Heikki will win a race this season- Symonds


By Kristien Barker
January 14 2007

According to Renaults technical director Pat Symonds Renaults rookie driver Heikki Kovalinen will win a race this season. The Finn will partner Giancarlo Fisichella this season after being promoted to a race seat Renaults Technical director Pat Symonds believes in a year’s time we will be looking at Kovalinen as a race winner.

"When we're at this stage next year and look back at 2007, I think what we will have seen is that Heikki has had some fantastic races.

"I wouldn't put it past him to win a race this year, even as a rookie, it could happen," said Symonds

Symonds went on to say that he could see the qualities in the driving of Heikki that he had seen in some of the great drivers he had the privilege of working with in the past,

"Over the years I have worked with a lot of good drivers; not just Fernando [Alonso], I worked with Michael [Schumacher], I worked with Ayrton [Senna], I worked with Nelson Piquet, many world champions and very, very fast drivers.

"Over that time I have started to realise some of the less obvious things that make a good driver.

"And I'm really pleased that when I look at Heikki I see so many of them."

Although the Renault technical director does not believe that the Finn will have a faultless season, mistakes will be made as it is after all his first year in the sport,

"We've also looked at some spectacular mistakes and sort of think 'why on earth did he do that?'.

"But it's part of the learning process."



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