Kovalainen will do no more Friday practice in 2013

Friday in Abu Dhabi was Heikki Kovalainen's last appearance at the wheel of a Caterham in 2013.

Finland's Turun Sanomat newspaper reports that the Finn, who has made several practice appearances for the green team this season, will defer to the race drivers for the final two grands prix in Austin and Brazil.

However, the 32-year-old - who raced for the team between 2010 and 2012 but was replaced for 2013 by pay-drivers - is in the running to return to the grid in 2014.

Caterham has admitted it has missed Kovalainen's experienced input this year; a factor that will be all-important for dealing with the radical new regulations for 2014.

"Next season will be a totally different ball game," team boss Cyril Abiteboul said in Abu Dhabi.

"We will have to adapt ourselves, the drivers will have to adapt themselves, so experience might be something that is interesting.

"But more important than anything I think is (to have in the car) someone who is capable of being almost transparent and providing the most accurate feedback as possible," he added.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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