Kimi’s Column: Post – Malaysian GP

Fresh oxygen and back to flight.

The Malaysian heat was as torturing as always before. That is why it feels so nice to be able to spend a few days back at home. On Sunday evening after the race we flew with Jenni, Mark and Toni, from Kuala Lumpur via Amsterdamn to Switzerland. After such a sauna-lke heat and enormous sweating in Malaysia, nothing feels better than to go bicycling up there in the fresh mountain air.

I have been missing the most change of the climate as I have also missed the Finnish meat balls and mashed potatoes. It feels like a luxury to get them both after being more than four weeks away from home. I hope to also have a chance to watch the Finnish icehockey play-off finals and some NHL games on my TV in Wollerau, but time is getting short. Main thing is to relax, get some fresh oxygen and charge the batteries. On Wednesday I fly to Bahrain to race again.

I think, atleast, it will not harm me in any way to visit home between these two races. I heard that Alonso flew from Australia back to Europe and it did not seem to harm him either.

But going back to the Malaysian GP weekend?

It was not good for us, that is for sure. Already coming there we knew we were not in the best of positions to start that weekend. Because of the engine worries, we had to make compromise after compromise. That put us in a position where we did not want to be. All the time we had to play on the safe side with that engine and there were also some other technical issues that we were not able to fix as we usually wanted to do.

I always want to fight for the victory. That is why I felt a little bit disappointed and empty inside, where I had to race in a way to be able to just finish it. It is like playing a football game defending a goalless draw.

Well, we finished 3rd, so it was for sure, the best possible result for us in that race. I was quite pleased with the result, we got 6 points more and we know that the most important thing right now is getting points from every race.

Now, going to Bahrain?

I have always liked that circuit, its a challenging place. We have always gone there with good speed, but somehow we have not been able to get the whole weekend in the way we would have wanted to Sometimes it is like that. Some circuits give you a hard time as long as you hopefully get everything going exactly right in your way.

We will get a new fresh engine in Bahrain. That makes me very optimistic. As I have always said, I am here to race just to win. When we have our whle package working a 100 percent, we should be back to the same speed as we had in Melbourne.

Before the season, we had a good test in Sahkir circuit. For sure, McLaren have improved since that, but at least we should be able to challenge them better than in Sepang. You never know in the weekend before how it goes. F1 moves so amazingly quick and so many things can happen during the race, also.

I just expect that we are in a better shape than we were last Sunday. The team makes everything they can to make sure we’re back to the winning speed.

It will be tough and it will become even tougher. Everybody knows that. There is never an easy victory in this business. Never. I know.