“He was just that tiny bit faster all the time, and I had to stretch, every session”: Former Grand Prix winner with McLaren talks about his two year stint with team-mate Lewis Hamilton

Heikki Kovalainen describes his on-track relationship with former team-mate Lewis Hamilton and how he could not keep up with the momentum. 

Heikki Kovalainen has been in the motorsports world for almost 20 years now. “The Anti – Alonso”, as called Flavio Briatore, drove for Renault in 2007 when Fernando Alonso signed for McLaren.

Once again, the young Finn replaced Alonso in McLaren, signing for them in 2008. He won his maiden Grand Prix at Hungary and became the 100th Formula 1 driver to win a Grand Prix.

“He was just that tiny bit faster all the time, and I had to stretch every session,” Kovalainen sat down to talk about his time with McLaren and competition with Lewis Hamilton in the Beyond the Grid podcast.

“I kind of ran out of energy” – Kovalainen on the pressure of competing in McLaren

“It was straight from the winter test, you know, I was always like. I had to stretch to match him or be ahead of him like an average lap wasn’t good enough.” Finn describes the initial winter testing with McLaren.

“And when you’ve done that for a year and a half. I kind of ran out of energy.”

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“I got frustrated and, in fact, the gap just got bigger and I made some mistakes. I think the reason why that happened during that second half of 2009 was that I had to stretch all the time.”

“And when you’re stretching for a too long time, you run into a wall at some point”, talking about overdriving and distance between him and Hamilton.

Kovalainen felt privileged as a teammate of Lewis Hamilton

But Kovalainen insists he’s happy he got the chance to race against Hamilton, who he considers one the greatest drivers. “At that point, it was also quite detrimental for my career. I had momentum, but I couldn’t keep the momentum going with Lewis as my teammate.

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“It’s fair to say that I drove below my own ability even. Rather than focusing on my race and my results and getting close to Lewis, I started to overdrive.

“I think it’s just his pace was just a tiny bit quicker consistently. I don’t have any trouble admitting it. He is one of the greatest, if not the greatest driver. I’m glad I went against him.” concluded Kovalainen appreciating his tenure with the seven-times world champion.

Happy birthday to Heikki Kovalainen! Have a great day, @H_Kovalainen! 🥳🎉 pic.twitter.com/vATZqLELRm

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) October 19, 2021