that he is a different driver to the one he was at Renault and McLaren.
Kovalainen impressed during 2011, regularly outqualifying and outracing his Lotus team-mate Jarno Trulli. After a frustrating two years at McLaren where he took just one win, Kovalainen joined Lotus for its debut season and said that his aim was to prove to the rest of the paddock that he was ready for another drive at "a top team" when a seat becomes available.
"I have reset my goals," Kovalainen is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport. "Each race was an opportunity for me to show my potential as a driver. At the same time I want to show the paddock that the new Kovalainen is different from the one at Renault and McLaren, so that I'm ready for 'day X' on which a place becomes available at a top team."
Kovalainen even said that he felt his performances this season were good enough to win a number of races given the right machinery.
"In some ways it would already interest me to see how I would have done (recently) in a winning car. I think some people would be surprised."