Heikki Kovalainen is not worried by the doubters

Fernando Alonso's successor at Renault had an opportunity to learn the ropes last season

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By Juha Päätalo in Barcelona
     
      The position of Finnish drivers in Formula One on the cusp of a new season is better than ever before. Kimi Räikkönen at Ferrari and Heikki Kovalainen in the Renault seat are offering up a double Finnish motor sports dream-ticket.
      Then again, both men face enormous pressures from stepping into rather large shoes. Räikkönen has to replace the great Michael Schumacher, and Kovalainen will be sitting in the cockpit formerly occupied by Fernando Alonso, the F1 World Champion in 2005 and 2006.
      For Kovalainen in particular the upcoming season is going to be quite some baptism, as it is also his rookie year in Formula One.
     
But.. the man from Suomussalmi is not getting any headaches about the season that gets under way in Melbourne on March 17th.
      "I really haven't thought about the first race at all yet", Kovalainen told Helsingin Sanomat.
      "Now I'm concentrating solely on testing. When we get to Melbourne there will be time to think about the race. But I really don't expect I'm going to be getting too jittery then, either. I've prepared myself well for the season, so the outcome ought to be good. If it isn't, then I can only say that I've done everything I could. That's why I really don't see any point in getting all stressed out right now about what happens next month in Australia."
     
Many experts have predicted that Kovalainen is in for a rough ride this coming season. The most positive of them, Patrick Head of Williams, has applauded Kovalainen's approach to his work but issues the reminder that it is one thing to test a car and quite another to race wheel-to-wheel.
      "Look, I've been driving different types of car for fifteen years in races, so I'm a bit doubtful that a pause of one year is going to present much of a problem", says Kovalainen by way of an answer to Head's remarks.
      "Anyway, this can't become a problem, because I have to hit the ground running and find the proper rhythm right from the beginning. People can take whatver view they want, but to my mind it is better to wait and see what happens at the first GP and then open their mouth after that. I light up quickly, I'm aggressive, and I don't stand around with my mouth hanging open on things, so I believe I'll be able to drive to a high standard straight out of the box."
     
Renault engineer Pat Symonds is not quite so sure. "We're going to see some great performances from Heikki, but we'll also see mistakes that we'll wonder about afterwards, and we'll ask ‘How could he have done that?'", forecasts Symonds.
      "There are always going to be mistakes, but it is not as if I'm going to start driving like a madman. I try to avoid shunts as far as is humanly possible, I overtake only when there is a clear opportunity. And if there isn't then I tuck in behind the car in front and wait for an opening. I'm not sure where Pat is coming from with his comments. Maybe it's just realism. But I shall be going out to take my place in the race, and not with the idea of trying to avoid making mistakes. And if mistakes do come, then they have to be got over quickly."
     
As the successor to two-time champion Alonso, Kovalainen will be as much under the magnifying glass as Räikkönen is in the Schumacher shoes. It would be only natural that this would have a subconscious effect on the sportsman, even if Kovalainen vehemently denies it.
      "Alonso has done with his racing for Renault, and now it is my turn. Sure, he's a very fine driver, one of the best, and getting into that sort of caste requires that everything goes exactly as it should. But there is no sense in even thinking about that sort of thing yet."
      "If I drive my first race worse than Alonso, it is not going to trouble me so greatly. I will be trying to improve my performance one race at a time."
      Kovalainen admits that he has benefited from being able to observe Alonso in action in the Renault at close quarters last season.
      "Yes, although there wasn't anything particularly magical or mystical about it. It was necessary to avoid mistakes, to keep the performance-level high, and to keep your nerves in check. And Alonso is a real master at all that. He didn't make any mistakes and he kept his performances behind the wheel at a peak all season. And that's what I'll be aiming for."
     
Last season, Alonso also was put through the mill mentally, when the sport's umbrella organisation the FIA banned the "mass damper" developed by the team and then gave him a bizarre punishment for blocking in practice at the Italian GP at Monza.
      On this score, Kovalainen actually finds things that Alonso might improve about his approach to the sport.
      "He reacted pretty abruptly to those things, even if the punishments he got were plenty stiff", says Kovalainen. "But it might just have been better then to let it go and concentrate solely on one's next performance. There's little or nothing you can do about it once it's done."
      "Then again, after the team made mistakes following the GP in China, Alonso himself turned in a 110% race performance at Suzuka in Japan", says Kovalalnien admiringly. "He gave Schumacher such a grilling that the Ferrari engine blew. That was a moment where Alonso's mental strength showed its true colours. And you can learn an awful lot from that."
     
Kovalainen's position as he prepares for the new season is admittedly very different from Alonso's, as the Spaniard went into last season with the champion's laurels and the authority that goes with them. Attaining a stature like that with the Renault crews will take a great deal of work from the rookie Finn.
      "It's a place you can only reach by your driving", he admits. "I have to show the team people that I am going to fight for every metre on the track, right to the flag. And when they see that I give my all in testing and in races, then I'll certainly start to get more back from the staff."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 21.2.2007


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Heikki Kovalainen confirmed as Fernando Alonso´s successor at Renault (7.9.2006)

Links:
  Renault F1: Heikki Kovalainen

Helsingin Sanomat