Lewis Hamilton's ex-F1 team-mate to undergo major heart surgery

Heikki Kovalainen has revealed he’s set to undergo major heart surgery due to an ascending aortic aneurysm diagnosis. A former team-mate of Lewis Hamilton’s, the pair raced alongside each other at McLaren for two F1 seasons between 2008 and 2009.

Kovalainen had planned to feature in this year’s Japanese Rally Championship with Rally Team AICELLO, but the Finnish driver was replaced late on by Katsuhiko Taguchi instead. That’s because a medical examination revealed Kovalainen would need to undergo further tests, which ultimately led to the discovery of the enlarged aorta.

“I was diagnosed with ascending aortic aneurysm in a medical check-up recently,” Kovalainen revealed. “I was told not to be able to participate in rallies due to increased risk of aortic rupture.”

The former F1 racer isn’t said to be suffering from any major complications and would be able to go about his day-to-day life as normal. But given the fatal consequences an aortic rupture could lead to, the 42-year-old has decided it will be better to take a step back from racing and brave the heart surgery.

He added: “I have no symptoms and I’m currently feeling good, and we are now making a plan on how to solve this issue. An open-heart surgery is our favourable solution at the moment and we are preparing for that. We hope to get an operation done and start the recovery as soon as possible.”

“My aim is of course to return to the Japanese Rally Championship with Rally Team AICELLO,” Kovalainen said when looking ahead to a potential comeback later down the line. “I was planning to participate in the rallies until the end of January, but after careful consideration with my team of doctors I’ve decided to try and fix this issue instead.”

Kovalainen is a much-loved figure in the motorsport scene, having competed not only in F1 and rally driving, but other racing events as well. All in all, Kovalainen spent 10 years on the F1 circuit, be that as a test driver, or an actual racer himself, with two of those shared as Hamilton’s team-mate at McLaren.

Following F1, Kovalainen moved to Japan so that he could compete in Super GT, where he won the championship with Lexus Team SARD in 2016. Since then Kovalainen has made the switch over to rally racing, while also making his debut in Extreme E last year, driving for former world champion Jenson Button’s racing team, JBXE.