Heikki Kovalainen has admitted he feels more comfortable at Lotus than he did in the last two seasons with McLaren.<\/p>\n
The Finn took a big backwards step down the grid with the new Malaysian backed team in 2010, but he told Holland’s formule1.nl magazine that he is not complaining.<\/p>\n
“Here at Lotus everything feels better,” said the 28-year-old, who in 2008 and 2009 was Lewis Hamilton’s teammate.<\/p>\n
Kovalainen left McLaren late last year declaring that he was not always treated equally by the famous British team.<\/p>\n
“I have much more of a feeling that I have things under control now compared to when I was at McLaren,” he explained.<\/p>\n
“At virtually every race I am 100 per cent sure what setup I need, and the engineers understand me and believe in me,” added Kovalainen.<\/p>\n
He would not go into detail about his misgivings with McLaren.<\/p>\n
“I don’t like to complain, but if I knew then what I know now, I would have done a number of things differently,” said the winner of the 2008 Hungarian GP.<\/p>\n
It is clear that Lotus will field an unchanged driver lineup next year, with Kovalainen again alongside fellow grand prix winner Jarno Trulli.<\/p>\n
Technical boss Mike Gascoyne said Lotus decided to pay for two experienced drivers in the quest to unlock the commercial benefits of finishing the 2010 championship in tenth place.<\/p>\n
“If there is a crazy race with a big start crash with rain or something,” he said, “then Heikki and Jarno are more likely to score than inexperienced, young drivers,” he said.<\/p>\n
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