Heikki Kovalainen will partner Lewis Hamilton in next year's Formula One World Championship after joining McLaren from Renault.

The 26-year-old Finn replaces two-time world champion Fernando Alonso in the team after the Spaniard left to take Kovalainen's seat at Renault.

McLaren also confirmed that Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa - who had been in contention for the race seat - will remain as chief test driver, while Britain's Gary Paffett will also continue in a testing role with the team.

We had a number of options open to us and as always we want to make sure that we have the most competitive driver line-up and I think that Lewis and Heikki will be a formidable combination, said the team's Chief Operations Officer Martin Whitmarsh.

Both enjoyed great rookie seasons in 2007 and share a genuine passion for winning and being the best. Heikki made a strong impression and Lewis' performance so far has been outstanding and speaks for itself.

"I am confident that they will push each other on track and work well together off track. In addition with Pedro remaining our primary test driver alongside Gary, we really have a strong package and look forward to 2008.

Kovalainen, who made his name by winning the 2004 Nissan World Series and running Nico Rosberg hard in the race for the inaugural GP2 title a year later, made his Formula One debut in Australia earlier this year.

After an initial panning from his Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, his pace picked up, with his first point coming next time out in Malaysia and his first podium coming in Japan after he superbly fended off world champion-elect Kimi Raikkonen in atrocious weather conditions.

His eventual seventh place in the world championship saw him ahead of his vastly more experienced team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella in the points and brought him into contention for a McLaren seat after Alonso's relationship with team boss Ron Dennis soured mid-season.

Kovalainen though, is not worried about the same thing happening to him, and is targeting the world title in his first season with the team.

"It's not for me to judge what went wrong with Fernando and the team and I am really not interested," he said. All I can say is how I feel about my opportunity and I am really excited and happy.

"Any driver has to enter into a race and a World Championship believing he can win it so of course I do."

Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport