Heikki Kovalainen admits F1 'stopped earlier than I wanted' amid Extreme E debut
"Sorry, there are a lot of flies here," laughs Heikki Kovalainen as he wafts his hand at the insects buzzing around his head.
There couldn't be much more of a juxtaposition on the computer screen as Mirror Sport chats with the Finnish racer over a video call. As snow falls in the UK, Kovalainen is speaking from a tent in the Saudi Arabian desert – and, presumably, is much warmer for it.
Our time together is limited, but we manage to get through a wide range of topics – all of which are approached with unabridged honesty by the 41-year-old. Driving for Renault and McLaren in Formula 1, replacing Fernando Alonso and partnering a young Lewis Hamilton are all discussed.
But first – why exactly is Kovalainen speaking from that tent in the yet-to-be-built city of Neom? "This actually came about around two and a half weeks ago," he says, referring to the Extreme E championship that he has signed up for this year. He will race for the JBXE team founded and owned by 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button, with the first two rounds taking place on the Saudi coast this weekend.
"I got a message from one of Jenson's team's members who just randomly asked me, would I be interested in joining the team this year? I looked at the calendar. I've got some events already marked up but I looked at the Extreme E calendar and I said yeah, why not?"
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F1 fans will remember Kovalainen for his six seasons racing in the top single-seater category between 2007 and 2012. Since that part of his career came to an end, he has largely been driving GT cars in Japan – but recently developed a taste for off-road racing.
"It's something that I've always enjoyed, driving different cars," the Finn explains. "Even during my Formula 1 days, I did some off-road days with some rally cars, but never really competed. But I was always interested in the loose surface and I've never been afraid of the car moving around and sliding around more than other circuits.
Heikki Kovalainen spoke with Mirror Sport on the eve of his Extreme E debut (Daily Mirror)"The passion towards this type of racing and this type of motorsport has grown in the last couple of years. And then at the end of 2021, I decided to stop my circuit racing career like I did last year in the Super GT, in Japan, and fully focused on rallying.
"I've done that last year, the full season in Japan, and this year, completely rallying in Japan and in Finland – and now adding Extreme E. It's all towards loose surface motorsport, it seems like where the heart is taking me that way now, so I'm trying to enjoy it."
Kovalainen admits: "I'm not sure I'm ever going to be a WRC world champion," but part of the motivation to join Extreme E is to better hone his skills racing on mud and dirt. Another attractive factor is the climate message the series is working to send – even if he admits his past exploits, like all long-competing motorsport stars, have contributed to the problem.
"I'm not the best person to talk about the green racing and the green initiatives – I've been racing V8s and V10s," he says with a small chuckle. "But it fits very well to actually take part and to be involved in this kind of moment.
Heikki Kovalainen will race alongside Hedda Hosas for JBXE Racing in Extreme E this year (Extreme E)"If I can do something for this green transition then I think now is the time for me to do that. This is a perfect platform for me to be involved, and I still get to race cars!" Not only that, but Kovalainen remains a very focused competitor driven by that ultimate feeling for a racing driver – winning.
He explains with a rueful smile: "I haven't won the Formula 1 championship but almost all the other categories that I've raced in, I've at least won events – I've won rallies, GP races, one Formula 1 race, and in the junior categories.
"To have a win in the Extreme E series would add something different to my CV. Unfortunately, it's missing the Formula 1 world championship! But you can't have everything. To be able to prove yourself and show yourself in different kinds of motorsport is something which drives me forward."
Since he brought it up, this is the point of the conversation which naturally moves onto those years spent racing in F1. Kovalainen was given his first full-time race seat in 2007, and it wasn't just any old drive. As a rookie, he had the task of replacing Fernando Alonso at Renault – where he had just won back-to-back world titles. No pressure, then.
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Kovalainen made his F1 debut for defending constructors' champions in 2007, replacing title-winner Fernando Alonso (Getty Images)"I felt ready for it but, looking back now, I wasn’t really ready," he admits. "I think the whole Grand Prix weekend and how you handle it, I didn't really have a firm enough grip. I wasn't working enough with the team and wasn't paying attention to the small details enough – actually, a lot of things were missing which you require to be super competitive at that level.
"When I was thrown straight into a Renault, it was a good seat, a good car – it wasn't a winning car in that year, but it was a car that was capable of scoring points. That season started terribly for me and I think, by the time we went to Canada and I shunted in qualifying, Flavio [Briatore, team principal at the time] was on the tipping point of getting rid of me!
"His patience was definitely on the limit, but then I managed to do a decent race the next day, I think I went from seventeenth to fourth and I got a bit of momentum going. Towards the end of the year things started to get better and I got a little wave that I was riding when the McLaren opportunity suddenly came, when Fernando fell out with them.
"Even at that point, I wasn't ready to seriously bring good results to McLaren. The two years that I was there I don't think I really got the full potential out of myself. I feel like I actually drove better when I was at Caterham. I felt I was getting physically stronger, mentally stronger and was able to work with the team better during those Caterham years, but unfortunately the car was just so slow that I wasn't able to get any results.
"At the start of my Formula 1 career I was given a good car too quickly and I wasn't ready. I feel like I've never been a super good learner. I would have needed a bit of time to build up – I'm more of a building up kind of guy.
"I feel I would have had the potential to become a pretty good, better-than-average Formula 1 driver. I'm not sure I would have been a Hamilton, a Senna or a Schumacher! But I could have been a good asset to many teams had things gone differently."
That impressive drive in Canada was outshone on the day, as a certain Lewis Hamilton won the race – his first F1 Grand Prix victory. Having replaced Alonso once already at a very competitive team, Kovalainen repeated the trick when he was hired to drive alongside the Brit at McLaren in 2008.
It was "a dream come true" for him to work with Ron Dennis, and to represent a team which has a history of fielding Finnish drivers. Mika Hakkinen won both his F1 titles as a McLaren racer, while Keke Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen also represented the team during their respective careers.
Kovalainen was Lewis Hamilton's team-mate at McLaren for two years (AFP via Getty Images)"It's just a shame I couldn't make it work better," says Kovalainen with a note of regret in his voice. "It was a great team. When I went there it felt exactly like my kind of team. I'm usually very organised – I like to be on time – and McLaren and Ron were like that, super organised. Everything had to be spot on and polished. When I came in I thought, 'This team looks exactly like myself, looking in the mirror, and this is going to be great'. But it just didn't work out."
Still, he feels like the team "needed" his presence in the wake of the fierce rivalry between Alonso and Hamilton the previous year. Kovalainen could see the "little scars" left on the team by that battle and felt McLaren needed someone more compliant to partner young Hamilton.
And he was happy to be that person: "McLaren really needed somebody to come to the team who wouldn't cause any trouble. I think that was one of the reasons why they hired me... They didn't want to get management too involved as they had that experience with Fernando. Fernando's team is super tight and they're a strong group of people. With how things went there, that was a sensitive area for McLaren.
"When I came in, they really wanted somebody who doesn't cause trouble and who is actually a team player. In a way, I was probably an easy target because I'm not as strong a personality as Fernando – I'm a guy who gets along with anyone if I have to and I don't usually get into politics.
The Finn's first and only F1 race win came at the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix (Getty Images)"Even in those days, I wasn't getting into politics and complicated discussions or fights. I was a relatively easy solution for them and I think the team liked working with me. The results weren't good enough but I think that I could feel that they needed that, after Fernando."
After two years with McLaren, Kovalainen was replaced by the 2009 champion Button and was later signed by Lotus. After three seasons with that team, which later rebranded as Caterham, his full-time career in the sport when he and Vitaly Petrov were dropped so Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic could come in.
"When my Formula 1 career stopped, for me it actually stopped earlier than I wanted," he admits. "I would have liked to have continued for a few more years in Formula 1. But the McLaren years didn't go very well and then I kind of tried to relaunch my career with the Caterham team. That started okay in the first year but then the team went downhill and I lost the momentum.
Kovalainen drove an Extreme E car for the first time this week, ahead of his debut at the Desert X-Prix in Neom, Saudi Arabia (Extreme E)"I couldn't get good enough results to stay there. I've never paid myself into any series so I didn't have any money, sponsors or, to be honest, any desire to try to hang on. Of course, I would have liked to have continued for longer in Formula 1, but I've got over that now and I'm not sore about it anymore."
A move to Japan to race in Super GT with Toyota followed and became "a longer stint than I expected. And now he has made this switch to focus on building an off-road racing career. And although Extreme E is another learning opportunity for him, make no mistake – Kovalainen did not join simply to make up the numbers.
"I want to learn but I don't just want to take part, driving around and not making any results. I want to make some results and, as a team, I think we have a pretty good group of people in Jenson's team. I've really enjoyed working this week with the guys and I think we can get some good results.
"It's super competitive and there are many good team line-ups so it won't be easy. I feel I'm probably not yet at the level needed to seriously fight for wins. But that's got to be the goal, to win some races at some point. That's what I want this year."
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