Jenson Button receives an obscure warning from his McLaren predecessor, Heikki Kovalainen, as the team unveil their much-heralded new challenger, the MP4-25.
Kovalainen appeared to suggest that he was not always backed 100 per cent by the Woking-based team.
“We tried very hard with McLaren towards the end of my time there. It didn’t work out. I don’t want to get into the reason why too much, there’s no point,” said the Finn, who has joined new outfit Lotus this year.
“I think I know why it didn’t work out for me and I am starting from another place now and let’s see how it works out.”
Button has been warned in some quarters that he is entering “a lion’s den” in joining McLaren, who have nurtured team-mate Lewis Hamilton since childhood. Telegraph.co.uk
“I have analysed it quite a lot myself and with the people around me, with my family and with everybody,” he said of his time at McLaren.
“I don’t know how it is going to work out for him (Jenson), the only thing I can say is that he will find a team that is warm and very professional. I’m sure they will be very motivated and work flat out for him,” said Kovalainen.
“That’s what he will find. Whether it will work out for him I don’t know.”
The Finn, whose only win to date was with McLaren in Hungary in 2008, joins experienced Italian Jarno Trulli at Malaysian-backed Lotus.
“If I went back in time I would still go to McLaren, no question about it. But I would do things very differently,” said Kovalainen.
“I am doing things differently at Lotus and my target is to get 100 percent out of the team all the time. At McLaren I felt I didn’t get everything out of the team.”
“For me, it’s just a new chapter in my career and I feel I am in very good shape,” said Kovalainen, who had been linked to a return to Renault before opting for Lotus.
“I expect some tough times, especially the first half of the season, but I have to go through them. I think we have a lot of potential and that’s why I decided to join. I think in the long run this can be a very good place for me.” Times of India
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