Heikki Kovalainen

My 1st article on clip the apex

Do you think we will ever see Kovalainen at the sharp end of the grid again? He had much potential pre-McLaren.

He spent 9 years in karting and did relatively well winning the 2000 Nordic championship. He was Formula Renault 2001 rookie of the year. He was also British Formula 3 2002 rookie of the year finishing 3rd with 5 wins. He moved to world series by nissan in 2003 and won the championship in 2004 with 6 wins. In 2005 he moved to GP2 and battled Nico Rosberg for the championship finishing runner up with 5 wins.

He built a bit of a reputation for himself by winning the race of champions in 2004 defeating David Coulthard, Michael Schumacher and Sebastien Loeb.

He was also test driver for Renault 2004 - 2007 stacking up well over 28,000km so he certainly wasn't inexperienced by his debut either.

In his debut season in 2007 he beat his experienced race winner teammate by 9 points and claimed a debut podium with 2nd in an awesome Japanese Grand Prix.

Then of course it went downhill, he joined McLaren in 2008 and was humiliated by Lewis Hamilton over the course of the year which was a shame, he showed flashes of potential in the early part of the season but did not fulfill it. It has been said that the extreme development that year was focused entirely on Hamilton and it did not suit Kovalainen's driving style and that he may not have been entirely ready for that level of competition. Either way in a car that his teammate won the championship with he gained 3 podiums, 1 pole position and a sole win.

His 2009 season at McLaren was largely anonymous compared to what Hamilton was doing with the car although he looked to be on form for Monza qualifying 4th - the highest of the 1 stoppers and one of the only KERS cars. It was a real opportunity for him to save his career at the sharp end. Sadly he went backwards in the race very quickly and finished 6th.

In 2010 of course he moved to Lotus and strangely seems to have been reinvigorated and refreshed. No points of course being one of the new teams and no testing but he finished in the official standings ahead of veteran teammate Jarno Trulli. This year the team are leaving Virgin and HRT behind and snapping on the heals of the historical williams team. Lotus are looking soon to be amongst the lower field and Kovalainen looks to be really flourishing there. Indeed last weekend he claimed the teams best ever qualifying performance with their 1st q2 session and 15th on the grid.

Jarno Trulli is near the end of his F1 career but Kovalainen is only 29, do you think when Trulli has left Kovalainen may become a real team leader there? Indeed he could do a Schumacher (maybe not quite as successful but the same principle) and really make the team his own - spend the rest of his career with the team and really move it up the field towards the sharp end of the grid over the course of several years. Personally I'd love to see him spend the next decade with the team steadily improving both team and driver and continuity is an advantage in this sport.

what do you think the future holds for Heikki Kovalainen?

PS: apologies about the essay lol.
 
Heikki would be a good candidate for a drive in a Touring car's series or a Le Man series now. I think he's had his time in F1 and they are many drivers who probably deserve a seat more than him in F1.
 
Well at 31 there is very little chance of securing a good top drive unless he is still managed by Flavio who manage to extend Webber's career by landing him in a Red Bull
 
As pointed out by Andrea_Moda_Rules over on the Caterham thread after a little bit of courting Kovi is back as Caterham reserve driver which in my mind will only lead to him being back in the race seat very very soon.

Seems Caterham have learnt the 'money is all well and good but if you chuck out your talent you go backwards' lesson within 3 Grand Prix.

I'm hoping van der Garde is the one that makes way.
 
Agreed.

I cannot help but think that the lack of a star, or a familiar face in Caterham this season has led to a reduction in their profile, which cannot be good for sponsorship potential.

Hopefully getting Heikki back in the car if only FP1 will help that as well as improve the car.
 
Very philosphical and typical of Heikki .. a man who should have deserved better in his F1 career

What reason did he deserve to be replaced by Piquet Jnr at Renault (before lifeline given by Mclaren0 ?? He beat Fisichella and got the teams only podium in 2007 !

Going to Mclaren was the right choice seeing Toyota probably would have not helped his career anymore
 
Whilst his account of the 2008 season is obviously going to be a bit one-sided, it is surprising just how many opportunities for good results he apparently missed that year through bad luck or circumstance.

It is also interesting that Kovalainen had an offer from Toyota, quite fitting then that he has ended up driving for them in Super GT, finishing 13th in 2015 and currently sits 2nd in 2016.
 
What reason did he deserve to be replaced by Piquet Jnr at Renault (before lifeline given by Mclaren0 ?? He beat Fisichella and got the teams only podium in 2007 !

You see that hindsight. Kovi had a very poor start to his F1 career and was nearly dropped by about half way through the season. At this point he had an upturn in form. By then though Renault had committed to running Piquet Jr, probably on the back of Hamilton being such a success and Piquet having been his close rival in GP2 (plus a lot of sponsorship). Even then I Don't think Kovi leaving Renault was a done thing until it became apparent they could get Alonso.
 
RasputinLives I remember Flavio saying Heikki debut was rubbish for a start and by the time they got to Canada Piquet Jnr was touted as the replacement but off course that was no doubt down to Nelson Piquet Sotomayor trying to push that Nelsinho is worth his seat... I bet he regretted that decision
 
Flabio did say after the first race of the season that Heikki had not turned up but had sent his brother instead. First opinions are difficult to overcome if they are bad however big an improvement happens.
 
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