Formula 1: Interview With Heikki Kovalainen
May 09, 2008
McLaren
Q: Heikki, good to see you and glad that you have passed the test. Can you give us some idea of what you had to do?
Heikki Kovalainen: It’s basically a test all the drivers have to go through when they start their career in F1. When I started last year in Australia I did the base line test. It is a combination of tests and calculations. Basically they check how your brain and body is working and the reactions. I redid the test and improved the score, so the impact seems to have a good effect.
Q: Have you noticed how you have been getting better since the accident itself?
Heikki Kovalainen: Yes. Obviously the Monday morning after the accident I had a little bit of a headache. But since then it has improved quite rapidly. It was on Thursday when I got out of Spain and on Saturday I started normal training in Finland. I went to a sports institute that is doing work with McLaren and together with our team doctor I went over there and started to prepare for this race. Since then everything has been normal and I am looking forward to hopefully a strong weekend and to getting back in the car and I feel 100 per cent.
Q: What will you say on the current level of safety and the job that the FIA does to ensure you guys are all safe over a grand prix weekend?
Heikki Kovalainen: I think all the parts of the accident – the car, the barrier and then the lift from the car and to the medical centre and then further to the medical centre in the city - that all worked very well. It is not only luck that I came out of the crash. It is really the work that has paid off. I can’t be more than thankful about that. But we should carry on working on improving as much as we can. If there are any other areas we think we can improve then we should go for it.
Q: Heikki in Spain you lost consciousness and had no real recollection of the crashes that you had. Having no recollection, how much does that actually help you get over it, not having the mental image in your mind of exactly how it all played out?
Heikki Kovalainen: I don’t think I lost consciousness at any point. The first people who arrived at the scene reported me being awake and assisting getting myself out of there but I don’t have any idea, I don’t remember that. But after such a hit on the head, I think it’s a bit of a shutdown by the body to protect your brain and your organs. I don’t have any issues with that. It would be good if one day the whole image came back into my head. I don’t think I would have any problem with that, but at the moment all that I can talk about is what I saw on the video.
Q: Heikki, you were awake, but what was your first memory after the accident?
Heikki Kovalainen: I remember being in intensive care in the hospital in the city, a lot of people around me. I was a bit confused what had happened, so I asked my team doctor Mr Hintsa ‘what are we doing here?’ and he explained what happened and then after that, the memory has been normal and I was aware of everything after that. That’s where I got back on track.
Q: Heikki, was that the first black-out of your career and was that the most serious accident that you’ve had?
Heikki Kovalainen: I think it’s yes, I haven’t had a black-out before. I’ve had a couple of serious accidents before but I never knocked myself out like that and therefore it’s got to be the most serious accident so far.
Q: Heikki, the tyres did a good job in terms of deceleration but on the other hand it took quite a while before they dug you out of there. Is that a worry?
Heikki Kovalainen: Yeah, of course, it’s something that we all should look very carefully at and see if there are better compromises but luckily I had no injuries and I was not in a hurry to get out of there, my life was not threatened because of that, so in this case, the tyres did the work very well. But had I injured myself while hitting the barrier, maybe then it was more important to get myself out of there quickly and it would have been a bit marginal. It’s something we should have a look at.
Q: To go back to the safety barrier, would you feel happier if you had a safety barrier which didn’t have bits and pieces flying off; that there was just foam behind a steel wall as is being used in America?
Heikki Kovalainen: I think we probably should look more individually at the most dangerous corners. We can see ourselves which are the most critical places and probably make decisions accordingly and it’s not that straightforward, just adding some kind of wall here and everywhere. It’s not that simple. For myself, at Turn Nine in Barcelona, it worked very well this time and we’ve just got to see if we can do anything better and look at other corners as well.
