McLaren have ended speculation about Heikki Kovalainen's future by confirming he will race for the team alongside Lewis Hamilton in 2009.
The Finn, 26, has collected 28 points so far in his debut season for McLaren but the team believe he can progress.
"He is a brilliant young racing driver," McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said.
"But there's no magic in Formula One and we still need to work with Heikki to extract his full potential."
Kovalainen joined McLaren from Renault for the beginning of the 2007 season with Fernando Alonso moving in the opposite direction.
After a progressive season with Renault, the Finn was expected Still a long way to go - Hamilton ...
Live - French GP qualifying ... to provide a tough, but more amicable, team-mate for Hamilton at McLaren.
However, after 10 races, Kovalainen trails Hamilton by 30 points in the drivers' standings to see his own title chances fade.
A topsy-turvy season has seen the Finn perform well in qualifying, capturing a maiden pole at Silverstone, but struggle to make his grid positions count.
Kovalainen's only podium of the season has come with third place in Malaysia and the Finn has been working with the team's engineers to improve his set-up ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.
But McLaren, who were rumoured to be interested in Williams's Nico Rosberg, have chosen to stick with Kovalainen as they look to build a period of stability at the team after a 2007 season upset by strained team relationships and the McLaren-Ferrari spy row.
Whitmarsh added: "We welcomed Heikki on board at the start of the year.
"He is under contract to McLaren Mercedes and will race for us in the 2009 season."
(BBC)
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