F1 Fanatic

Listening to coverage of the Barcelona Test on Sky Sports F1, David Croft commented that Heikki Kovalainen is the man most likely to replace Luiz Razia should his sponsors not pay up. This strikes me as odd seeing as both Glock and Kovalainen were dropped from Marussia and Caterham respectively for not bringing sponsors and Marussia specifically stated they needed someone with money.

If this is true, it’d be a huge kick in the teeth for Timo.

I don’t see any reason for McLaren to pay for Kova’s deal, though it could be possible that Kovalainen has gotten some sponsorship behind him from somewhere else. Either way I would prefer to see him in the Marussia seat than Razia.

I’d be very surprised if McLaren were backing Kovaleinen. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I could understand them thinking that he was the best driver available, that MAY bring a few minor sponsors, but that would be it.

As Bradley mentioned a moment ago to me, I think that with Bianchi now available, it would be a good chance for Ferrari to give him some mileage, and perhaps Marussia could spring a deal with Ferrari engines as a result? This would be a huge boost to them for next year at the very least.

@RagingInferno – Have you watched Bianchi in lower categories?! He’s a menace. It’s like Maldonado and Grosjean combined! To put him in an F1 car would be guaranteeing an accident as least every other race. Kovalainen, while a lot less likely, would be a much better option for Marussia, regardless of the Ferrari engine deal.

But a driver can only do so much for a team. We’ve heard comments about the difference between the Cosworth engine and the Renault engine, from Pic during test and of course from Williams once they had switched from Cosworth to Renault, and in the case of Williams, they went from a disastrous season in 2011, to a pretty fantastic one in 2012. Was it all down to aero, or was the engine far superior as well?

As nice of a guy as Heikki is, and his experience is obviously a good thing for a team like Marussia., I don’t think it would compare to the improvements they could get from using a Ferrari engine (If that were the case from running Bianchi). Especially, if they were somehow able to use the Ferrari engine this year, which I believe would boost Marussia closer to the midfield, and above Caterham.

Ilta-Sanomat has a couple of new reports:

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/formula1/art-1288544257049.html

Freely translated: “Strong pit lane rumours indicate that Marussia are going to produce a seat for Kovalainen already tonight.”

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/formula1/art-1288544301399.html?pos=ok-trm-frm1

Freely translated: “The most recent rumour about Kovalainen is that he’d drive for Marussia only during the first couple of races that are held outside Europe. After that Marussia is going to seek a driver that brings money.”

I think that if Heikki gets the seat, we will see the best in him. Clearly by not taking pay, he just wants to keep himself in F1 so that he has another opportunity to prove his worth. I really hope that Marussia gets a good result in the fly-aways with him

Apparently Petrov and (oh no… not again) Karthikeyan… are being touted for the seat too. However these are (thankfully) unconfirmed sources and not from Ted.