Heikki Kovalainen has signed a deal with IMG Worldwide, the global sports, fashion and media company. This will now look after his commercial interests, including contractual negotiation, partnerships, legal services, PR and marketing. He will be joined at races by IMG’s Martin Anayi, who also manages the interests Sir Jackie Stewart.
The move strengthens IMG’s top level driver management, alongside US star Danica Patrick.
“We are proud of our long history in talent management and our legacy in elite motorsport. We believe that signing Heikki shows our commitment to strengthening our IMG Motorsport management business. We welcome Heikki to the IMG family and look forward to a long and successful partnership,” said Robert Armstrong, IMG’s Senior Vice President and Global Head of Motorsports, himself a former F1 commercial director of Jaguar Racing.
Hi Joe, do you think that Heikki might be a runner for Massas seat in the future? He seems to be getting quite a lot or recognition at his job in Caterham and has the experience of two big teams as well. We normally dont talk about him when thinking about the second Ferraris seat, but could be a good option.
Will be hoping to do better than he did at McLaren, perhaps that move was a little too soon for him, and you would imagine that McLaren weren’t expecting to part with Alonso after one year.
The Danica Patrick to F1 talk seems to have disappeared.
Any thoughts, Joe?
She is probably not good enough for F1 (she did not show well on road courses in IndyCar) and is headed for NASCAR, where she will do fine.
Who was his manager until now? Does this mean that he has left Flavio’s company? Or was he banned as a manager when he was excluded from being in F1?
Kovalainen did his own managering after Flavio was excluded. Also Kovalainen’s girlfriend spend much time managering. He did sign with IMG so that he has more time to the “actual job”.
Why would Heiki sign with them at this time? Is it time for him to get a new contract? Is he looking elsewhere?
I believe his contract ends at the end of this year.
Smart move on his part. IMG have the experience, and key people, plus been around for a long time. Julian Jakobi worked for them, plus Senna joined them, and Jakobi left and managed Senna personally and I believe still does a fair amount for his Trust. It does raise Kovalainen profile, when some key seats will be coming up in the next 2 years at major teams.
Perfect timing for Heikki. Need someone not so close to the Team to get a more lucrative deal and to shop around. Him and his GF are too attached to to Team in order to do a sensible job.