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.
 
I think that at Lotus Heikki has flattered to decieve. The car is clearly not capable of matching the established teams, whilst being the class of the new teams, and every now and then he shows something strong in qualifying, which grabs the attention. Yet during the race, there is little focus on the rear of the grid, unles they are getting lapped, and in that respect, I think this season certainly he has been behind his team mate.

Personally, I really like Heikki, and he seems to be really enjoying his racing at the moment, and I think it would be great if he was able to bridge the gap to the midfield in the Lotus, I think that he certainly deserves it, as he has really put in the effort and shown faith in the team. But, whilst I do not think him a Div 3 driver, he is certainly mid table division 2, the fact that he only won one race in 2 years in McLaren, 1 year of which the car was right at the peak of the grid with Ferrari is a bit poor, although to be fair, he was against a flying Lewis, but I believe there were a couple of opportunities to do much better than he did.
 
The parallel I was trying to draw with Derek was that when he first came into F1 he was stunningly quick, had his moments at Renault (should have won a couple of races) but as his career drifted and the teams got progressively worse he ended up as a tail end charlie with but kept going as he was a "safe pair of hands".

Don't get me wrong, I thought Derek was great, never achieved what he was capable and coming from Hampshire has to be regarded as a God amongst men. As I type this I realise that the comparison was a little harsh as Heikki had his chance in a winning car and only ever managed it once.

Let's stick with Eddie Cheever shall we...
 
Maybe Heikki would have had a very different career if he had not come up against Lewis after a promising year at Renault. Finishing 7th when your team mate wins the WDC may be a little hard to take, even with the mechanical issues, the following year was little better. At least he seems to have found himself now,which is always good,as he is a really nice guy, I follow him on Twitter and he is one of the more regular contributors, and very personable.
 
Ok, {purchases a former cold war bunker and sets up a lap top from within in order to withstand what's coming next}

Heikki has gone on record saying that during his time at Mclaren he was the clear number 2 with all efforts being put into Hamilton in terms of upgrades, strategy etc and to be honest, why wouldn't it since Hamilton represented the best chance of a world title and given the season prior to Heikki's arrival a steady and dare I say it, complient hand on the wheel was the very thing that Mclaren were looking for.

When you look at the results, Hamilton and Heikki raced together 35 times, if we discount the races where either car failed to finish (or were DSQ'd) then the cars came home togehter 24 times. In that 24 times, Heikki's car crossed the line ahead of Hamiltons on 8 occasions including 1 win. Interstingly, Heikki and Hamilton never shared the podium together.

In terms of team points contribution Heikki accounted for 35 percent of Mclarens points in 08 and 30 percent in 09 which compares spookily with Massa so far in 2010 / 2011 which reads 36 percent and 31 percent.For completeness, in his one season at Renault he accounted for 58 percent of their points. I do believe that Heikki is a better driver than history would suggest so for that reason I'd have to stick with Div 2.
 
Well reasoned C_a_T.

I'm not one usually for what if's and maybes but if Heiki had stayed at Renault for 2008 as Alonso's team-mate do we think his career would have taken a different path? Or would he have ended up in the same place as he is now?

Anyone he says he'd have ended up in the wall at Singapore gets a chinese burn :)
 
I think he would have ended up in the same place as he is now. He would have been as much of a number 2 driver at Renault with Flavio and Alonso as he was at Mclaren.
It is possible that they would have wanted Heikki to go into the wall at Singapore but somehow I think he would have refused. He then would have to leave Renault because Flavio doesn't like him anymore and would have signed for Lotus anyway.

Unless of course they would not have dared ask Heikki to go into the wall for Fernando. Then it would be possible he would still be at Renault together with Kubica perhaps.

Anyway, I think Heikki, if given a fair chance in a fair team is a typical higher midfield driver. Good enough for consistent point finishes but not good enough to handle the pressure of driving in a top team competing for the championship.

I definitely wouldn't class him as a div 3 driver.
 
I think he would have ended up in the same place as he is now. He would have been as much of a number 2 driver at Renault with Flavio and Alonso as he was at Mclaren.
It is possible that they would have wanted Heikki to go into the wall at Singapore but somehow I think he would have refused. He then would have to leave Renault because Flavio doesn't like him anymore and would have signed for Lotus anyway

I agree he would have been number 2 but think his results would have been much better than Piquet Jr's and I wonder whether because he was a number 2 at a team not at the front whether his performance would have come under as much focus as it did at Mclaren and whether his rep would have been as tarnished when he came to leaving Mclaren. Maybe someone like Sauber would have picked him up if that was the case and he'd be in a better position than he is now.

Anyways as others have said a Div 2 driver, lovely bloke, doesn't seem to have the killer instinct. At best could rise to a Gerhard Berger status, at worst Oliver Panis but most likely to reach a Martin Brundle status. Liked by most, rated by some acheived very little.
 
Did anyone else see the BBC interview Heiki in quali? Jake asked him if he was more worried because Michael Schumacher lined up behind him. Heiki said it didn't matter to him which driver was behind him. DC told him he should be more worried if its Michael Schumacher and Heiki hit back with - and I quote -

"Maybe if you had spent less time worrying that it was Michael Schumacher behind you then you'd have won more races"

LOL
 
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