Heikki Kovalainen is confident that, given time, his Lotus Formula One team can live up to their name.

Lotus F1 Racing is set to make its Formula One debut this season but despite carrying the 'Lotus' name, this team is not the Lotus outfit of old.

Instead, Kovalainen's team is a new outfit, starting from scratch and the only reason they are carrying the 'Lotus' name is because they are backed by the Malaysian national carmaker Proton, which owns Lotus.

But despite being a different team, Kovalainen says his Lotus F1 Racing still carries of a weight of expectation living up to the famous racing name.

"Of course the team will have a lot to do to keep the name going like it has gone in the past," the Finn told ITV.

"Obviously the first year will be tough for us, especially at the beginning as we are quite late, 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."

"I'm sure everybody who is involved in the project, Tony (Fernandes) 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's new team will make their on-track debut at Jerez on February 17th where they will be up against their rivals, both the established teams and one other newcomer in Virgin Racing.

And although the Finn isn't ready to layout his objectives for the season, he reckons after that first test the team will have a better idea of what to expect and what to aim for.

"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 percent motivated.

"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."