The luckless Heikki Kovalainen has received a resounding vote of confidence from his McLaren-Mercedes team ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, despite having notched up just a single point from the last three races, compared to team-mate Lewis Hamilton's 24.
Those bare statistics, however, do little justice to the facts, as Kovalainen has been on the receiving end of some outrageous misfortune that has seen him slip from being level on points with Hamilton pre-Barcelona to a staggering 23 adrift now as the Formula 1 circus heads across the Pond for the first time in 2008.
A failed wheel rim led to Kovalainen's MP4-23 plunging head-long into the Circuit de Catalunya's unforgiving crash barriers at more than 150mph in Spain – leaving the 26-year-old hospitalised for a couple of days – whilst contact from Kimi Raikkonen into the first corner in Turkey destroyed what had looked to be an excellent chance to claim his maiden victory in the top flight after he had taken the first front row grid position of his fledgling F1 career in Istanbul, ahead of Hamilton.
An electronic problem then left Kovalainen stranded on the grid in Monaco just over a week ago, but his devastating speed and commitment in fighting his way back up through the field again – setting a fastest lap more than 1.2
seconds quicker than Hamilton's best effort – was far from lost on the Woking-based outfit's CEO Martin Whitmarsh.
“Heikki has performed quite brilliantly in his first six races with the team,” the 50-year-old underlined, “and therefore has to come out of it with some disappointment. Whilst there is underlying satisfaction with his personal performance, Heikki has suffered some misfortune, which has taken from him the opportunity to win his first grand prix.
“He is an extremely positive guy, though, who realises that he has a great career ahead of him. There is no doubt that he is going to enjoy many grand prix victories during the course of his career.”
More encouragingly still, it was Montreal last year that provided the catalyst for Kovalainen's remarkable turnaround in form, as the then Renault ace stormed his way up the order from dead last on the starting grid to fourth spot at the chequered flag, taking what was at the time his finest result in F1 as the
Régie's managing director Flavio Briatore was beginning to drop hints that the struggling rookie may not last much longer in the uppermost echelon.
From thereon in – with eight points-scoring finishes from the next nine races, the highlight of which was undoubtedly his inspired charge to second place in the rain-lashed Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji – he never looked back.
“The previous three races in Barcelona, Istanbul and Monte Carlo provided completely different challenges for teams and drivers,” summed up Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice-President Norbert Haug. “Whilst Lewis ended up third, second and first respectively, a broken wheel rim, a tyre slashed by a competitor and a software problem while engaging first gear at the start of the formation lap in Monaco prevented Heikki from scoring a similar amount of points.”
