13 March 2023 , 09:00
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Heikki Kovalainen has opened up on the "little scars" that were left at McLaren in the wake of the infamous intra-team feud between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
And the Finn believes the nature of that squabble among team-mates in 2007 led directly to McLaren's decision to hire him for the following season. Alonso and Hamilton worked together for just that one year – the Brit's debut campaign in Formula 1 – during which time their competitive rivalry turned ugly.
Hamilton came into the sport and straight away proved himself a title contender. But Alonso had won the championship in the previous two seasons as a Renault driver and, in his first year with McLaren, was gunning for a third and had not expected a challenge from his rookie team-mate.
Several controversial incidents followed as the season wore on and, in the end, they were both beaten to the title by Kimi Raikkonen. After just one year with McLaren, Alonso moved on and in came Kovalainen – replacing the Spaniard for a second time in only his sophomore season as an F1 driver, having filled his seat at Renault the previous year.
Speaking to Mirror Sport about what the atmosphere in the team was like when he first joined McLaren, as part of a wide-ranging interview, Kovalainen said: "How things went with Fernando and McLaren, I think it left little scars.
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"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. I was managed by Flavio Briatore and his team and that was something [McLaren] were really paying attention to – they didn't want to get management too involved as they had that experience with Fernando.
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"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. 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."
As Kovalainen freely admits, he was not able to secure the results expected by McLaren during his two seasons partnering Hamilton at the team. But he feels the team "needed" his presence after the infighting the previous year. Plus, the move was "a dream come true" as he followed in the footsteps of several Finnish F1 greats.
Lewis Hamilton was partnered by the much more compliant Heikki Kovalainen from 2008 (AFP via Getty Images)He added: "I remember waking up very early in the early '90s watching the Australian Grand Prix and watching Ron Dennis on TV, and the white and red McLaren – Mika [Hakkinen] driving, and [Ayrton] Senna driving.
"One of the earliest figures that I remember from Formula 1 is Ron Dennis – Martin Whitmarsh was probably the day-to-day boss but Ron was the head team figure there. To work with him was a dream come true for me. It's just a shame I couldn't make it work better. 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."