Formula One news
Kovalainen determined to bounce back
12 July 2008Heikki Kovalainen is determined to bounce back after he failed to convert a dominant pole at the British Grand Prix into anything more than fifth place.
"In the dry at Silverstone I couldn't believe how good the car felt and just how much I could keep pushing it," Kovalainen said. "It felt better than ever. But the race showed I can still do more to improve - both in terms of my driving style and the way the team works with me. I know I have the speed, I just need to work harder to apply it across the whole race weekend."
"Our car's real strengths are in high-speed corners and under braking," he added. "Hockenheim is more of a technical, medium-speed circuit so I wouldn't expect us to have any particular advantage - but the car does feel very good here. It has a similar downforce level to Magny-Cours, where we weren't really able to show our true potential, so it will be interesting to see where we sit in comparison to our rivals."
McLaren tried a new shark fin engine cover during this week's test at Hockenheim. "The new top body engine cover has been designed to improve aero performance, particularly through high-speed corners - and we feel it had an advantage during the Hockenheim test," Kovalainen added. "But it's still too early to say; maybe Hockenheim is not the best place to try this new wing and we need to see if it is affected by crosswinds - it was quite windy at the Hockenheim test, but we didn't seem to be too affected by the wind. It's definitely encouraging for the future."
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