Kovalainen is confirmed at McLaren

Heikki Kovalainen will be Lewis Hamilton’s teammate at McLaren-Mercedes next season, the British team has confirmed.

The Finnish driver takes the place of Fernando Alonso, who has returned to Renault.

He made his Grand Prix debut in 2007 with the French team and was therefore thanked at the beginning of the week. Indeed, it will be Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr who will defend Renault team’s chances of victory in 2008.

A successful year according to professionals, even though the start of the season proved relatively difficult.

We knew that Kovalainen wanted to stay in F1, and in recent days the rumors suggested he might be either with McLaren or Toyota.

Speculations about the driver’s arrival within the British team have gained momentum this morning. And for good reason, McLaren F1’s CEO Martin Whitmarsh was clear that the team was seriously considering him.

« I think that Heikki is a very interesting driver, » stated Whitmarsh in the columns of the Guardian.

Kovalainen was competing for this seat with Pedro de la Rosa. The latter still hoped to move up the ranks by becoming a race driver while he is a test driver.

The Spaniard told the newspaper El Pais on Thursday that he expected a decision from his team within a week. Unfortunately for him, he learned the news quite quickly.