Practise Session News, KR Interview (plus video)

>Friday’s press conference – Malaysia

Q. Kimi, obviously you were winner of the Australian Grand Prix; how do you feel testing went today?

Kimi Raikkonen: I think it went reasonably OK. I wasn’t 100
percent happy with the car but we learned some things. The circuit was
slightly different than it was last week, so we still have some work to
do.

Q. In what way different?

KR: Just the grip level is slightly… the set-up is not as
good as it was a week ago. Something has slightly changed, maybe the
weather. The grip is slightly different so we need to work on the car
still.

Q. What are your feelings about the possible ban of traction control?

KR: I think it’s going to be more fun, although not always
fun because for sure it’s going to make it more difficult to drive on
the limit, but when I started in Formula One, we didn’t have traction
control so I think it’s going to make a difference in the races, for
sure, but maybe not so much over one lap but over the race distance,
for sure. We will see how it goes. /

Kimi’s engine won’t be changed
Ferrari have no plans to change Kimi Raikkonen’s engine for the Malaysian Grand Prix following the completion of Friday’s practice sessions.

"We are going to keep it, there is no reason to change it," said Raikkonen after practice. "That is the situation right now."

Raikkonen’s engine had some problems during the final part of the Australian Grand Prix, a race dominated by the Finn from start to finish.

Team boss Jean Todt said however that talk about replacing the engine in Malaysia was only speculation.

"Rather than talking about technical issues, it is a sporting matter," said Todt. "Since last year it is one engine for two weekends, we just completed the first race in Australia and we are going to keep both engines for Malaysia.

"The rumours started from speculation. It is true in the last laps of the Australian Grand Prix, Kimi had a problem with a pipe and he lost some water, very little water.

"We did some more checks and if it did not happen then Kimi simulated the problems during the free testing here in Malaysia and nothing demonstrated that we should change our programme which is to keep the same engine for Malaysia."

Raikkonen’s teammate Felipe Massa dominated practice at Sepang today, setting the fastest time in both sessions. Raikkonen was fourth quickest.

Ferrari: No worries about Raikko’s engine
Ferrari are confident that Kimi Raikkonen’s engine will have no issues at the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend, despite fears it may have needed to be changed following problems in Australia.

Raikkonen suffered a minor water leak in the closing stages of the Albert Park race, and that prompted a full investigation from Ferrari to work out whether the power unit would still be good enough to last the Malaysia event.

The engine was flown back to the team’s Maranello base for analysis and, following simulation work at Sepang last week to repeat the water leak problem on another power unit, the team eventually decided that there were no concerns for this weekend.

Ferrari’s engine chief Gilles Simon said the team have no worries that there will be any problems as a result of what happened in Australia.

"We did some simulation and we understood that it was not a difficult situation for the engine," he said. "And so there was no reason to change the engine as it was completely safe.

"We will run as normal. We are reasonably confident that the engine will last the race."Free Practise 1:

Massa lapped the Sepang circuit in 1:34.972, going quicker than McLaren rival Fernando Alonso by a quarter of a second – and also Kimi Raikkonen by eight tenths of a second. Raikkonen went fourth fastest after a rough attempt to do better. His engine health issues looked to be under more speculation after some smoke appeared from the rear of the car during the early part of first practise. However this was not the engine from Melbourne, as friday practise allows teams to use engines that are not for use in the races and qualifying.

Free Practise 2:
Felipe Massa maintained his strong form although the Brazilian’s benchmark 1:35.780 lap was 0.8 seconds slower than his first practise time. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth again, just under 0.4 seconds from his teammate, closing the gap.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:35.780           34
 2.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:35.910 + 0.130   36
 3.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:36.106 + 0.326   37
 4.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:36.160 + 0.380   33
 5.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:36.523 + 0.743   31
 6.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:36.621 + 0.841   21
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:36.717 + 0.937   18
 8.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:36.760 + 0.980   28
 9.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:36.797 + 1.017   30
10.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:36.862 + 1.082   25
11.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:36.906 + 1.126   18
12.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:37.041 + 1.261   26
13.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:37.203 + 1.423   25
14.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:37.282 + 1.502   30
15.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:37.578 + 1.798   29
16.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:37.712 + 1.932   34
17.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:37.855 + 2.075   26
18.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:38.334 + 2.554   27
19.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:38.419 + 2.639   28
20.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:38.650 + 2.870   20
21.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:38.713 + 2.933   20
22.  Albers        Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:39.807 + 4.027   23

FP2 Video, Kimi slides:

Onboard with Kimi:

From the photo album; Jenni is back, Whats all the hype with Kimi’s tattoo? Mika Hakkinen is also at the track:

According to MTV3, "Ferrari-driver Kimi
Räikkönen arrived to the Malaysian GP pits with a beautiful
henna-tattoo just above his right hand wrist. Henna is a colour
substance that is widely used in Asian countries. It wears off after
some time. Black henna-tattoos, that Räikkönen has, can cause allergic
skin reactions."

Autosport.com Grapevine: Todt defends Raikkonen’s new tattoo

< LOL yeah right!

Ferrari
team principal Jean Todt said on Friday he would readily dump a sponsor
who was unhappy with his driver Kimi Raikkonen’s new tattoo.

The Finn got the tattoo on his right arm after he won his debut race for the Italian Formula One team in Australia last month.

When asked if he approved, Todt said he was fine with it as long as his driver was happy.

"I read about it. Of course, it was not part of the agenda, but the
most important thing is our people," Todt told a news conference after
Friday’s free practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

"So, if Kimi is happy to put a tattoo on his face, it’s okay. If he
asks me my opinion, I’d say better put it somewhere else so it is not
so disruptive or cause problems for the future.

"There are lots of things, smiling or not smiling but I don’t care.
If a sponsor would complain about the tattoo, I would prefer to change
the sponsor to keep him happy."

Thursday Interview with KR @ Sepang:
<Video (Finnish):

Translated comments:
– The last time Kimi had a lead in the F1 series in points was after Canadian GP in 2003.
– It was a water pipe that was leaking, and they decide tomorrow what they’ll do about it.
– Kimi is the only driver that has been able to win after getting a penalty that has lowered the starting position by 10.
– This is not the worst track possible, when it comes to the starting positions around 11.

Q. What can we expect this weekend from Ferrari?

Kimi Raikkonen: It is difficult to say always before the weekend. But hopefully we can have as good a race as we had in the first race, and we will see how it starts going tomorrow. But the test was good for us, so I think we can expect to have a strong race.

Q. Do you know already if you have to change the engine, and are you afraid of this?

KR: No. We will make the decision tomorrow or Saturday so I don’t know.

Q. How difficult is it from the driver’s point of view to cope with the heat?

KR: It is difficult, more difficult than most of the other races. But in the end it is not too bad when you drive. It is when you stop that the heat really hits you. It should be okay.

Q. About the new floor rules, Fernando Alonso said the important thing is that it is the same for everybody. What do you think?

KR: Our car has been legal all the time, and now they have said it will be different so it will be different. There is no reason to think about that. I think the FIA decided to change the rules, but I don’t think it is going to affect us at all.

Q. The decision to change the engine will be made by the team, but what is your preference?

KR: Like I said before, the decision will be made tomorrow or Saturday. So until that we will wait and see what happens. We will make the decision as a team.

Q. Does it depend on the weather conditions as well?

KR: No, it is not going to change whether we need to change or not change it.

Q. Fernando believes that Ferrari are unbeatable here on pure pace. Would you agree with that?

KR: I don’t know, because anything can happen. If you have a small problem in the race then it can turn around, but I think we have a good speed, a good test and hopefully we are as strong as we were in the last race.

Q. Kimi your first win was here in 2003. What do you remember about that?

KR: It was good. The first victory is always nice but it is not going to change anything for this year. It was nice to see we had a pretty strong here and the race is always a different matter. Let’s wait and see how it goes but I have good memories from here.

Q. Are you worried about the engine change?

KR: There is no point to be worried about it because if it needs to be changed then it needs to be changed. There is nothing we can do. We make the decision later.

Q. Is your teammate going to be a threat this weekend if he doesn’t have any problems?

KR: We will see. For sure it will be a close fight but you never know.

Q. This is a track where you can overtake quite easily, so does that make you less worried about changing the engine?

KR: No. I don’t worry about that because we don’t know what the deal is. If we need to change then we need to make a new plan, but we wait until we know exactly what we are going to do.

Q. Do you think you will have the same advantage over McLaren here that you had in Australia?

KR: Like I said, it is very difficult to say from testing. You get a kind of idea. We seemed to be strong in testing, but then the race weekend is always different. We will wait and see.

Q. What does the new tattoo mean?

KR: Nothing. Nothing.

Q. Is it permanent?

KR: I don’t know. You will see later what happens.

Q. Some people say Ferrari have an advantage because of the Bridgestone tyres. What do you say about that?

KR: I don’t think that is going to explain why we were better than the rest in the first race. The other teams were saying that the Ferrari were not doing so well in the winter, that our car is wrong, it has too long a wheelbase, but the other teams had enough time to work with the tyres. We have a good overall package and that is the main thing.

Q. How did you celebrate your first Ferrari win?

KR: That is nothing to do with this (press conference).

> Kimi and Massa not concerned about floor test

Raikkonen said he was unconcerned about the prospect of being hit with a 10-place grid penalty if Ferrari are forced to change his engine following the problems he had at the end of the Australian Grand Prix.

"I don’t worry about that because we don’t know what the deal is. If we need to change then we need to make a new plan, but we wait until we know exactly what we are going to do," the Finn said.