Interview with Heikki Kovalainen

McLaren.com

Take that or Nightwish?
Definitely Nightwish. (Heikki laughs)

Pasta or Pizza?
Pasta because it is healthy.

Thick crust or thin?
Thin.

Blonde or Brunette?
Which is Catherine? Brunette maybe? Yes Brunette.

Tall or short?
Medium.

Died hair or Natural?
Died hair, I have to say otherwise Catherine (Heikki’s girlfriend) will kill me, oh wait Catherine is natural now! So natural.

Christmas or birthdays?
Birthdays, I don’t find Christmas that fun, birthdays you have all your friends around for parties and at Christmas all your friends are with their families. It is still nice to spend time with your family of course.

Designer or High street?
High street, mix of both them, because I have some pretty cool Hugo Boss clothes to wear.

Corners or straights?
Corners, straights are boring.

Phone or Laptop?
Laptop.

If you could change one part of your body what would it be?
I would change my legs, they are too small, and they are out of proportion. Catherine calls them chicken legs.

If you were a pizza topping what would you be? And why?
I would be a pineapple; it’s a sweet thing in the middle of a rough outside.

What is the worst present you have ever received?
I’m not sure. I don’t get a lot of presents.

If you could be an animal what would it be?
It would be some kind of big strong animal, like a cheetah, jaguar or lion. Fast enough to run away from the bigger animals but strong enough to fight most of the other animals off.

What is your most embarrassing moment?
In GP2 racing, when I crashed into the pit wall, the tires were icy cold and I went straight out of the pit into the wall. I thought yeah yeah I know what to do. Bang straight into the pitwall. The guys were laughing.

What is your best moment?
On track winning the Hungarian grand prix, off track when I met Catherine. Actually she came over to me but I introduced myself. Then she started bombing me with text messages!

You are getting on a bit now, getting closer to 30. Do you feel old?
Yeah I do actually, now that I am 27 I feel so old. Soon it will be 30 then it will be 40! I don’t feel that it is limiting anything I do but I still feel old.

What’s the coolest thing you own?
My house is pretty cool, the one that we just finished building in Geneva. I have never owned a car; I have a company car from Norbert. I want to own a Mercedes SL65 limited black.

What is the one thing you could not live without?
My friends, family, and my girlfriend. If it was a materialistic thing, I couldn’t live without my laptop and my Blackberry storm.

What is your favourite joke?
(Unfortunately, Heikki’s joke is not quite clean enough for the website. We asked if he had any others and the answer was no the other one is much worse.)

Do you consider yourself a funny person?
No not really, I don’t consider myself funny, I consider myself relaxed and open.

What is your middle name? Do you like it?
Johannes. I don’t mind it’s different, it’s quite neutral. In Finland it’s not too popular yet it is not too rare. My dad is a Johannes too.

If you could be a superhero who would you be?
I would be superman, because he can fly and be quick.

If you had one super power what would it be?
Just to fly, just like that and I would be in Finland.

When you race your remote control cars with you and lewis, who wins?
We have only raced once, and Lewis did win. But I must point out that it was a team competition. Lewis and Nic, and me and my friend. My partner was the only driver who went in to opposite direction around the track. In lap times it is quite even between Lewis and I, we would have to see.

When you fly remote control planes, who is better?
I am much better, I haven’t shunted my plane is a long time, knock on wood. I can land, take off and I do little tricks. Normally I take off for Lewis actually, then he takes control, then he loses it and crashes the plane. He has gone through three planes now and on his fourth which he doesn’t fly as much now. His latest crash was when his battery died during the flight and it just kept on doing circles until it crashed. I have been doing it for about 3 years now and Lewis has done it much less.

I heard you play a lot of golf with Petri your trainer, who normally wins?
I win, Petri is rubbish. My golf is not good, his was better at the beginning. He has played for 5 years and I have only played for 5 months. Sometimes he beats me on the fairway but overall I beat him every time. I got a hole in one but it was lucky, it was the fourteenth hole in Geneva. It was a par 3 and a 145m shot. It was quite a big green and there was a banana shaped bunker before the green. I hit a 6 iron trying to hit longer than the hole and get two putts back to it. The hit wasn’t very long and it bounced twice on the green and click in the hole! I think it was all luck. It was only about 2 months after I started playing.

Do you have your own twitter page?
No I don’t, however I do tweet on the team’s TheFifthDriver page.

What is your ideal night?
To invite some friends around, have a nice dinner and play video games. I used to cook for the first 4 years of mine and Catherine’s relationship; I figure it’s her stint now that we are on the 7th year. The best thing I can cook is Chinese chicken, I do it from scratch. I did it for ITV and they are still alive! Then maybe play some video games while the girls can do what the girls want to do. Catherine isn’t very keen on the computer games. Then maybe a movie, that would be perfect.

What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you at a Grand Prix Weekend?
It was funny when Kimi got his hands died blue but my mechanics haven’t done anything to me yet. It was funny when I was at a test in Spain. There is a picture as I am coming out of the garage in my F1 car and Catherine is just reading a book with her legs crossed. I drive straight past her. At the time I didn’t realise afterwards what she was doing, she didn’t realise I just drove past her at 300k.