Diversity is the main feature of the car in the car that allows millions of admirers to the screens of TVs and monitors, as well as to magazine pages. Body, configuration, speed characteristics, colors — there are so many of them that you will not imagine. But there is a small and cozy corner in this vast world, in which all the cars look almost the same and travel almost at one speed. Nevertheless, this corner has so many fans that in external uniformity everyone finds differences. Speech, clear, about formula-1 races. The sponsor of these competitions, the Exxonmobil Concern arranged in Helsinki Auto-Evening with one of the most promising pilots of the Royal Races-Finn Hayika Kovalainen. In a wide variety of journalists, one could notice representatives of Ukrainian Autoevo.
Kovalainen star ascended the formulas not so long ago, but already managed to shine, indicating to the fans the path to autographs. Finn’s career began, as often happens, with the picture, which Haikki was engaged from 1991 to 2000, winning the three championships of Finland. In 2001, he debuted in Formula Renault in England and became the fourth in the final standings, after which he moved to Formula 3 in 2002.
There he immediately took third place and was recognized as the best beginner of the year. The next season, the racer spent in the world series Nissan, and already in 2004 issued the championship and received the right to lead the test for the Renault team. Then he got to the GP2, debuted in the Arden International team and took second place in the championship, losing to Niko Rosberg. In 2006, Renault rolled 25 thousand kilometers as a test pilot. A year later, Fernando Alonso replaced two -time world champion in Renault, and at the end of the season ahead of the experienced partner Dzhancarlo Physicelle. A personal meeting with Renault Flavio Briator — after a terrible debut in Melbourne dates back to that period of time. Then the 25-year-old Finn said this: «I heard little good addressed to me». Now, to our question about staying in Renault, Kovalainen answered this: “I warmly recall cooperation with Renault. This is a powerful team with great capabilities. Personally, I gathered a lot from the point of view of experience from that season. I then won the only podium for the team, in Japan. But when I was offered to go to McLaren, I could not refuse.
Last season, Kovalainen replaced Alonso, this time in Vodafone McLaren Mercedes — the Spaniard returned to the French stable. In the final table, the Finnish pilot scored 51 points — this is the seventh result. Khikki’s colleague — Lewis Hamilton — was the first with 94 points. That is, next year, Kovalainen will have to go in the same team with the current champion, and this is always not easy.
— To get ahead of my partner, I need to be quick and not be mistaken. Seventh place at the end of the championship is not the best result for the pilot managing such a car as McLaren. In 2007, I achieved the same result, although I was driving not such a fast car. The next season I am going to show good results. By the way, I want readers of Ukrainian Autoevo to wish me good luck, and for my part I wish them a large number of interesting stories about the formula on the pages of the publication.