Poor Heikki. His week end so far certainly didn't help extinguishing the rumors of his potential replacement by Piquet. Flavio' head was scary...
It's evidently very tough
on Kovy ... he spent quite a while testing what clearly was the dominant car of the series. Alas, this season's vehicle doesn't warrant quite that level of confidence and it's as if he's trying to force that on the equipment by sheer willpower. Also, there's no testing on street circuits and he's used to testing the limits with bigger runoff areas.
Of course the press jumps the gun on Piquet and all sorts of speculation ... though if I were Nelson I'd be wary of starting my career with the R27. Anyway, Heikki is the guy who fought, blow for blow, in GP2 against the dominant ART team. That driver hasn't gone anywhere - but for the team to keep in line with their aim at always being in top three ...
... I'd say that from French GP on, his performance has to be on a different level. On a regular points finish, top eight qualifying kinda level. This weekend the team took a risk in deciding to run the already dodgy Monaco engine (in order to get a fresh one for US GP) and that backfired spectacularly.
That isn't Kovy's fault, but having to start with a fresh engine now and taking it to Indy will surely cut into what he can do, especially as he needs the laps as a rookie on an unfamiliar circuit.
