After Formula 1, Heikki Kovalainen, who raced in Japan, has switched to rallying in recent years. Next season, he will drive the rally championship series with Janni Hussi as karter.
Emma Hyuppa,
Joel Sippola
Sportsman Heikki Kovalainen41, has returned to Finland and will compete next season in the rally championship series as a kart driver Janni Hussi.
– Now was the right time to come back to Finland. It’s been planned with my wife for a long time, and now because of work patterns I’m more and more in Finland, Kovalainen tells Urheilu in Helsinki.
The former F1 driver from Kainuu will have a formula champion as his teammate in the Secto Automotive Labs team Kimi Räikkönen 17-year-old nephew, Justus Räikkönen.
Kovalainen, who started his extensive career in karting, drove the Formula 1 series for seven seasons between 2007 and 2013. From 2015 to 2021, he competed in the GT Series in Japan, winning the championship in his final season.
This year, Kovalainen won the Japanese rally championship and participated in his first World Rally Championship competition in Japan.
– The rally has taken over my career at this stage. The track work was put aside after last year and there has been no return. I had the opportunity to rally in Japan for a full season. There, the hunger has grown while eating, and Secto had the opportunity to discuss driving the SM series. It had been my dream, Kovalainen says.
Things moved quickly. Kovalainen asked Janni Huss, whose work, to be his map reader Sami Pajarin on the ride, Kovalainen had followed along impressed. Hussi, who is known as a presenter, refused to be washed at first, but reversed his decision a few days later.
– Janni has a really good command of karting tasks, even though he is inexperienced. We both have things to learn, but we both have a strong desire and enthusiasm to develop. I believe it will go a long way. I don’t have the slightest doubt that the cooperation could work, says Kovalainen.
The challenge is tough, but so is the passion
Kovalainen goes to the SC rally with moderate goals: in the first season we will try, in the second season we will get medals and in the third season we will celebrate the championship. Finnish wide roads are very different from the typical “narrow syherö” in Japan, as Kovalainen describes.
– Rally is such a sport that you can’t just jump into it and drive to the top. The group goes so hard, knows the roads and knows how to make a note on a road like this. It can be quite difficult at the beginning and the challenge is tough, but so is the passion, says Kovalainen.
In the SM rally project, Kovalainen was particularly fascinated by the team’s commitment to environmental issues and the positive atmosphere within the team.
Kovalainen says that he has met very different people during his three-decade motor racing career.
– In the final days of my Formula career, I worked with people you couldn’t really trust. That’s when I decided that I want to collaborate with people I trust and with whom things work. Now we have such a group together, with whom it is nice to go to work.
Kovalainen plans to drive the SM series with the familiar R5 Skoda Fabia, the type he also drove in Japan.
– A familiar car, but not the newest game. We have a newer car on order and maybe one will be available for the summer season. However, that is a suitable car for a driver of my level, says Kovalainen.
Last season, Kovalainen finished tenth in the first World Rally Championship of his career in Japan. In his first season in Finland, he is not looking for the gravel roads of the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship yet.
– There is no intention to drive the Finnish World Rally Championship next summer. Maybe I could participate in the Japanese rally at the end of the season. Let’s now focus on the start of the SM series, says Kovalainen.