Formula One news

Kovalainen promises to keep cool

Heikki Kovalainen is the latest in a line of understated Finnish drivers to make it into a top F1 drive, following Thursday's confirmation he will replace Fernando Alonso at Renault. Having spent the past year testing - and not racing - Kovalainen is mindful he will have to keep his cool at the start of his debut F1 season, amid incredibly pressure.

"The expectations are going to be very high, but for me, I will take it calmly and easier at the beginning, of course," said Kovalainen. "The Melbourne race next year is going to be difficult for me but I will try to finish the first race, that's going to be the target, and hopefully score some points and then we can improve from there and like I said, I have all the confidence in the team and I feel that I've already done a good job with the team this year, so the team also knows what I can do and therefore they already look forward to a successful season next year."

When asked whether he'd like Michael Schumacher to stick around another year and have a chance of racing him Kovalainen replied, "Well of course for me, as a rookie next year it would be great to fight with Michael because obviously he's won everything as they've already said. I've actually had a chance one time to fight with him in a charity event in Paris and I would like to have another go!"

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