Caterham calls Heikki Kovalainen to the rescue in Bahrain

For the 2013 season, Caterham decided to change its entire line-up by bringing in Charles Pic from Marussia and promoting its reserve driver, Giedo van der Garde, to a full-time position. In doing so, the Leafield management sidelined Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov, who had several seasons of experience, in favor of much less experienced drivers.

The reason for such a decision is evidently more economic than sporting, since having a second French driver – alongside Romain Grosjean at Lotus – at the wheel of a Renault-powered car could only please the leaders at Viry-Chatillon, while the Dutch driver has significant support, particularly from McGregor.

In order to attract the Chinese market, the team also brought in Ma Qing Hua, who was able to drive during the first practice session of his national Grand Prix in Shanghai. It was also decided that the Chinese driver would participate in the GP2 championship with Caterham Racing.

However, after three races, Cyril Abitboul was forced to acknowledge the lead taken by Marussia during the off-season, notably marked by Jules Bianchi’s impressive 13th place in Malaysia. This exposes Caterham to significant risks of not securing the valuable tenth place in the Constructors’ Championship by the end of the season.

The time for change has therefore come at Caterham. The first decision was to recall Heikki Kovalainen, who will take on a development role within the team. He will therefore be driving on Friday mornings in Bahrain and Spain. Furthermore, Ma Qing Hua, although he remains within Caterham’s sphere, will no longer participate in the GP2 championship, where he gives up his seat to the team’s other reserve driver, American Alexander Rossi. The Chinese driver’s record is far from impressive, as during the Malaysia qualifying, he finished 19th, more than eight-tenths behind his teammate. In the first race, he finished at the very back, more than a lap behind the winner and nearly ten seconds behind the second-to-last driver, while he did not participate in the second race due to health reasons. During the Shanghai tests, he was over one and a half seconds behind Giedo van der Garde…

Cyril Abitboul then succeeded in delivering a great communication performance to explain these different choices: « After Ma’s successful tests in China, a number of new opportunities arose for him, and we decided to review our current lineup. Alexander is going to Caterham Racing to compete in GP2, and I am certain it will be an immediate success in this championship while he can continue to enjoy the link with the F1 team during the season. Heikki returns to the track with us, and we are delighted to welcome him back to the team. He has six years of F1 experience, which perfectly positions him to provide us with objective feedback on the different configurations we will use as well as an objective opinion on the 2013 tires compared to his experience with the 2012 setups. Since we invested in Heikki during our first three years of competition, it would be a waste not to use his expertise. As F1 is a team sport, he will also support Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde, who are doing a good job during their first months within the team. »

After Adrian Sutil’s return to the team that had fired him a year earlier, it is evident that the truth of one day is not the same the next in F1… Is this return the first step towards a potential comeback as a main driver if one of the two current drivers fails to elevate their performance in the upcoming races?

With the participation of www.Racingbusiness.fr