19 – Heikki Kovalainen

Credit: www.mclaren.com

Stats

• Birthday: 19th October 1981
• Nationality: Finnish
• Lives:
• Website: heikkikovalainen.com

Career

Heikki’s career by year. The bracketed number is his final position at the end of the series.

• 1999 – World Championship Formula A (17th), Finnish Championship Formula A (2nd)
• 2000 – World Championship Formula Super A (3rd), European Championship Formula Super A (4th), Nordic Championship Formula A (1st), Finnish Championship Formula A (2nd), Paris-Bercy Elf Masters (1st)
• 2001 – British Formula Renault (4th), Formula Three (8th)
• 2002 – British Formula Three (4rd), Formula Three (2nd)
• 2003 – World Series by Nissan (2nd)
• 2004 – World Series by Nissan (1st)
• 2005 – GP2 Series (2nd)
• 2006 – Formula 1 (Test Driver)
• 2007 – Formula 1 (7th)
• 2008 – Formula 1 (7th)
• 2009 – Formula 1 (12th)
• 2010 – Formula 1

2010 Preview

From the F1 Digest 2010 Season Preview:

Having followed in Alonso’s footsteps for the early part in his career – Renault to McLaren – Kovalainen has now broken out on his own and is making his way with one of the new teams. Alongside Trulli, the pair are spearheading the return of the Lotus name to F1. Heikki has been somewhat disappointing over the last few years, never really making a stand for himself, and fading away in comparison to his teammates. Perhaps with someone as gentle and unobtrusive as Trulli he can finally show us what he’s made of. One of the things that makes Heikki noticeable to me is that each team he has been at so far seem to eat away at his personality. He starts out smiley happy, and ends up a shadow of his former self. I’m hoping that Lotus will be the cure for that. At a new team, there is already an excuse in place for poor performance, and it might be the cover Kovi needs to find his feet, or his wheels I suppose. Whether he deserves another chance remains to be seen, but it’s important to note he hasn’t made any crazy mistakes or done anything completely foolish. It’s just that he hasn’t done anything awesome either. Maybe this year.