Heikki Kovalainen declares that he will be a stronger driver in 2009 and that he has learned a lot from his first year as a McLaren driver.<\/p>\n
Although he is often less fast than his teammate Lewis Hamilton, the Finn won his first race and secured his first pole position in F1 this year.<\/p>\n
“I feel good in this team,” confides Kovalainen. “I had my first pole position, I won a race, and there are a lot of positive points to take away from this year. After the winter, we will have to look back on the 2008 season and improve for the next one.”<\/p>\n
Kovalainen states that driving for McLaren has helped him improve in several areas and hopes to start on a strong footing alongside Hamilton.<\/p>\n
\u00ab I am a better tester than the previous year, I feel more comfortable mentally and physically in the car but also within the team. I am more at ease with driving techniques, I think I have learned to drive the car better. I don’t think I need to focus on any specific point during the off-season training, just continue working as we are by improving each key point. \u00bb.<\/p>\n
Kovalainen is already focused on 2009 with the main goal of qualifying in better positions on the grid.<\/p>\n
\u00ab I would like to start races with better positions on the starting grids, as it matters a lot for the rest of the race. Rather than starting 4th, 5th, or 6th, I would like to be on the 1st row… This year, it was my first with a top-level team, for the second year we need to step up a bit. Someone told me there are rumors saying I’m not happy in my team, but I never confirmed these words. I have no reason to be unhappy, I’m in the best car, I have a lot of potential to fight for victory. \u00bb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heikki Kovalainen declares that he will be a stronger driver in 2009 and that he has learned a lot from his first year as a McLaren driver. Although he is often less fast than his teammate Lewis Hamilton, the Finn won his first race and secured his first pole position in F1 this year. “I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":43426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1749],"tags":[947],"class_list":["post-25607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","category-news","tag-mclaren"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n