quoteClassic Kimi at Brazil press conference Kimi's press conference on Thursday
Scuderia Ferrari Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen was on good form at the Brazilian Grand Prix press conference and was no doubt thinking of a million places he would rather be.
The Finn was firstly asked about his memories of Brazil having won the World Championship at Interlagos 10 years ago, but Raikkonen did not want to make a “big story” of it.
Q: 10 years on from that dramatic day when you won the World Championship here in Brazil. Can you share some special memories from that day?
A: It was a long time ago. Obviously it was a great day but it wasn’t just about that it was about the whole season. There were some great moments, some not very nice moments but in the end it worked out ok. I’ve not really thought about it too much for a while as it doesn’t really change my life today, thinking about it, so I try not to make a big story out of it.
Then Raikkonen opened with the following line when asked about the retirement of his former team-mate Felipe Massa…
Q: Kimi, Massa is retiring, you were his team-mate, what can you say about him?
A: “He’s retiring again…so let’s see if it actually happens or if we see him at the first race next year.”
Raikkonen then finished off with a blunt-as-ever assessment when asked his season as a whole…
Q: Kimi, what is the summary of your season?
A: “I think it is where we are in the championship and it is how good or bad we have been.”
quoteRaikkonen: 'Ferrari has come a long way in a year'
Despite its disastrous Asian spell which terminated Ferrari's title hopes, Kimi Raikkonen hails his team for the progress it has achieved in the past twelve months.
The Scuderia undoubtedly gave Mercedes a run for its money in the first part of the season, with Sebastian Vettel winning four races and leading the drivers' championship.
It all fell apart after the European season however, but Raikkonen is looking at the glass as half full, underlining the Italian outfit's unquestionable progress this year.
"Obviously I want to be fighting at the front every weekend and to be able to fight for the championship next year," Raikkonen said.
"We started this year pretty badly, we were not where we should have been, personally, on my side, I was not very happy with the set-up and it took quite a long time to figure it out. Since then it has been better, but we’ve also had too many DNF for different reasons.
"As a team we’ve come a long way from year to year, even from last year we’ve done a good step to get where we want. What we want is for Ferrari to win both championships, but I think we have the right tools to do it.
"This year we need tidy up things and not make mistakes and then we should be OK. It’s the small things, here and there, that have played a big part this year.
"In the end we have a great car, great tools, now there are two races to go and we’ll try to make the most out of them, doing the same work we’ve been doing in the last few races and then, next year, we start from zero next year and we move forward."
The 2007 world champion insisted Ferrari will carry into 2018 all he learned from its mistakes this year.
"We have to learn from some of the things that didn’t work this year and we’re working to make things better next year. We start from zero next year but it depends on so many things over the winter.
"In testing we’ll get an idea of where we are and then in the first races we’ll see. We obviously aim to do better, because as a team we want to fight for the championship.
"It was better this year, but it can always be better."
quoteBrazilian Grand Prix - Making the best of a dry Friday
Seb and Kimi just under the 50-lap mark
Interlagos – Both practice sessions at the Autodromo Carlos Pace turned out to be quite uneventful, as despite the ever-present threat of rain, drivers only had to contend with a few intermittent and harmless drops during FP2. Scuderia Ferrari drivers jumped at the opportunity to rack up the laps of the 4.3 Km circuit, working mostly in preparation for Sunday’s race, which is supposed to be run in dry conditions. Sebastian covered 48 laps and Kimi 45.
“I think that in the end we ran more than what we expected as it didn’t rain”, Seb commented. “It was nice to be able to do a lot of laps today. We need to find the right balance and this should help us get the pace for the qualifying session and the race, but I still think it won’t be easy to defeat our main competitors. We’ll see where we get tomorrow”.
“It’s only a Friday”, said Kimi, “and as always, we keep trying different things to learn from them. The tires will play a key role here as usual, the performance will depend on how they work and how long they will last. I felt some vibrations at the beginning of my stint, but that’s quite normal to have sometimes in the car: usually it comes from tires and different sets. We don’t know what the temperatures will be over the rest of the weekend, but we cannot change them anyway and it will be the same for everybody”.
The third and final practice session will start tomorrow at 11 AM local time. There is a high chance of showers.
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Thu Nov 09, 2017 8:50 pm
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