What do you think of this pairing? Will they push each other into better performances? Will one man put the other in the shade?

Personally I think Jarno will have the match of Heikki quite easily, as he has shown better racecraft and qualifying, and of course has much more experience.

But teammate battles are what fascinate me in F1 and I think this should be another great one to watch next year.

I think Trulli will be a little faster than Kovalainen. He seems to have a good relationship with Gascoyne, and Trulli is one of those drivers that thrives when he feels confident. Kovalainen did well in his first season with Renault, but his stint at Mclaren was sketchy. I'm not sure what to expect of him, but I rate his as a decent driver anyway.

Trulli to shade Kova, his qualifying speed will be the deciding factor.

Heikki is going to beat Jarno. He's extremely fast, but he just couldn't deliver in the races. It's just simply that the Mclaren was probably one of the worst cars to drive. You just have to look on onboard footage how hard Lewis has to try to keep the car under control every single corner. The random spins of Heikki during the races only confirms how undriveable the Mclaren was. It became a bit better in the 2nd half of the season, but the car just didn't have downforce.

In a normal car, I think Heikki is going to be better than last year.

These twi guys are very strong and underrated. Maybe Trulli is a little faster due to his experience and qualifying. And my great respect to Tony, who signed Trulli, Kovalainen and Gascoyne for newcomer. Even Renault and Sauber aren`t looking so impressive.

Gascoyne didn't some impressive things for Force India this year right? So why did they let him go

Should be pretty close in qualifying but I expect Trulli to get the points if the car proves capable.

Heikki was often faster than Lewis in qualifying so if he can sort his race pace, he'll match/beat Trulli easily.

And the excuse when LH was winning the WDC is? HK didn't just have problems last year.

I voted that Heikki will get slightly ahead. We'll see.

they are both strong qualifiers, that should give them an edge over the other new teams...if the car isnt utter shite

btw the two, I voted Heikki slightly ahead...but its hard to say

we are yet to know for sure how Heikki truly (no pun intended) stacks up against other drivers

The Lotus is the new Toyota.

Jarno, points are given on Sundays and this is where Kovvy is at sea.

+1

they wont push eachother, they'll push the money to their pockets

I guessed Even. Glad Kovy's got a seat, anyway, I'm sure he's better than he looked at McLaren. It'll be interesting to see him vs Jarno and Jense vs Lewis. I wouldn't be surprised to find Jense and Kovy look quite similar.

No way! Kovy was shit in a championship winning car, Button wasn't. There can be no comparison made.
Trulli isn't a top tier driver but he'll wipe the floor with Kovy.

Ha! Well we'll see. Kovy was very quick in Q, and starting to look a bit better in races I thought. They all get better with age, Jense was a hopeless racer for years.

They are both good qualifiers, Jarno probably more so and that will be important with the rule changes

I voted not much between them because i expect Heikki to do well in a team where the pressure wont be so high

I'll be honest i hope Heikki beats Jarno, Trulli is on his way out and Heikki is still young enough to carve out a succesfull Grand Prix career

Well, Kova himself said that Mclaren car didn't fit his style so it depends on Lotus car too.

Also, Kovalainen is great qualifier - often beat Lewis in quali (especially in 2008.), and Lewis is known as really strong qualifier. We'll see, but I expect Jarno to beat him - he's a pretty good driver. But its gonna be close.

booth have a good qualifying pace, but fade in the races...Jarno by small margin

If Trulli is comfortable in the car, he'll beat Heikki. I think some people forget that he's actually quite talented, even if he's not the greatest racer out there.

Heikki might look different outside of Mclaren, and thats an unknown variable, but if I assume that his performances will be equal to what he acheived at Mclaren, I'd say he's definitely gonna get beat.

Heikki is quick, but he was too weak in competition against his tam mate. Look at his record... Trulli raced races full of accident, but the recent past says that he is not anymore like that...

So I go for Trulli, by far...

Yes it will be interesting. I'm not impressed by Kovalainen and I think that if Lotus produces a good car Trulli will comprehensively outclass him, however Jarno's form drops rapidly when the car isn't performing well in which case I think they will be closely matched with Trulli marginally ahead by the end of the season. It will be interesting to see what Gasscoyne's team produces, because he has a good record of producing decent cars.

Too close to call IMO. It will be interesting to see what happens, I would like to see Heikki get the upper hand.

Expect lotus to qualify high and go backwards in the racec. interesting driver choice...

I agree, except I would replace "interesting" with "uninspiring".

Depends on car and luck, but i think Heikki is better.

they both fade in races...now we don't know if trulli puts the car very high in Q due to his skills thus it's normal to fade a little or not...
kova just did what normaly the car could do..

add this to the fact that I say trulli-trains but not kova trains (kova seems to go backwards pretty quickly, trulli is a good defender) I think Trulli would come out on top. Not by much though

They're both good drivers, seem like nice guys and will work hard. I just don't see them having much success as they don't have the extra something to raise them to another level of performance. Once in a blue moon they will have a great race and their supporters will tell you that's what they are really capable of, if only the car wasn't letting them down, x hadn't blocked them in qualifying, y had knocked their wing off or any of a million other excuses. At the end of the year one of them might even feature in the respectable end of several journalists rankings of the drivers, but still hardly anyone will care.

I think it's gonna be tight... like a Tiger.

They have similar driving styles. They are at their strongest in qualy. Both have had plenty of experience with WDC teamates and winning teams.

I'd like to see Heikki win out though. He seems like a nice bloke.

Next year Heikki will finally be allowed to show his stuff in qualifying where he is quick so I think he will be evenly matched with Trulli. They will take turns at beating each other over the season. I dont expect any decisive victory over each other.

I think some people are making a mistake when they judge a driver's talent when that driver has clearly been a #2 in his team right from the get-go and only look at the results. Life is more complicated than you think...

Those people are in for a big disappointment if they expect some sort of an epic fail from Heikki at Lotus against Trulli.

This is a tough one because Heikki's the unknown variable on the equation. It will depend on how he will adapt himself to the Lotus - I expect him not to have the same driving style/tyre issues he had at Mac, but can't be sure of that.

On the other hand, Heikki seems very low on confidence after missing out on the chance of his career, and on that alone I'm voting for Jarno to be slightly ahead. On raw talent I think there's little between them.

I'm not really expecting much from Heikki at Lotus. I have absolutely no faith in Mike Gasgcoyne to produce a race winning car, after all, it was only after he was given the shove that Force India started to show some great performance gains.

Heikki could barely match a fuel-heavy Renault in 2008 in the same car that his team-mate was driving to a championship victory. What makes him think he stands a chance in a car that is more than likely, going to be a back marker? I understand that his options are rather limited, but he himself admitted that his piss-poor performance in 2009 was all down to him.

Better he had gone to a Falvio-free Renault and partnered Kubica than driving his career to a dead end.

This is a dangerous move for Heikki: a slow car and quite fast teammate. If he cannot beat Trulli his F1 career is propably over soon. Trulli's career is propably over after this contract anyway. Having said that, I think he stands a good chance of matching Trulli. It's all up to him to drive fast. If he beats Trulli, he will get some reputation back and future in F1.

I voted even, hard to say which way it will turn out.

Kovalainen must destroy Trulli. I mean destroy him in to retirement.

That can account for someones results when compared to their teammate, but not when compared to the rest of the grid. HK underperformed at Mac.

Dangerous move? What was his alternative?

I have no idea what Lotus bosses are counting for by hiring this pair. I say it's gonna be up and down performance from both of them so picking the better one is going to be hard.

Who do you expect them to sign? It is very unlikely for a new team to get somebody like Alonso or Raikkonen. Trulli and Kovalainen are great drivers for a new team to snap up.

It's always dangerous to drive a slow car. Drivers of fast cars will be remembered. It's also always dangerous to have fast teammate. Teammate beaters will be remembered. Slow car and tough teammate isn't the easiest way. It would be much easier to have a teammate like Nakajima or Bourdais and to drive a midpack car like Buemi or Rosberg did. Well but at least Trulli is a known quantity so he doesn't need to trash Trulli, it's enough to beat him more regularly than not. A strong rookie teammate would have been an instant kill.

Should they get Maldonado and Carroll? Trulli and Kovalainen at least have experience, and both have shown they can do at times what the car is capable of.

Exactly. They were the best available.

So what is his alternative?

Gee some of you guys have crazy faith in what has been the most dissapointing driver for two season.

Trulli will beat him easily, if the car is sketchy an dpoints hard to come by then essentially points don't count, Trulli will be in front of Hk more often than not though.

Crazy faith? If you knew what you were talking about you'd take that back.

Wrong, Piquet was the most dissapointing driver of the last two seasons hands down.

As for who will have the edge at Lotus, we'll see what happens next year.

I'd say Bourdais was more disappointing.

I reckon Trulli will be the natural number 1 at Lotus, his long-term relationship with MG would seem to dictate that.

However, its well known that HK was 'fuel corrected' strong qualifier in 2008 against Lewis so I wouldn't discount a revival of his career at Lotus.