Mutate Now

Heikki Kovalainen showed the world his multi-tasking skills when he chose not to drive his flaming F1 Lotus into the pit lane (and amid barrels of fuel). Instead, he found a safe stretch of track to pull over, as much out of the way of traffic as possible, and borrowed a fire extinguisher from the Williams Fire Crew to squelch the fire himself.

At first, it looked like an insane decision to continue racing, as the chequered flag was only a few laps away. But speaking to the media later, he said it was a conscious decision based on how crazy it would be to drive a flaming engine into the pits. Here’s what the car looked like after £130-150k worth of damage, which Lotus’ F1 technical chief Mike Gascoyne describes as mostly stuff they were going to replace at the end of the season anyway (love that attitude!) -

And no one could have looked more calm & cool than Kovalainen did when he stepped out of the car, reached for a fire extinguisher thru the fence and proceeded to blast the flames. He never ran, flailed his arms or looked at all frantic during the whole incident. This coolness and level-headed thinking boosted his popularity immensely in my book. Whoever called Kovalainen and Lotus a “stable option” hit the nail on the head. I’ll def be keeping my eye on this guy for the rest of this season and can’t wait to see him drive the new and improved Lotuses next season (which will feature Red Bull gear box and hydraulics next season).