When asked his opinion of rookie Heikki Kovalainen's debut performance for his team, Renault boss Flavio Briatore had no hesitation in using the catchphrase of comedian Eric Morecambe; "rubbish" said the Italian.

It has not been the best of weekend's for the highly-rated Finn, a series of mistakes and overall lack of pace - coupled with a bravura Grand Prix debut for fellow rookie Lewis Hamilton - left Briatore far from impressed.

"I think everybody was watching on TV," he told Reuters. "I don't need to protect anybody. It was rubbish!

"What can I say?" he continued, "If I tell you it was good, I am a complete idiot. It was no good.

"When you start like that, you don't have any problem in getting better," he added. "You have plenty of space to improve."

The Finn, who was sidelined for much of the first day of the Grand Prix weekend as result of a fuel pressure problem, admitted that his qualifying performance had been poor, having failed to make it past the second phase.

"The car was fine and the balance was good," he admitted, "but I just wasn't able to get the maximum from it on a single lap. My times were a little bit off in every sector.

"Obviously, this performance is not good enough," he added, "and I will need to race aggressively to get a points finish."

However, following today's race, when he finished tenth, posting a best lap almost a second slower than his teammate, the Finn was the first to admit that it had not been a great performance.

"This may have been my grand prix debut but, to be honest, there is very little to remember from it and lots to forget," he said. "I didn't have a great race. There were too many mistakes and my performance just wasn't controlled enough. My feeling right now is that the next race cannot get a lot worse."

Though quiet and unassuming, many believe that Kovalainen is one of the sport's real stars of the future. However, it is vital that he puts the misery of Melbourne behind him, and uses the forthcoming race at Sepang to show what he can really do. Luckily he is at a team that will close ranks and offer its support, for this is a vital time in the youngster's career, and the last thing he needs is to have his confidence undermined and to lose faith in himself.

"It was not Heikki today," said Briatore, "it was not him. We know Heikki and he was testing with us and always super-quick. Today I don't know what happened.

"We know the guy is good," added the Italian. "Because his performance was so bad, it was not him. Maybe it was his brother. We will try to get the real Heikki for the next race."