- 14 Oct 08, 17:39#72357
Ayrton Senna: WDC 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991
McLaren: WCC 1974, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2007
McLaren: WDC 1974, 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2008
From ITV.com:
Heikki Kovalainen admits his results in his debut year at McLaren have fallen short of his expectations – but believes he still has untapped potential to exploit.
The Finn heads into the final two races of the campaign sixth in the drivers’ championship, 34 points adrift of his title-leading team-mate Lewis Hamilton, with just three podium finishes and a fortuitous race victory in Hungary.
And while he has suffered several misfortunes during the course of the year, he concedes he has still been disappointed with the return so far.
“I think the results have been worse than I expected,” he said in an interview with ITV Sport’s Louise Goodman.
“I was expecting to be higher up in the championship and have scored more podiums but in the middle of the season there was a particularly bad patch of about four or five races where I only scored about one point because of various different problems.”
While Kovalainen has proved to be a consistently strong qualifier – only he and Felipe Massa have made the pole position shootout at all 16 rounds – he has generally struggled to match Hamilton over a race distance.
But he feels he has made good progress in this area in recent months and is confident he has the ability to perform even better on Sunday afternoons.
“Otherwise it’s [the season] been okay; our qualifying pace has been very strong and our race pace has improved quite a lot,” he said.
“I think I have learned a lot about how to drive this car better and also how to set it up better.
“I think the potential is strong, which is a positive thing.
“Overall it’s been a positive season and there are still a couple of races to go so I can make it even better.”
Well, there Kovalainen's admirers have it straight from the horse's mouth. He has underperformed this season. If you look at his times in the races, he's on average four or five tenths of a second slower per lap than Hamilton. A very poor showing, I'm afraid. I do, however, agree he has potential, so it is worth giving him more time next season to improve (although I still wouldn't mind giving de la Rosa a drive for the final Grands Prix).
Heikki Kovalainen admits his results in his debut year at McLaren have fallen short of his expectations – but believes he still has untapped potential to exploit.
The Finn heads into the final two races of the campaign sixth in the drivers’ championship, 34 points adrift of his title-leading team-mate Lewis Hamilton, with just three podium finishes and a fortuitous race victory in Hungary.
And while he has suffered several misfortunes during the course of the year, he concedes he has still been disappointed with the return so far.
“I think the results have been worse than I expected,” he said in an interview with ITV Sport’s Louise Goodman.
“I was expecting to be higher up in the championship and have scored more podiums but in the middle of the season there was a particularly bad patch of about four or five races where I only scored about one point because of various different problems.”
While Kovalainen has proved to be a consistently strong qualifier – only he and Felipe Massa have made the pole position shootout at all 16 rounds – he has generally struggled to match Hamilton over a race distance.
But he feels he has made good progress in this area in recent months and is confident he has the ability to perform even better on Sunday afternoons.
“Otherwise it’s [the season] been okay; our qualifying pace has been very strong and our race pace has improved quite a lot,” he said.
“I think I have learned a lot about how to drive this car better and also how to set it up better.
“I think the potential is strong, which is a positive thing.
“Overall it’s been a positive season and there are still a couple of races to go so I can make it even better.”
Well, there Kovalainen's admirers have it straight from the horse's mouth. He has underperformed this season. If you look at his times in the races, he's on average four or five tenths of a second slower per lap than Hamilton. A very poor showing, I'm afraid. I do, however, agree he has potential, so it is worth giving him more time next season to improve (although I still wouldn't mind giving de la Rosa a drive for the final Grands Prix).
Last edited by McLaren Fan on 14 Oct 08, 20:21, edited 1 time in total.
Ayrton Senna: WDC 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991
McLaren: WCC 1974, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2007
McLaren: WDC 1974, 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2008
