Don’t Think, Just Drive
Formula One has always had a bit of a “preferred twin” feel. One driver seems to be backed more by their team than the other. There was Michael Schumacher and his wing man, Rubens Barrichello, Fernando Alonso and his biggest fan, Jeancarlo Fisichella. Naturally there are exceptions like the Gilles Villeneuve and Jody Scheckter partnership back in 1979, oh and the present Red Bull super team, but we’ll ignore all of that for this particular stereo-type.
The current McLaren duo are poster boys for this type of partnership. There’s King Lewis Hamilton and the other one, Heikki Kovalainen. Kovalainen seems to fit perfectly into the McLaren family, but has recently received a warning regarding his position on the team in 2010.
The Finn’s contract with McLaren expires at the end of this year, and team principal Martin Whitmarsh, has made it clear that Kovalainen needs to up his game if he expects another offer.
“Heikki is doing, as a team player, a fantastic job,” said Whitmarsh, “On his own evaluation he has not raced as well as he would have liked, and we would have liked this year.”
It’s finally time for this lesser twin to start performing instead of being second hope. McLaren has denounced all rumours saying that they’ve started looking for a Kovalainen replacement, giving the Finn time to up his game and perhaps taste some champagne. I’m a poet and I didn’t even realise.
McLaren are paying Kovalainen enough to get his car into gear and stick it to everyone, but thinking about it, what would you do as a team principal? Would you let both drivers go, guns blazing and fighting to the bitter end, or would you be more tactical about the whole thing and back the winner?
We all remember the time Barrichello was told to surrender his first place and let Schumacher past because he would use the drivers champ points better, was that the right thing to do? Are partnerships like this unfair for the driver who got the short straw, or rather extremely tactical on the part of the team?
Alonso managed to win his drivers championship with a great deal of help from team mate Fisichella, who would break early around corners, stalling the opposition and other such tricks.
It sounds sneaky, or crafty, or just clever. It’s up to you; personally I like Ferrari and Red Bull’s plan of action. Two good drivers, both after the same thing. So come on Kovalainen, make it interesting for us.
Desiree Schirlinger
Photo Credit: Quickpic / GEPA pictures – Mathias Kniepeiss