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How SUPER GT helped heal Kovalainen’s F1 "scars"

After exiting the Formula 1 paddock underappreciated and then narrowly missing out on a next logical step to the DTM, Heikki Kovalainen became an unlikely SUPER GT refugee. But the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix winner went big in Japan, winning the title in 2016 and finding peace with his racing career.

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When the 2022 SUPER GT season gets underway at Okayama in April, the Japanese championship will be without its most recognisable international star of the last two seasons following Heikki Kovalainen's decision to quit the series late last year.

The ex-Renault, McLaren, Lotus and Caterham Formula 1 man's decision brought down the curtain on a stint in Japan spanning seven full seasons, one more than he spent as a full-time grand prix driver, all of which came as part of the SARD Toyota team. Alongside Kohei Hirate, he won the 2016 title and scored a total of five victories in his 54 starts in the series.

Having turned 40 years old in October, Kovalainen most likely could have enjoyed at least a couple more seasons in SUPER GT if he wished, as it's commonplace for drivers to stay involved in the top GT500 class well into their 40s. But a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic making travelling difficult, ebbing motivation and SARD's recent struggles to match the top Toyota squads all played a part in the Finn's choice to walk away.

Even though Kovalainen never really came close to challenging for a second crown after his 2016 success, he maintains that he always enjoyed the tight-knit, family atmosphere of the SARD squad, which had never won a SUPER GT title prior to Kovalainen's arrival in 2015.

He was attracted by the challenge of trying to take a relative underdog team to the top as part of a group of people he could trust – a welcome tonic after three years (between 2010 and 2012) of fighting at the back end of the F1 grid for little reward as part of Tony Fernandes' unlamented team that started life as Lotus and morphed into Caterham.

"[Winning] the championship arrived much sooner than I thought it would, especially after the first season, when I realised that SUPER GT is quite different to F1 and it's quite difficult," recalls Kovalainen, whose final F1 outings came with the Enstone-based team now known as Alpine during its own tenure as Lotus in 2013.

"I also knew that SARD wasn't the number one team within Toyota. Many people told me that TOM'S is the team always winning the races and championships and I needed to go there.

Heikki Kovalainen and Caterham Co-Chairman Tony Fernandes in 2013, his last year in F1 as test driver for the team

Heikki Kovalainen and Caterham Co-Chairman Tony Fernandes in 2013, his last year in F1 as test driver for the team

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

"But I was contacted by SARD first, they invited me to test, and when I met the president, [Shin] Kato-san, and Hideki Noda was the team manager at the time, I thought they were great people. I had some scars after my last few years in F1, the way things went with Caterham – I was promised a race drive in 2014 and I was informed by text message that they were taking a pay driver instead.

"I decided before I came to Japan that whatever I do, I wanted to be involved with people I can trust. When I met the SARD people for the first time, I had a good feeling about them and I felt I could trust them. That was an important part of my decision to join SARD and SUPER GT.

"The first year I signed with Toyota, the contract was all in Japanese and I had to get it translated and go through it. But every other year, they sent me the contract, I just checked the numbers and the dates and I just signed it. You can't do that unless you're 100% comfortable with the people on the other side of the table. I couldn't see myself driving for another team in SUPER GT."

When I tested the SUPER GT car at Suzuka, it felt much more comfortable than the DTM car did at the beginning, so the DTM test definitely helped me to get the seat

 Heikki Kovalainen

Kovalainen very nearly didn't end up in SUPER GT at all following his two grand prix appearances as a stand-in for Kimi Raikkonen, as Enstone's Lotus era began to wind down.

Before flying to Japan, Kovalainen was invited by BMW to take part in a DTM test at the Lausitzring in the summer of 2014 as the Bavarian marque tried out drivers for the following season. It would have been a logical place for him to end up, with Timo Glock, Paul di Resta and Vitaly Petrov all gracing the DTM grid that season after spells in F1. But instead, BMW went with Formula 3 graduate Tom Blomqvist – and Kovalainen was duly informed via email that his "skill level was 'too advanced'" for the drive.

"I don't know if I was too old or what, they never said directly the reason," continues Kovalainen. "It was strange because they contacted me and offered the test. I remember the day didn't start off that well, it took me a while to get my head around the car and the first half of the day I struggled. Maybe they expected me to be on it straight away.

"But with the last couple of sets of new tyres I got my head around it and I got within three tenths of [Marco] Wittmann, who was there as a benchmark, and I did some good long runs. The engineers were impressed with my improvement. But apparently I was 'too advanced!'"

Kovalainen could have gone down the more traditional post-F1 career route of heading to the DTM

Kovalainen could have gone down the more traditional post-F1 career route of heading to the DTM

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

The experience wasn't completely wasted though, as it gave Kovalainen a much better idea of what to expect when he got his first taste of the Lexus RC F SUPER GT challenger.

Prior to that, Kovalainen had been in contact with Toyota about a possible berth in its World Endurance Championship programme, only to be told that he would be expected to serve as test and reserve for a season before being promoted to a race drive. That didn't appeal to Kovalainen, but the discussions meant he was recommended to SARD when the team was on the lookout for another 'gaijin' to replace Audi WEC-bound Oliver Jarvis for 2015.

"When I tested the SUPER GT car at Suzuka, it felt much more comfortable than the DTM car did at the beginning, so the DTM test definitely helped me to get the seat," says Kovalainen. "It was just half a day at Suzuka, because it was a shootout between myself and [recently ousted Toyota LMP1 racer] Nico Lapierre. Kohei [Hirate] did a benchmark time of 1m46.1s, I did a 1m46.2s and Lapierre did a 1m46.7s. I got the drive after that."

The first season in 2015 was a tough baptism of fire for Kovalainen and Hirate, who had just moved back to SARD after a stint at fellow Toyota outfit Cerumo. But things fell into place in 2016, and the pair pulled off an unlikely triumph with a dominant performance in the final double-header at Motegi to beat Nissan drivers Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda.

Sadly for Kovalainen, SARD struggled to get to grips with the Lexus LC500 that was brought in for 2017, and despite occasional wins the best championship finish he would manage in the next five seasons would be fifth in 2019. And by the start of 2021, the team's lack of competitiveness was starting to grate, especially as a major reorganisation of the team under three-time SUPER GT champion Juichi Wakisaka in 2020 was not bearing fruit.

"It was not nice this year to not be competitive enough," admits Kovalainen, who finished the year without a podium finish for the first time since his debut 2015 season. "And with all the stuff you have to do in SUPER GT, it was getting to a point where it was too much, especially at the stage of my life that I'm in. I didn't have the drive anymore to put in the effort that it requires.

"When I decided to quit in the summer, I had already been thinking about it for a while, especially when we had some tough races earlier in the season. I was thinking, 'f***, what am I doing here? Is this really the place I want to be?' After that it was clear. My life will be quite different [in 2022], but I have no regrets and I am comfortable with my decision."

Kovalainen celebrates winning the 2016 SUPER GT title, but things would steadily go downhill afterwards

Kovalainen celebrates winning the 2016 SUPER GT title, but things would steadily go downhill afterwards

Although he has chosen to call time on his SUPER GT career, Kovalainen will still be spending plenty of time in Japan next season as he steps up his commitments in the country's national rally championship. He won the series' JN-2 division last year in a two-wheel drive Toyota GT86, and hopes to make the step up to the top class with a four-wheel drive R5 machine this year – while also targeting an appearance in Japan's round of the World Rally Championship.

On top of that, there's the possibility of finally making a first outing in the Le Mans 24 Hours after a late SUPER GT schedule change last year created a schedule clash and prevented him from driving for the HubAuto Racing Porsche team in the GTE Pro class. But you get the impression that Kovalainen is looking forward to an altogether more relaxed 2022 after 18 months in which he barely left Japan and was mostly apart from wife Catherine due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

And one thing is for certain – Kovalainen won't miss the spotlight. It's not that he ever went looking for publicity, even in his F1 days, but such was his desire to avoid any fuss about leaving SUPER GT that he asked Toyota and SARD to keep his decision to quit the series a secret until after the final race of last year at Fuji Speedway, in which he and Yuichi Nakayama finished a solid fourth.

Perhaps if I'd been more of a sparky personality, I would have stayed longer in F1. But I'm totally fine with that

 Heikki Kovalainen

"I'm sorry to the fans that feel disappointed about not being able to say goodbye, but it was purely my decision," he explains. "It was a more fitting end for me. All these years I have been more like the quiet one on the side, just getting on with my job, not trying to make big headlines.

"People sometimes tell me that I'm underrated or people don't respect my achievements, but it doesn't bother me. I could make more noise myself if I was desperate for attention, but I'm really not. And I'm really happy Toyota and SARD let me stay at the team so many years. They never pushed me to do more or promote more, they were happy for me to be the reliable workhorse who always turns up to every race fit and well and who brings the car home.

"It's more my style, and it was the same in Formula 1. Perhaps if I'd been more of a sparky personality, I would have stayed longer in F1. But I'm totally fine with that. The way it finished in SUPER GT really reflected my style, just a quiet finish, and we had a pretty good result, our joint-best result of the year. It was job done and now everyone moves on."

Kovalainen has enjoyed appearances in the Japanese rally championship, and also has eyes on a Le Mans 24 Hours debut in the future

Kovalainen has enjoyed appearances in the Japanese rally championship, and also has eyes on a Le Mans 24 Hours debut in the future

Photo by: Izumi Hiromoto

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