As you all know, Proton is the very company who owns Lotus, for whom the former McLaren driver recently signed a racing deal for the 2010 Formula One season. However, according to some sources cited by Autosport, the signing of that F1 deal was not Heikki's only reason to travel to Kuala Lumpar this week, as he was also offered the opportunity to do the aforementioned rally event.
Although admitting Kovalainen did sat in the Neo S2000 rally car for a few minutes, the source insisted that no discussions were carried out by either Lotus of Heikki's managers. One thing that could prevent the rally outing would be the fears about Heikki's safety, as he never raced in competitive rallying events before.
“It would be a great story, but at the moment no discussions have taken place at all. He would need permission, the rally is dangerous, there is a lot of speculation on this - and that's all it is right now. Nothing is agreed,” said the source cited by Autosport.
The Arctic Rally is scheduled to run next month, on snow, and will also benefit from the presence of former F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen. The newly-signed Citroen WRC driver will therefore have a first chance to test drive the C4 WRC, a car which he's about to drive for the duration of the 2010 season.
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