Kovalainen enters upcoming F1 season 4.5 kg. heavier

Finnish McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen is not yet unduly concerned over the performance of his car, even though in the Barcelona tests he and teammate Lewis Hamilton were seconds slower than the fastest drivers.
     
”One cannot draw conclusions based on this. We are developing the car and the test programme will be completed as planned. For next week’s tests in England we will again receive new parts”, Kovalainen says at the McLaren technology centre in Woking, England, where he has arrived directly from Barcelona.
     According to Kovalainen the mood among his teammates is anything but jittery.
     “In Australia we will see what our pace is”, the native of Suomussalmi, Finland, states.
     
McLaren’s problems have been on the aerodynamics side.
     “We have to take the corners slower, as there isn’t the same kind of grip”, Kovalainen explains.
     Kovalainen admits that the tests before the start of the season play a bigger role this year, because additional tests will not be carried out during the course of the season.
     The developers of the vehicles are therefore forced to rely increasingly on computer simulations.
     “Difficult to say at this stage, whether this will benefit the large of the small teams”, Kovalainen says.
     
If the car’s performance is still a mystery, the same cannot be said about the Finn’s physical condition. Kovalainen is in the best shape of his life.
     During the winter’s basic conditioning period Kovalainen has trained diligently and has intentionally augmented his body mass.
     “I now weigh 4.5 kilograms more than I did at the same time last year”, says Kovalainen, whose current weight is 65 kilos. Lewis Hamilton has also put on some muscle.
     One does not usually yearn for additional weight in the driver’s seat, but according to Kovalainen a couple of extra kilograms will not win or lose a race.
     “Personally I feel considerably better now. I have no pressure to lose weight”, he says.
     In his training, though, Kovalainen has deliberately avoided the gym. Instead, his muscle conditioning training has included functional exercises.
     
For his cardiovascular conditioning Kovalainen has, among other things, performed long, three-hour ski tours.
     Kovalainen’s new personal trainer, fellow Finn Petri Lehikoinen reckons his trainee is such a gifted cross-country skier that with training he could become a national level competitor even in this discipline.
     Apparently Kovalainen is not the only F1 driver to use cross-country skiing as a form of endurance training.
     “Someone said that Mark Webber also skis”, Kovalainen reveals.
     On the mental side, however, Kovalainen does not believe he would benefit from any particular training, not even after the violent crashing out that he experienced last season.
     
Kovalainen’s last season went anything but according to plans. In the World Championship table he finished seventh, while his teammate clinched the Championship. During the course of the season Kovalainen was clearly demoted to the team’s number two driver.
     For this season Kovalainen promises a more relaxed attitude.
     “Perhaps I set too high expectations for myself, and only saw the negative even in quite competent performances. I did not hurl my helmet around, but I did concentrate on the wrong things, and my focus deviated from what was positive.”
     For this season the McLaren team boss has also changed. Ron Dennis stepped aside, and the new team leader Martin Whitmarsh took the helm at the beginning of March.
     “This has not changed anything yet. Martin has run the operation for many years, and Ron will still be touring with us. I get along well with both of them.”
     
According to some estimates the changeover might improve Kovalainen’s chances of competing evenly in the team, for Lewis Hamilton has been seen my some as Ron Dennis’s favourite.
     Kovalainen shrugs off such talk as nonsense. He assures that both drivers will enter the season as equals.
     Kovalainen refuses, at least publicly, to set a goal for the upcoming season. “As long as I improve my performance from last year”, he says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Kovalainen wants to challenge Hamilton (20.1.2009)
  Kovalainen scores career first F1 victory in Budapest (4.8.2008)

Links:
  Vodafone McLaren Mercedes site
  Heikki Kovalainen on the Formula One site
  Heikki Kovalainen (Wikipedia)