Heikki Kovalainen has only himself and his management to blame for not continuing with Caterham, according to Mike Gascoyne.
After three seasons with the backmarker outfit, Kovalainen, who previously raced for McLaren and Renault, has been left without a seat for this year's Championship.
The Finn recently admitted his "surprise" at failing to land a drive, saying he thought "after last season and the last couple of years I thought I'd be in a better position on the market."
And although Caterham still have one place open for this season and could theoretically retain Kovalainen, Gascoyne has ruled the 31-year-old out of the running.
"It is actually a great shame," the Caterham Group technical officer told crash.net.
"Heikki is a very talented driver, but last year his management did not handle him very well and he has not done himself any favours.
"It is a tough environment out there for everyone. He has had three years with Caterham, was paid well, and he should have shown more respect about that."
As for the one driver Caterham have signed for this season, Charles Pic, Gascoyne admits finances did play a role.
"Charles is a young guy," he said. "He has some financial backing and he has done a decent job against a more experienced team-mate, Timo Glock.
I don't know... Maybe because Heikki said something about he doesn't want to be a pay driver in a small team... Personally I think he's right, but maybe the team was not too happy to hear that
Zitatbut I've made it quite public already that we're not going down that route. Unless it's a lot of money for three years that could take me into a car that I could actually get some results with, then I could see it makes some sense. But to bring money just for one year into a small team, I don't see the point in that.
may be the lack of respect to team interests and by this positioning himself as a driver who won't look for money and must be hired? My understanding of 'team interest' in this case - Caterham doesn't have enough money for their goals. and they would probably be happy to have Heikki with some financial support, but he was quite vocal about his strong (almost like making an ultimatum) position 'no pay driver'. I can understand him, but can't ignore the fact that he didn't show that he is constantly on the level of top guys.
Vitaly Petrov's chances of securing another season with Caterham are fading as his manager revealed talks have stalled.
After two seasons with Renault, Petrov joined Caterham at the start of the 2012 Championship.
It proved to be yet another point-less campaign for the backmarker outfit, however, Petrov at least ensured they finished tenth in the standings when he brought his CT01 home in 11th place.
The Russian's drive, though, was not enough to secure his Caterham race-seat with reports claiming he is competing with Bruno Senna and Luiz Razia to partner Charles Pic this year.
"At the moment there are a lot of unanswered questions," his manager Oksana Kosachenko told R-Sport. "There are too many nuances that need to be sorted out.
"We're at the waiting stage, which is linked to the team's restructuring. We completely depend on them and can't speed anything up."
As for rumours that Petrov has found new backing giving him the edge in the race for the second seat, Kosachenko says this is not true.
"So far, we haven't managed to find new sponsors.
"Where do journalists get this information from? I'm a journalist myself and I know very well how this can just pop into someone's head."
I think Hekkki is right, having to find sponsorship to get nowhere is pointless. But sadly is how Bernie turned F1, it's so costly now, that talent is not the issue anymore.
Zitati'm not sure i understand this...lack of respect to whom? and how? " title="hmm" /> pity if Heikki is out of f1 finally... " title="sad" />
I don't understand it either. Heikki is a nice guy! t" title="hat" /> The team is propbably angry with him abd his big management company for trying to get Heikki to a bigger team. " title="roll" /> Why would anyone want to be a paying driver?? " title="angry" />
I wonder why they keep putting caps and cuts in team's budgets but Bernie keeps making everything else so costly, it's not like the poor guy needs any more money. He's actually interfeering with the sport now, there's no fun in watching pay drivers race themselves. When the few last talented drivers retire, I will retire from watching F1 too.
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Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:51 pm
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" title="hmm" />
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t" title="hat" /> The team is propbably angry with him abd his big management company for trying to get Heikki to a bigger team. 
" title="roll" /> Why would anyone want to be a paying driver?? 
" title="angry" /> 
