Somebody up there must like Heikki Kovalainen. For the friendly Finn has found himself nicely settled into one of the best drives in Formula 1, courtesy of one Mr Fernando Alonso. Instead of facing the 2008 season as a number two driver in a mid-grid car scrabbling for points, the 26-year old can almost smell a maiden Grand Prix victory and maybe more as he hopes to emulate the feats of his countrymen Häkkinen and Räikkönen at Mclaren.
Heikki Kovalainen has found his way in to Formula 1 despite not having conquered the feeder championships that usually prove to be the passport to the top echelon. Certainly his karting credentials were as impressive as most, winning the Finnish Formula A championship in both 1999 and 2000. He also added the Scandinavian title and the Elf Masters at Bercy in the latter year to begin his association with Renault by then opting for the French giant’s UK based series. Claiming a fourth place finish overall in his debut year and scoring two wins in the process, brought Kovalainen into their fledgling Renault Driver Development programme, and his position helped him graduate to the British Formula Three Championship for 2002 with Fortec Motorsport, the leading user of Renault’s Sodomo engines.
Although the units were arguably not as strong as the Mugen-Honda engines that dominated the British F3 field, Kovalainen and team-mate Fabio Carbone got the most of their cars to prove consistent front runners against a dominant Carlin Motorsport, Kovalainen in particular impressing with his five wins and three pole positions, all occurring in the second half of the season on the way to third in the standings. He even went on to highlight his talent to those that matter by winning the British Grand Prix support race at Silverstone before going on to claim second place in the Macau Grand Prix and fourth in the Marlboro Masters.
Heikki continued to pursue a route up the motorsport ladder when his next venture took him to the World Series by Nissan where he was snapped up by the front running Gabord Competicion team. Up against some formidable competition in the shape of Narain Karthikeyan, Enrqiue Bernoldi and Marc Gene, Kovalainen nonetheless defied his inexperience to claim second in the championship standings, taking a win at the Lausitzring, even if he was generally outpaced by his title winning team-mate Franck Montagny.
Nonetheless, Kovalainen had done enough to earn himself a test at both ends of the F1 scale, firstly with Renault and then with Minardi. It was thought that the Faenza team was chasing him for full-time drive in 2004 under the watchful eye of manager Flavio Briatore in much the same way as Fernando Alonso in 2001. However, this time Renault decided to keep tabs on the Finn by signing him to be their second test driver after Montagny. The less intensive role allowed Kovalainen to continue racing, returning to the World Series, this time with newcomers Pons Racing.
With a year of experience under his belt, Kovalainen was the dominant force in the championship throughout 2004, with a mid-season flurry of strong results – including seven straight podiums that included four wins – helping him well on the way to glory over Tiago Monteiro and Jean-Christophe Ravier, claiming a further two wins to cement his supremacy.
However, despite his triumph, the lack of exposure for the World Series meant Kovalainen remained something of an unknown quantity to all but hardened enthusiasts, even if his achievements had done enough to earn him a place in the Race of Champions event in Paris. Competing for Finland alongside accomplished opposition that included the likes of Michael Schumacher and Sebastien Loeb, most eyes were on a potential head-to-head between the undoubted stars of track and rally racing. Remarkably though, both were humbled by Kovalainen, who firstly dispatched Schumacher in the ‘track racers’ final and then went on to be crowned champion when he pulled off a coup against Loeb.
Sensing a future star, Renault retained Kovalainen for a second season and helped him score a drive with Arden in the burgeoning GP2 Series, where he promptly marked himself out to be championship contender by dominating over the first half of the year. In the end, Arden were soon overhauled by ART as the leading team and Nico Rosberg eventually got the better of Kovalainen in the championship stakes after a late-season flurry of results.
Nonetheless, with Renault learning that Fernando Alonso would be defecting to McLaren, immediately promoted Kovalainen to the role of full-time test driver, spending the season being groomed to take over the Spaniard’s racing role for the 2007 season. Not short of confidence, Heikki stated he was looking to win races race wins in his first season, but the Finn was immediately on the back foot on his debut when he found that the R27 was not remotely a race-winning car. Under pressure after criticism from Team Principal Flavio Briatore for some tentative early-season performances, Heikki finally got to grips with Formula 1 with top six finishes in the North American races. From that point on the Finn began to regularly overshadow his team mate Giancarlo Fischella, scoring a succession points scoring races culminating in a brilliant second place behind Lewis Hamilton in the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Finn’s career took a massive upturn when Fernando Alonso sort refuge back at Renault following his hasty departure from McLaren and it was clear that Kovalainen was obviously not the preferred choice of the double world champion. With unproven test driver Nelson Piquet Jr chosen to partner Alonso, Heikki was dramatically allowed to take up the offer to join McLaren. The chance of a lifetime has thus dropped into the lap of likeable Finn. Third place in Malaysia has been eagerly seized, and despite being in the shadow of the phenomenal Lewis Hamilton, Kovalainen will undoubtedly looking to make more trips to the podium in 2008.
