Heikki Kovalainen admits that the reborn Lotus team will be carrying a heavier weight of expectation this season than the other three new Formula 1 outfits given the marque’s illustrious history in the sport.

Lotus F1 Racing is in reality a brand new team launched by Malaysian aviation tycoon Tony Fernandes and being built from scratch by experienced F1 technical director Mike Gascoyne – but backing from the Malaysian national carmaker Proton, which owns Lotus, enables it to use the evocative British name, which has been absent from F1 since the original team folded in 1994.

Kovalainen acknowledges this will inevitably bring added pressure, but is confident the new-style Lotus team can do justice to its fabled forebear.

“Of course the team will have a lot to do to keep the name going like it has gone in the past,” he said in an interview with itv.com/f1.

“Obviously the first year will be tough for us, especially at the beginning as we are quite late [starting], but I think we have all the potential to become successful like Lotus has been in the past and we are working towards that.

“That’s the challenge for us.”

Kovalainen welcomes the high expectations because he thinks they will spur the team to improve more quickly and begin to deliver results during its rookie campaign.

“I’m sure everybody who is involved in the project, Tony and everybody, knows that people will want respectable results already in the first year.

“Obviously that doesn’t mean we have to be winning races – that’s not really realistic – but people need to see we have exceeded the expectations at least, we have made clear progress.

“That’s what we have to do and that’s what puts the pressure on the team.

“And I think that’s good because it will push everybody to work harder and work even more and I think that we have a lot of people here that are capable of doing a very good job in Formula 1.”

Kovalainen says he can’t gauge what level of results Lotus should be aiming for until it tests its first car alongside other teams, which it plans to do for the first time at Jerez from 17 February.

But the Finn believes it is essential that the team sets itself firm targets once it has a read on the car’s competitiveness.

“Rather than just putting the mileage on the car I think we need to set a decent goal, a more realistic target after a couple of tests and just before the first race,” he said.

“If we just go out there and do the races as tests it’s very easy for everybody to relax and not to be 100% motivated.”

He added: “I’d like to be able to fight for points towards the end of the season but that might be totally unrealistic if the car is nowhere at the beginning – it’s just so hard to say.

“But I think the whole point is that we have to have some kind of target that we know we can achieve rather than just go out and have fun.

“If we know that we can be 15th then we need try to be 15th or better. If we can only be 20th then we have to at least be there.

“We have to have some target to work towards.”

Kovalainen says the team’s initial objective must be to beat the other new teams on the 2010 grid.

“At the moment I can’t tell really anything as I don’t know where our car will be compared to the performance of the other teams,” he said.

“If the car is proving to be reasonably quick then I think we should raise the bar, but apart from that I think we should certainly target being ahead of the other new teams – that is the first step for us.

“But also as we have the Lotus name in our car I think we fairly quickly need to make improvements to the car.”

Heikki Kovalainen has vowed to rebuild his reputation this year after the disappointing end to his McLaren stint.

The Finn was criticised for a lack of race pace compared to Lewis Hamilton last season, and struggled to get the best out of his car on a consistent basis.

Having moved to the new Lotus team for 2010, Kovalainen says he determined to prove his racing credentials again.

"I’m sure many people had this sort of picture about myself that I’m a good qualifier but not a good racer," he told itv.com/f1.

"But my opinion is that this has only been true during my McLaren years [2008-09].

"In the other years, in the junior categories and at Renault, I’d say that my race performances were stronger than my qualifying.

"I think that at McLaren I was able to improve the qualifying performances from previous years but race performances were not what they should have been and I think I know the reasons why.

"Whether [Lotus will have] a competitive car to be up the front I don’t necessarily expect that, but the relative performance in races compared to qualifying is a bit of a point for me to prove.

"That’s one of the key targets for this year."

Kovalainen said he had shrugged off the negative comments his late-2009 results received, although he conceded his stock in the paddock had fallen.

"I’ve always had 100% confidence in my own ability and I have a lot of people around me that have kept supporting me," he insisted.

"I don’t really have any problems with the criticism from people, public or management or whoever commenting [from] outside.

"I’m quite well aware myself where I am, where I’m at and what needs to be done and for me it’s quite easy to go work with that philosophy – and it doesn’t really bother me what people say outside.

"Of course to stay in Formula 1 and be among the top drivers there you have to do good performances and at McLaren I wasn’t able to do that so in that sense, yeah, I have to sort of prove myself again to get my name back up there where it should be.

"I’m confident I can do that."

Kovalainen refused to be drawn on the reasons for his underperformance at McLaren.

"I think I know the reasons why it didn’t work out and I will do things differently here at Lotus," he said.

"But I don’t want to get into that too much – it’s gone now, it’s gone, the past time for me. A shame I didn’t win more races but that’s the way it is sometimes."

Lotus technical chief Mike Gascoyne says his team is on course to prove its credentials as a serious Formula 1 outfit this year, ahead of a return to the track for the famous marque on Tuesday. With Lotus scheduled to shakedown its 2010 car tomorrow, ahead of its official launch on Friday, the team fired up the Cosworth engine on its new chassis at its Hingham base on Saturday - six days ahead of when originally planned.

And with Gascoyne delighted at the progress made in the short time since Lotus was granted a 2010 entry, he is happy with the shape the team is in right now.

"It was obviously a big step forward to get the car fired up," Gascoyne told AUTOSPORT.

"The most pleasing aspect of the engine fire-up was that when we got the entry, in our production schedule we had it pencilled in as February 12. So to do it on the 6th - six days ahead of schedule, was a great effort by everyone.

"What makes this so satisfying is that this is a project where everything has been built up from new. Everyone has contributed to the effort."

Gascoyne has openly set ambitions of Lotus ending the season as not only the best of the new teams, but as a serious threat against some of the current outfits.

And although he admits there is still plenty of work to do before the team can achieve that, he is bullish about the performance potential.

"We are looking in really good shape," he said. "We have to improve the pace of our car and the results from wind tunnel, but that will come with time.

"Our first aim was to be on the grid - to be a professional team where everything is to be F1 standard. We definitely will do that. The team will look good and step one has been achieved."