Kovalainen and Petrov: Caterham admits having let them down

While, in all likelihood, Heikki Kovalainen should not participate in the 2013 Formula 1 World Championship, Cyril Abiteboul, director of Caterham F1, discussed in an interview with Sky Sports the reasons that led the team to do without the services of the Finnish driver: « Let’s be honest: we would have liked to keep an experienced driver. It is something that would have interested us, under certain conditions. I do not downplay the importance of experience in Formula 1. It is also true for mechanics, engineers, team directors… I personally have limited experience. That is why it is important to have people you can rely on. When you look at the technical team, we have a lot of experience, so we would like to have more experience in the Caterham driver family. [But] sometimes, you also have to face reality when you have reached the end or are close to it. »

In any case, Caterham seems to want to find a new role for Heikki Kovalainen, although Cyril Abiteboul acknowledges that the team’s relationships with its drivers have suffered from the lack of significant progress over the past three years: “I don’t think Heikki or Vitaly [Petrov] are at the end of their careers—it’s not for me to say—but I think the particular project between Heikki and Caterham needs to change form. We are currently looking into whether another form is possible [but] the one we had last year was no longer working.”

And the Frenchman clarifies: “I think it comes from both sides, to be honest. […] I’ll be frank: I think we disappointed our drivers and let them down in the sense that we underperformed compared to what we promised them. […] I don’t think this was always the case with Heikki, but this relationship lasted three seasons, and such things impact relationships. I believe that perhaps, at some point, at the end of last season, there was no longer that kind of belief, trust, and respect—on both sides—on which we should rely for the development of the team and the driver. […] It’s like with your girlfriend or your wife: sometimes, when you disappoint too much, you know that things are just… broken. That’s the point we reached with Heikki. We need to see if we can evolve into something different, but we are starting a new relationship from scratch with two new people.”

Cyril Abiteboul is fully aware of the challenges that await Caterham with this relatively inexperienced driver duo: « We know that to some extent we are taking a gamble with our drivers, but we also know that they have good experience, either in Formula 1 or outside of it, and we expect them to be able to seize every opportunity, including when strange things happen and points are within reach. […] Let’s not fool ourselves, we are not fighting for points unless we do an exceptional job during the season and reach that level during the year. »

By bringing in Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde, Cyril Abiteboul hopes to start a new chapter in Caterham’s history, essentially starting from a blank page: « We are not perfect as a team. We won’t be perfect because our drivers don’t have a lot of experience. It’s more about being honest, having a good work ethic, and being able to grow and develop our skills together. I think we are extremely fair and transparent [with our drivers] at Caterham, which is not always the case everywhere. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone in particular, but they don’t treat their drivers the same way. »

And the Frenchman returns to the experience of his 2013 drivers, starting with Giedo van der Garde, whom he reminds has solid motorsport experience, albeit not in Formula 1: « It’s true for Giedo [that he is inexperienced] because it’s his first time being a regular in Formula 1, but he has enormous experience outside of F1 and sometimes certain series are almost as good as F1. When it comes to certain skills, being a world karting champion is quite an achievement, just as being a champion in the World Series by Renault is. I worked at Renault before, so I know how competitive this championship is. For me, these are two things that really argue in favor of Giedo’s talent. I don’t know if it’s luck or the opposite, but he had people like Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, and Nico Rosberg as teammates. But Giedo has a lot of experience with other cars, other teams, other types of teammates, so he has experience. »

As for Charles Pic, who will start his second season, Cyril Abiteboul knows that the Frenchman still needs to progress: « Charles has a year of experience in Formula 1 with Marussia. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Marussia but I think it’s fair to recall that Marussia built its project around one particular driver, namely Timo Glock. I believe it’s fair to say that, in the way the team operated, Charles was the number 2 driver. We do not have a number 1 and number 2 driver: we treat our drivers equally. They need to learn and that’s what we’re looking for. » And Abiteboul concludes: « With everything that will happen in 2014 [such as changes], we preferred to stabilize things [in terms of drivers] between 2013 and 2014. » This is why, for example, Caterham has signed a multi-year contract with Charles Pic.