ZitatKimi Raikkonen says ruling out title would be 'stupid' By Jonathan Noble
Kimi Raikkonen says Lotus would be 'stupid' not to believe it is knuckling down for a world championship fight this year.
The Finn is just ten points adrift of points leader Sebastian Vettel after the first four races of the year, and its car has proved to be a step forward on last year's challenger.
Although there is still a view that Red Bull has the out-and-out fastest car, Raikkonen says there is absolutely no reason for Lotus not to set its sights on glory at the end of the campaign.
"It would be stupid to say we are not going to fight for the championship," he explained.
"The only reason why we are here is to try to win championships and races. Obviously we want to fight for it, but you only have to have a couple of bad races and you might be out of it completely.
"We'll try to make the maximum out of every weekend and in the long run that's key to the championship."
Raikkonen said that Lotus was not concerned about any specific element of its package - with qualifying the most notable area it can do better - and was just focusing on trying to improve in all areas.
"We try to improve everything," he said. "If we improve the car, we'll automatically improve our qualifying. It all goes hand in hand.
"There's no magic where you suddenly do one thing and you're faster in qualifying. If we make the car faster we improve our pace in all conditions.
"You always want to do better. We still have some things that need looking after, and especially in Malaysia [where it rained] we had some issues that could have been better.
"Right now we've put ourselves in a pretty good position so let's see if we can keep it going and improve."
ZitatRaikkonen reveals artistic talents 10 May 2013
Kimi Raikkonen proved that driving is not his only talent on Thursday, when he tried his hand at spray painting as part of a Lotus team sponsor event in Barcelona. True, Raikkonen’s work may not yet make the Tate Modern, but for an amateur his skills were surprisingly impressive.
As part of the inaugural ‘burn yard live’, the Finn helped to ‘re-livery’ a Lotus race car under the guidance of world-renowned street artist, M-City. It was the first of a series of such workshops designed to bring together leading innovators from the worlds of youth art, music and sport.
“It looks cool,” proclaimed Raikkonen of his work. “And it fits perfectly with the team’s philosophy of being that extra bit creative. Would I like to race a car designed like this? To be honest, the livery or the colour is the least of my concerns. It has to be fast - that is all that matters.”
The location for Raikkonen’s master class was the regenerated Astilleros shipyards on the shores of Barcelona’s Mediterranean coast. But his artistic education will not stop there - future burn yard live events are planned for locations including Hungary, Korea and Brazil, with the former champion getting a lesson in a new field at each.
ZitatRaikkonen reveals artistic talents 10 May 2013
Kimi Raikkonen proved that driving is not his only talent on Thursday, when he tried his hand at spray painting as part of a Lotus team sponsor event in Barcelona. True, Raikkonen’s work may not yet make the Tate Modern, but for an amateur his skills were surprisingly impressive.
As part of the inaugural ‘burn yard live’, the Finn helped to ‘re-livery’ a Lotus race car under the guidance of world-renowned street artist, M-City. It was the first of a series of such workshops designed to bring together leading innovators from the worlds of youth art, music and sport.
“It looks cool,” proclaimed Raikkonen of his work. “And it fits perfectly with the team’s philosophy of being that extra bit creative. Would I like to race a car designed like this? To be honest, the livery or the colour is the least of my concerns. It has to be fast - that is all that matters.”
The location for Raikkonen’s master class was the regenerated Astilleros shipyards on the shores of Barcelona’s Mediterranean coast. But his artistic education will not stop there - future burn yard live events are planned for locations including Hungary, Korea and Brazil, with the former champion getting a lesson in a new field at each.
ZitatKimi Raikkonen says ruling out title would be 'stupid' By Jonathan Noble
Kimi Raikkonen says Lotus would be 'stupid' not to believe it is knuckling down for a world championship fight this year.
The Finn is just ten points adrift of points leader Sebastian Vettel after the first four races of the year, and its car has proved to be a step forward on last year's challenger.
Although there is still a view that Red Bull has the out-and-out fastest car, Raikkonen says there is absolutely no reason for Lotus not to set its sights on glory at the end of the campaign.
"It would be stupid to say we are not going to fight for the championship," he explained.
"The only reason why we are here is to try to win championships and races. Obviously we want to fight for it, but you only have to have a couple of bad races and you might be out of it completely.
"We'll try to make the maximum out of every weekend and in the long run that's key to the championship."
Raikkonen said that Lotus was not concerned about any specific element of its package - with qualifying the most notable area it can do better - and was just focusing on trying to improve in all areas.
"We try to improve everything," he said. "If we improve the car, we'll automatically improve our qualifying. It all goes hand in hand.
"There's no magic where you suddenly do one thing and you're faster in qualifying. If we make the car faster we improve our pace in all conditions.
"You always want to do better. We still have some things that need looking after, and especially in Malaysia [where it rained] we had some issues that could have been better.
"Right now we've put ourselves in a pretty good position so let's see if we can keep it going and improve."
ZitatRaikkonen reveals artistic talents 10 May 2013
Kimi Raikkonen proved that driving is not his only talent on Thursday, when he tried his hand at spray painting as part of a Lotus team sponsor event in Barcelona. True, Raikkonen’s work may not yet make the Tate Modern, but for an amateur his skills were surprisingly impressive.
As part of the inaugural ‘burn yard live’, the Finn helped to ‘re-livery’ a Lotus race car under the guidance of world-renowned street artist, M-City. It was the first of a series of such workshops designed to bring together leading innovators from the worlds of youth art, music and sport.
“It looks cool,” proclaimed Raikkonen of his work. “And it fits perfectly with the team’s philosophy of being that extra bit creative. Would I like to race a car designed like this? To be honest, the livery or the colour is the least of my concerns. It has to be fast - that is all that matters.”
The location for Raikkonen’s master class was the regenerated Astilleros shipyards on the shores of Barcelona’s Mediterranean coast. But his artistic education will not stop there - future burn yard live events are planned for locations including Hungary, Korea and Brazil, with the former champion getting a lesson in a new field at each.
Comment from Anthony Davidson yesterday on Sky. (Because Kimi was without a problem, that JA go).
"Kimi is the epitome of 'cool' so I doubt he'd be fazed by even the departure of the entire Enstone outfit - as long as they leave behind a car he can race in!" " title="ha" />
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Fri May 10, 2013 4:17 am
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