Not thinking about Melbourne yet - Kovalainen
The young Finnish driver of the ING Renault F1 Team, Heikki Kovalainen, flies to Australia this evening – but he insists his mind is not yet on the challenge awaiting him next weekend in Melbourne as he will make his Grand Prix debut.
"It’s the opposite actually, I am not even thinking about Melbourne too much at the moment. When I arrive in the city on Wednesday, and start talking about the weekend with my engineers, then the work will begin. But I am not the kind of person who gets nervous, I prefer just to stay calm and concentrate on doing my job."
You have completed nearly 5000km of testing with the new R27, concluding last week in Bahrain. What are your impressions so far?"I think we have done a good job this winter. We were a little bit off the pace at the start, but we have worked hard and during the final week in Bahrain, I think we made some good progress with the set-ups. The long run pace has been pretty good all the way through, but we look better on a single lap now too. Ferrari are out in front, but I think we closed the gap to McLaren a bit so perhaps we can fight with them in Melbourne. BMW will be up there too."
It is an old racing cliché that the first person a driver has to beat is his team-mate. How is your working relationship with Giancarlo?"We get on really well, and work hard for the team. We are both out there to win, and both trying to beat the other. But Giancarlo is a very strong team-mate. I think some people are under-estimating him at the start of this season, but he is a very competitive driver – and a good guy. For me, it will be a tough challenge to try and be more consistent than him over the entire season."
Have you made any plans yet about how you will approach your first race?"I will learn more about our plans when I have seen the engineers out in Australia, but from a personal point of view, the plan is pretty simple. As soon as the lights go out on Sunday, I will be going flat out on every lap – and waiting for the team to call me on the radio, or into the pits for my stops. The most important thing is to push to the limit, to race aggressively – and to make it to the finish."
With just one week to go between now and the first race, what are your plans over the coming seven days?"This week, I have spent a few days in northern Finland, relaxing doing some winter sports, plus a bit of promotional work. I am flying to Australia this evening, for a training camp with Giancarlo and the test drivers this weekend. Then I get to Melbourne on Wednesday evening, when my programme will start with a circuit walk with my engineers. It’s pretty non-stop at the moment!"
Source Renaultf1
