Todt still optimistic about title
Ferrari team principal Jean Todt remains optimistic for the World
Championship after Kimi Raikkonen finished a close second to series
leader Lewis Hamilton in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
"It’s complicated," said Todt, "I’m always worried and of course, I
would prefer to have both drivers 20 points ahead. Saying that, you know
it makes a very intense and interesting challenge. If we are able to be
on the podium with both drivers, both cars, for the six remaining Grands
Prix of the season, which is possible, I still think that we have a
chance to achieve what we want."
Raikkonen’s second place and Felipe Massa’s disappointing 13th was
sealed in qualifying, said Todt. "In Q2 (the second part of qualifying),
we at Ferrari are always on low fuel and during Felipe’s attempt to
qualify for Q3, he made a little mistake, understeering in the last
sector and we realised that he would not be qualified for Q3. It’s not
something we have been much used to this year.
"So we changed his tyres and once the tyres were changed, we realised
that no fuel had been put in the car so it was simply a mistake in the
procedure. During the time it took to bring the car back to the garage,
the tyres got cold, and probably pressure mounted on Felipe as well.
It’s easy to see now what we should have done: we should have put him on
new tyres which would have been hot in the blankets, but we did not do
the best job and we paid the cost of it.
"It was not good and I’m not happy about that but the same people have
been winning a lot of races, a lot of championships and mistakes remain
human, so that’s it. We have to try to understand why we did not have
a good procedure, to avoid that and hopefully make sure that it won’t
happen again.
"In the race it was very disappointing to see Felipe behind cars which
again, I respect the cars, I respect the drivers but they are not in
the same league at the moment and he could not pass them. Due to his
starting position, we put the car full of fuel, having to guess, but
it’s never good in this business if you start to guess. It didn’t work
properly for him.
"For Kimi it was much better," continued Todt. "We had a competitive
car but we did not do the best job for reasons we need to understand
in qualifying and we paid the price. It’s not pleasing but you have to
accept it. I’m not very happy about the result today. You cannot always
pretend that you’re not happy if you don’t win, even if what you always
aim for is trying to win a race."
Even though there is no testing for several weeks, Todt explained that
the team will still be hard at work. "It’s the same for everybody," he
said. "There is no testing for this August period. Still, we can work
in the wind tunnel, we can work with the simulation facilities and as I
said, each team is in the same condition."
Todt emphasised that there will be no preference regarding his two
drivers, explaining how the situation was when Michael Schumacher was in
the team. "With Michael it was always agreed that if his teammate was
in a stronger position for the championship, then Michael would have
accepted that and we would have put no more effort because it was the
same effort but if we would have to do some specific
choice for strategy
or whatever, that would have been in favour of the teammate.
"At the moment, there’s one point difference between the two drivers and
I’m just happy that both are competitive, both are fitting very well in
the team and there is no way we will make any kind of strategy with them
at the moment."
It’s good to see that Todt is thinking like this between Kimi and Felipe, as both are pretty much level on championship points, although Kimi seems to be the stronger driver in this second half of the season. Maybe, just maybe, Kimi can make it this year infront of Massa- I speak not of just the WDC, but of proving his worth to those who have doubted him this year!
Rami Raikkonen within shot of F3 Championship Title – Formula3Finn.com
As you may or may not know, Kimi’s older brother Rami has been participating in the F3 championship in Finland. Raikkonen Senior is 3rd with just 9 points between him and the leader, Kela. All top 3 in the championship are part of the same team, Koiranen Bros. Motorsport, and although Rami is below his other teammates, he looks stronger and stronger towards the end. There are 6 rounds with two races per weekend, and with just 3 rounds left, can Rami overhaul the gap and become champion?
You never know, we might have another Raikko in F1 in the future…and with Alonso’s future at McLaren under speculation, the 2008 F1 silly season has arrived a tab bit early!
FUCK ISRAEL 