Kovalainen eyes long-term Toyota ties

Heikki Kovalainen is hopeful that his deal to race for the Team SARD Lexus squad in Japan's Super GT Championship could lead to a long-term sportscar future with Toyota.

The 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix winner sat out 2014 after missing out on a full-time F1 comeback with Caterham but he will make a full-time racing return sharing a Sard-run Lexus RC-F with 2013 champion Kohei Hirate this year.

While the 33-year-old Finn stressed that he has not spoken to Toyota about any future projects, being involved with a manufacturer was key to his decision to accept the Sard deal.

"It's something I had in my mind for a while, where I want to be and who I want to be with after my Formula 1 career," Kovalainen said. "The number one criteria was to get involved with a car manufacturer and Toyota was always very interesting.

"For Toyota and myself, it [the deal] is just for Super GT and we haven't spoken about anything else, but who knows for the future? Toyota is involved with WEC with a competition car and has a rally program but at the moment I'm focused on Japan. I have to establish myself with Toyota and get some results."

The Finn tested the car two weeks ago and found it easy to adapt to despite a lack of sports car experience.

"I went to Japan and did a three-day test at Suzuka and I got a feeling for the car and the tires," he said. "It's a very nice car to drive and the whole test showed me that it was a very professional championship with many good cars and good teams."

Kovalainen could test for the LMP2 joint venture between SARD and the Morrand LMP2 squad. He admitted that there has been some talk about him assisting with the development of the SARD-badged Judd engine that the entry will use.

Although there are still vacancies in the team's two Morgan LMP2s, Kovalainen does not expect to race in the WEC this year.

"I might do some testing for them as they are developing an engine, but I don't think I will be doing any races," he said. "My target at the moment is Super GT, I will not be involved in the World Endurance Championship."

Although Kovalainen has not raced a sports car on circuits, he did drive a Ferrari 360 Modena during his victorious 2004 Race of Champions bid [pictured]. There, he defeated Michael Schumacher in the final.

Originally on Autosport.com