Kovalainen "on same wavelength" with team-mate Hamilton

Unlike the friction which developed between Fernando Alonso and Hamilton in the team last year, the Finnish driver said he thought he and the Briton could be friends.

 "We will not have any problems together. Of course this is off track. On track he wants to beat me and I want to beat him - badly! But this is normal," he said in an interview with Formula One's official internet website (www.formula1.com) published Tuesday.

 "I think we can be friends and it can be more like a personal relationship. I don't know him so well yet - I haven't been his best buddy and, contrary to what people obviously believe, we never raced against each other in GP2.

 "From what I've experienced in the short time with the team I have seen he's got a great sense of humour. I would say that we are on the same wavelength."

   Kovalainen, 26, joins the team from Renault, while Spanish two-time world champion Alonso has switched to Renault to partner Nelson Piquet Jr.

 Hamilton, who was runner-up to Raikkonen last year in his maiden F1 season, said at the presentation of the team's new car Monday that he did not expect any preferential treatment and that the team would - as always - give the drivers equal opportunity.

 "Me and Heikki, we have known each other for a while and our friendship has grown over the years and I find it easy to get on with him," Hamilton said.

 Kovalainen meanwhile follows in the footsteps at McLaren of countrymen Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen and Raikkonen. Hakkinen was the last McLaren Formula One champion when he won his second title in 1999.

 Kovalainen said the Finnish "mentality of staying cool even if the pot is boiling over" appeared to fit the team as well as Formula One.

 "And be assured that it is fantastic for me to follow my successful kinsmen. It will take some time as I am the new kid on the block but you can be sure that I will try and do anything to follow in their footsteps," he said.

 Kovalainen is expected to test the new MP4-23 McLaren-Mercedes in Jerez, Spain on Wednesday.

 He said he was keen to improve his start to the season which begins in Melbourne, Australia on March 16.

 "I don't want something like the poor beginning in 2007. Even if the car was not so good then, I made too many mistakes. I never want to go through this again, so I am focusing totally to be ready for my first race. I simply want to be competitive," he said.

 Kovalainen said he had been keeping fit "doing all those things that Finns do in the winter - cross-country skiing, jogging, sauna - out into the snow - back into the sauna. But just a little more intensively than the average Finn."