{"id":19358,"date":"2013-09-22T07:41:54","date_gmt":"2013-09-22T11:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=19358"},"modified":"2013-09-22T07:41:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-22T11:41:54","slug":"kovalainen-has-big-chance-of-2014-return-fernandes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/kovalainen-has-big-chance-of-2014-return-fernandes\/","title":{"rendered":"Kovalainen has &#8216;big chance&#8217; of 2014 return &#8211; Fernandes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Caterham supremo Tony Fernandes has admitted Heikki Kovalainen is in the running to return to a race seat in 2014.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-left alignleft\" style=\"margin: 5px 10px;\" alt=\"Tony-Fernandes-1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/gallery\/f1-2013-rif-images\/f1-2013-persons\/Tony-Fernandes-1.jpg\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\" \/>The Finn was ousted in favour of two &#8216;pay drivers&#8217; this year as Caterham decided instead to focus its resources on preparing for the huge rules challenge of 2014.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were trying to save for 2014,&#8221; Malaysian Fernandes, on a now rare trip to the paddock in Singapore, said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is the state of formula one right now where unfortunately sometimes the budget plays a large part in your decision making.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Realising it had taken a step backwards relative to the competition, however, Caterham drafted the highly-rated Kovalainen back into the reserve role and gave him four practice outings at grands prix this year.<\/p>\n<p>Asked what chance Kovalainen, 31, has of returning to the race seat in 2014, Fernandes told Turun Sanomat newspaper: &#8220;(A) big chance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to say more than that.\u00a0 Heikki is still with us, he is a big part of this family,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>It is believed Charles Pic&#8217;s seat is secure for 2014.\u00a0 Caterham&#8217;s other race driver this year is the Dutchman Giedo van der Garde.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caterham supremo Tony Fernandes has admitted Heikki Kovalainen is in the running to return to a race seat in 2014. The Finn was ousted in favour of two &#8216;pay drivers&#8217; this year as Caterham decided instead to focus its resources on preparing for the huge rules challenge of 2014. &#8220;We were trying to save for &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[3605,5262,5340,517,62],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19358"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19359,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19358\/revisions\/19359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}