Kovalainen: Flavio's comments were spot on.

F1 rookie, Heikki Kovalainen has admitted that team boss Flavio Briatore was right to say his debut event with the team was 'rubbish'.

Briatore was extremely critical of the Finn, who had a nightmare weekend in Melbourne and who eventually finished well outside of the points, in tenth place overall.

Kovalainen conceded in his column on BBC Sport Online that he only had himself to blame, especially as he qualified well down the pack, in 13th place, while his Renault team-mate, Giancarlo Fisichella managed sixth spot.

"My team boss Flavio Briatore did not mince his words afterwards, in private or public, but that's completely normal," Kovalainen wrote. "Everyone was disappointed. I wasn't expecting anyone to say, 'Well done', or 'It's part of the learning curve.'

"I understand their frustration. I am more disappointed than anyone, but I'm not going to let my head go down and be sad about it. I have learned enough as a test driver to do a lot better job than I did in Melbourne but unfortunately there were too many mistakes that cost me time.

"I don't think I learned a lot last weekend other than what can go wrong. There is not much to take from last weekend. I finished the grand prix, but that was it."

Despite his obvious disappointment though, Kovalainen can't wait to be able to make amends and as such he is looking forward to the test next week at Sepang. He reckons if he can qualify well in Malaysia then he should be able to finish much higher up.

"We have a test before the next race in Malaysia. We must prepare even more carefully - and especially myself - to make sure I get back to the normal way of driving, and then do the business in Malaysia," he continued.

"In Melbourne we had some problems in free practice on Friday, and hopefully we will get a little bit more time in Malaysia to get into a good weekend straight away and then after that do qualifying without mistakes and clean laps.

"Once I get into the leading group, it should be OK. The race is much easier without a slower car in front of you - it will be easier to keep on a good pace. I can't wait to get to the test and get back in the car."