Heikki staying with McLaren

Kovalainen: Potential

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McLaren Mercedes have announced that Heikki Kovalainen will remain with them for the 2009 Formula One season.

The Finn, who joined the team at the start of the season, will therefore continue to partner Lewis Hamilton as McLaren look to forge a stable driver line-up.

McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh said: "We welcomed Heikki onboard at the start of the year.

"He is under contract to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and will race for us in the 2009 season."

McLaren's decision to retain Kovalainen comes in the middle of a season which has seen him largely overshadowed by Hamilton.

There has been the occasional flash of promise, with Kovalainen taking his first F1 pole position at the British Grand Prix earlier this month.

However, heading into Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton holds a four-point lead in the Drivers' Championship while Kovalainen lies in sixth place, a full 30 points behind.

Whitmarsh has nevertheless hailed the 26-year-old as "a brilliant young racing driver" and revealed that the team are doing all they can to help him fulfil his potential.

"His pass of Robert Kubica at Hockenheim [at the German Grand Prix] reminded anybody who needed reminding that he has all the speed and skill to be battling at the front," Whitmarsh said.

"But there's no magic in Formula One and we still need to work with Heikki to extract his full potential.

"At Hockenheim he didn't get the best out of himself or the package and we need to work on how we fine-tune the car's set-up and how Heikki is involved in that process.

"He is working hard with his engineers to find a set-up that allows him to maintain his speed throughout a race without suffering from some of the rear-end nervousness he has encountered recently."

Struggling

After taking pole at Silverstone, Kovalainen tailed off to finish fifth in the race after a combination of his driving style and the car's set-up left him struggling with its rear tyres.

Such a problem could potentially reappear at the Hungaroring this weekend - a combination of slow corners plus a reasonably low amount of grip at the track factors that could conspire against Kovalainen.

But Whitmarsh is convinced the team will again be strong as they look to maintain their form which has resulted in Hamilton winning the last two races in Britain and Germany.

"The two circuits on the calendar that resemble the characteristics of the Hungaroring are Montreal and Monte Carlo," he added.

"The reality is that we were reasonably competitive at both those circuits.

"While it has been true to say one of the key strengths of our car is its pace in high-speed corners, we've done a lot of work to the package to strengthen its weak spots.

"At Silverstone we were comfortable with our pace through the last sector, and at Hockenheim, we were comfortably quickest through the stadium section of the track, which is tight and reliant on good mechanical grip.

"We won in Hungary last season and travel to Budapest confident that we have strengthened the weaknesses of our package.

"Nonetheless, we are fully prepared for a battle with our rivals, whom we can never under-estimate."