McLaren seek more from Kovalainen

Martin Whitmarsh has revealed McLaren are still working with Heikki Kovalainen “to extract his full potential”.

Kovalainen has endured his fair share of problems this season but has still been in a position to improve on a record that has seen him finish on the podium just once from the 10 grands prix so far.

McLaren F1 CEO Whitmarsh is adamant Kovalainen, who is currently 30 points behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ standings, is “a brilliant young racing driver”.

Whitmarsh knows there is more to come from the Finn, with the team doing all they can to help him fulfil his rich promise.

“His pass of Robert Kubica at Hockenheim [at the German Grand Prix] reminded anybody who needed reminding that he has all the speed and skill to be battling at the front,” said Whitmarsh.

“But there’s no magic in Formula One and we still need to work with Heikki to extract his full potential.

“At Hockenheim he didn’t get the best out of himself or the package and we need to work on how we fine-tune the car’s set-up and how Heikki is involved in that process.

“He was at the McLaren Technology Centre last week to carry out his pre-race programme.

“He is working hard with his engineers to find a set-up that allows him to maintain his speed throughout a race without suffering from some of the rear-end nervousness he has encountered recently.”

The tight, twisty nature of the Hungaroring circuit will hardly do Kovalainen any favours if he has recently been struggling with the rear of his car.

Whitmarsh is convinced the team will again be strong as they look to maintain their form which has resulted in Hamilton winning the last two races in Britain and Germany.

“The two circuits on the calendar that resemble the characteristics of the Hungaroring are Montreal and Monte Carlo,” added Whitmarsh.

“The reality is that we were reasonably competitive at both those circuits.

“While it has been true to say one of the key strengths of our car is its pace in high-speed corners, we’ve done a lot of work to the package to strengthen its weak spots.

“At Silverstone we were comfortable with our pace through the last sector, and at Hockenheim, we were comfortably quickest through the stadium section of the track, which is tight and reliant on good mechanical grip.

“We won in Hungary last season and travel to Budapest confident that we have strengthened the weaknesses of our package.

“Nonetheless, we are fully prepared for a battle with our rivals, whom we can never under-estimate.”