Heikki Kovalainen has admitted that he is surprised to be facing the probability of being left without a drive for the 2013 Formula 1 season.
Kovalainen raced for the Caterham team from 2010 to 2012, but the outfit looks set to hand its remaining seat for the coming season to either Vitaly Petrov or Giedo van der Garde.
“It was slightly surprising,” the Finn said. “I thought after last season and the last couple of years … I’d be in a better position on the market.”
Kovalainen is far from alone in believing that he did fine work for Caterham. However, if the team is to wave goodbye to the former McLaren man, he will be left in a difficult position.
He explained: “Of course we’re working flat out to see if we can do something about it, but the problem is the results that I’ve had over these last two or three years have not been enough to get in a top car, and then the average teams are in a situation now where they have to take pay-drivers, and (for me) that rules out the second half of the grid.
“It’s a tricky situation that I’m in now, although people say you’ve driven well, you’ve done a good job, the fact is that 15th or 16th or 17th on paper that is not as good as someone who’s been sixth or seventh or eighth.”