Heikki Kovalainen has a warning for whoever takes his seat at McLaren next season - get used to being an afterthought.
The Finn is expected to depart McLaren after Sunday’s race, and like his predecessor Fernando Alonso, he will leave angry at the preferential treatment shown to co-driver Lewis Hamilton.
“It was always difficult to accept that Lewis was always the first to receive the new parts,” Kovalainen was quoted as saying in Finnish newspaper Helsingen Sanomat. “I have never wanted to make a big deal about it, but it would have been nice to just once had the new parts on my car, particularly after we lost the chance of winning the championship.”
Kovalainen has 22 points this season compared to Hamilton’s 49, but felt that difference would have been much smaller had the team been more even-handed in its alternate strategies.
“Every time this season, when Hamilton and I are in the third part of qualifying, I had to do it with more fuel. If you take into account the quantities of fuel, I would have had pole position several times.”
Nick Heidfeld is the latest driver to be linked to McLaren. The German is on the lookout for a drive next season following the withdrawal of BMW from the sport and doubts as to whether the remnant Sauber team will get a place on the grid in 2010.
Kimi Raikkonen, who is leaving Ferrari, and Jenson Button, who is in the midst of contract negotiations with Brawn, had also been linked to McLaren for next season.
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