Heikki Kovalainen: What does the future hold for him?

There have been a few Finnish drivers since the inception of the sport and most of them, if not all, have achieved success in their careers. Finland has established its identity in the sport thanks to excellent drivers like Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen, who all are world champions. Like one says “If you want to win, employ a Finn”. So, when Heikki Kovalainen entered the F1 scene, everyone expected him to perform like his predecessors from the very beginning.

Heikki Kovalainen, Renault in action during Formula One Testing at the Circuit de Catalunya

The 2007 season was his first as an F1 driver and he impressed the paddock by achieving one 2nd place finish with the uncompetitive Renault in a season where all three steps of the podium were regularly occupied by the McLaren and Ferrari drivers. With a good season behind him and Fernando Alonso‘s relationship with McLaren in tatters, the stage was set for Kovalainen to make the big step forward and there was a direct swap between him and Alonso.

McLaren is, and always has been, a dream team for any driver and so the Finn would have expected to straightaway compete for the championship in 2008. Unfortunately, that was not to be, and he achieved only one victory at the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix, that too after leader Felipe Massa’s engine failure with only a few laps to go. He achieved just 2 more podiums in his two years with the team and with Lewis Hamilton winning the championship in 2008, things got worse and Kovalainen was forced to play the No.2 role. He, like Alonso, bore the brunt of then-team principal Ron Dennis’ immense favouritism towards the Englishman, but not being a two-time world champion hurt his prospects and as a result, had to do exactly as the team said, if he wanted to keep his seat.

Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren Mercedes drives at night during practice for the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit

He was sacked at the end of 2009 and suddenly he had nowhere to go as all the reputation he had gained in his first season with Renault was severely damaged by the two tumultuous years with McLaren. Luckily, three new teams joined in 2010 and Lotus (now Caterham) offered him a drive for 2010. As expected, his new team was well off the pace. He had hoped that a step backward would help him take two steps forward because he believed that his good performances with the team would attract the eyes of the bosses of the teams towards the sharp end of the grid.

There’s no doubt that some of his performances in the last three years have been indeed very good and at the beginning of last year, his chances were quite high of landing a drive with a much better team in 2013. But 2012 didn’t turn out as planned and he was beaten in the standings by new teammate Vitaly Petrov, who finished a crucial 11th at the final race of the season at Sao Paulo and secured the very important 10th position in the championship for the team.

Now with Petrov having moved into the limelight and Kovalainen having absolutely no funding for a drive, things started to look bleak. Charles Pic has already been confirmed for 2013 and for the other seat, people with big funding such as Petrov and Bruno Senna are supposed to be in the running for the second seat.

So, again the question, ‘What lies ahead?’ In fact, the question is difficult to answer because Kovalainen has himself accepted that most probably he won’t be driving this season. In that case, he can follow in the footsteps of another Finn, Kimi Raikkonen, and do a bit of rallying while trying to negotiate a seat in F1. It is sad to see that the sport is moving more and more towards pay drivers and those who entered the sport on pure merit and are still on the grid drive for the big 5- Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, Lotus and Mercedes. These teams, apart from probably Lotus, are not going to run into any financial problems in the near future. But to become a part of these teams, new drivers need to show their skills in a lesser team which will always look for a pay driver to support its costs to battle the current financial crisis in Europe.