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Lewis Hamilton's former F1 teammate at McLaren, Heikki Kovalainen, will undergo open-heart surgery after being diagnosed with an ascending aortic aneurysm.
Kovalainen was about to return to the Japanese Rally Championship in 2024 with Rally Team AICELLO. However, he was replaced by Katsuhiko Taguchi ahead of the opening round of the series.
It was later revealed that Kovalainen was suffering from an ascending aortic aneurysm, which was a bulge in the artery closest to the heart that could rupture, causing severe internal bleeding.
In an official statement by the Rally Team AICELLO, Kovalainen revealed that though he was diagnosed with the condition, he does not have any major symptoms.
"I was diagnosed with ascending aortic aneurysm in a medical check-up recently and I was told not to be able to participate in rallies due to increased risk of aortic rupture," he said. "I have no symptoms and I’m currently feeling good, and we are now making a plan on how to solve this issue," the statement read (via motorsport.com)
Heikki Kovalainen, in a statement released by the team, stated that he would undergo open-heart surgery and hoped that he could recover as quickly as possible.
"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", he said (via Motorsport.com).
Kovalainen notably partnered Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in the 2008 and 2009 F1 seasons. While Hamilton won his maiden world title in 2008, the Finn finished seventh in the drivers' standings. In 2010, the Finn moved to the Lotus Racing F1 team.
Kovalainen has 111 F1 starts to his name and his sole win came at the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix with McLaren-Mercedes.
Heikki Kovalainen believed Lewis Hamilton would never leave Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton's former teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, once believed that the former would never leave Mercedes and would help them bounce back in F1. In an exclusive interview with Mirror Sport back in March 2023, the Finnish former F1 driver said:
"Personally, I don't see that coming - to me, he's committed to Mercedes. I met him in Hungary last year and we had a good chat there. Without going into detail of what was said in a private conversation, the body language and the feel I got from him, I just felt that this is something that he wants to turn around."
He added:
"He [Lewis Hamilton] wants to turn things around for Mercedes and that’s going to tick another box on his resume – to show that it's not that he's only been driving good cars and making the most of the good cars, but that he can actually turn a struggling team around and lead that team."
Hamilton, a seven-time Drivers' World Champion, shocked the F1 fanbase earlier this year when he announced that he would move to Ferrari at the end of the season.
