Formula One news

Kovalainen improvement needed, says Whitmarsh

Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that the on-track performances of Heikki Kovalainen must improve if the Finn is to retain his McLaren drive next year. While the team principal is delighted with the 27-year-old's overall abilities as a worker, the Englishman admits that pace must be upped in order to remain as team-mate to Lewis Hamilton.

Whitmarsh stepped into the role of McLaren team principal following the departure of Ron Dennis

A one-time race winner with McLaren in Hungary last season, Kovalainen has, like his World Champion team-mate, struggled to match the leading pace in 2009 due to an off-colour MP4-24 although Whitmarsh is truthful over the fact that options are open. "Heikki, as a team player, is doing a fantastic job," he said in a McLaren telephone press conference. "By his own evaluation, he hasn't raced as well as he and we would have liked him to this year."

How will Heikki's remaining seven races of 2009 play a part in his Formula One future with the Woking squad? "He's working hard," Whitmarsh continued, "but it's true to say that we haven't confirmed our driver line-up for next year. A lot of us want to see Heikki get some good results this year and that will ensure that he will remain with us - that's certainly our wish and his goal going into Valencia this weekend is to win - and he is capable of winning the race this weekend."

Kovalainen has competed in 28 races for McLaren-Mercedes

The McLaren-Mercedes team has been linked with a number of German drivers for next year due to the part-ownership of the car manufacturer but, with the likes of Nick Heidfeld, Nico Rosberg and Adrian Sutil all possibilities, is the team viewing these options?

"I can confirm that, contrary to some of the speculation, we are not in discussions with any drivers outside this team at the moment," Whitmarsh stressed. "In terms of nationality, some nationalities - from a marketing perspective - are obviously more convenient but I think McLaren continues to have the strategy and policy that we will get the two best drivers that we can in our cars every season and that is what we will continue to do."

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