Heikki Kovalainen To Undergo Life-Saving Open-Heart Surgery

There is unfortunate news coming from Finland involving Heikki Kovalainen, the ex-McLaren, Lotus and Renault Formula 1 driver, who is facing a critical health situation. Kovalainen, aged 42 and now a rally driver, is pausing his motorsport career to undergo a crucial open-heart surgery to address an aortic enlargement.

“I decided to have a thorough physical examination at the end of last season. And they found this,” Kovalainen confirmed, admitting he is currently banned from doing “any hard physical training”.

“It’s a hereditary disease that I can’t do anything about. It’s good that it was discovered now,” the Finn told Iltalehti newspaper.

Kovalainen says he may have to undergo open-heart surgery, during which his heart will be briefly stopped.

“It is such a big operation that the risk of the worst always exists,” he admitted. “However, the aorta has expanded so much that the surgical threshold is exceeded.”

He says it’s “sad” that his racing career has been halted for now, given that he intended to defend his title in Japan “with the new Yaris WRC2 car”.

More important, however, is his health.

“The probabilities are on my side,” Kovalainen said. “However, if it happens that I can’t continue racing despite the operation, then so be it.

“My primary goal is to get back to a normal life.”