Although Heikki Kovalainen took his maiden Formula 1 pole and victory in 2008, overall his first year at McLaren was far from satisfactory.

If the Finn is to be more than Lewis Hamilton’s genial sidekick, he needs to take a major step forward this season.

Kovalainen is determined to do just that, suggesting that he will be much stronger now he’s had a year to acclimatise to the team that Hamilton grew up with.

Many in the paddock hope he can make that breakthrough, for few other drivers possess Kovalainen’s easy-going charm, and when on form he has proved that he can give his world champion team-mate plenty to think about.


Career log

Kovalainen had a nightmare start to his F1 career with Renault in 2007.

A ragged drive on his debut in Australia prompted Flavio Briatore to question whether it had been the Finn’s less talented ‘brother’ in the car.

Further mistakes in Canadian GP qualifying fuelled rumours that the team’s test driver Nelson Piquet Jr was being lined up to replace him.

The speculation proved unfounded, as Kovalainen learned from his errors and raised his game during the second half of the season.

Six straight points finishes were followed by a superb second place in the monsoon conditions of Fuji.

It was a hot streak that veteran team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella couldn’t get near and Kovalainen ended 2007 as Renault’s undisputed number one.

When McLaren required a replacement for Fernando Alonso, Kovalainen was parachuted in alongside Hamilton.

He began well, outperforming his team-mate in many of the early races, and instantly bouncing back from a vicious Barcelona crash.

But in the second half of the year, Kovalainen’s season fell apart amid set-up woes, poor luck and plummeting confidence.

A crushing pole at Silverstone aside, he was nowhere near Hamilton’s pace and posted a string of retirements – ending up seventh in a championship his team-mate had won.


Early years

A contemporary of Kimi Raikkonen in karts, the cash-strapped Kovalainen’s car racing career would have ended after just a single (very promising) Formula Renault season had Renault not stepped in.

The French company invested heavily in Kovalainen and placed him in British Formula 3.

He repaid this faith by starring in F3, then moving to the Nissan World Series, which he won dominantly at the second attempt, while also becoming a regular F1 tester for Renault.

Kovalainen really hit the headlines at the end of 2004, when he overcame Michael Schumacher and rally champion Sebastien Loeb to win the Race of Champions.

A move into the inaugural GP2 season followed for 2005, and he was the man to beat for most of the year until Nico Rosberg and the ART team hit form and started demolishing his once-comfortable points cushion, edging ahead at the deciding round.

Renault promoted Kovalainen to fully-fledged reserve driver status for 2006 in preparation for him to fill the gap in the race team left by Alonso’s temporary departure in 2007.