Q. Lewis Hamilton and his teammate are not here in the paddock
today as there is a meeting with the team. What are your feelings about
this?
Kimi Raikkonen: Well, it looks like they have one more day of
holiday! They have a different system in their meetings; I know exactly
what they are doing there.
We have a system (at Ferrari) where everybody is there together but
I know from the past that you can have a meeting with your own people –
and it is not as detailed as what we have now. For sure it doesn’t help
the team, but I don’t know if it going to hurt. But it doesn’t make
anyone’s life easier there.
Q. How important for your championship hopes is it to get a good result here this weekend and close the gap to McLaren?
KR: Yeah, it is very important. That is what we have been
trying to do every race, the last race also, but it was quite a
difficult circuit for us. At least we only dropped two points. I wanted
to win and gain two points rather than lose, but it wasn’t possible.
Hopefully here it should be better for our car so we can really push.
Q. Are you still optimistic for the championship?
KR: I haven’t given up. For sure it is going to be difficult,
but we have been in the same position before – so it is not a new
thing. But one bad race for either of us is going to change a lot. We
just keep pushing and we push as long as we can. We just try to win
races.
Q. Do you believe that Fernando or Lewis are your main target for the championship?
KR: Lewis is right now further away, so is harder to catch. But we need to try to catch both of them and that is what we try to do.
Q. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said Ferrari would try
and win six races, but he did not speak about you or Felipe Massa. Do
you think it is dangerous to do it without exact rules between drivers?
KR: It has been like that all year. It has been in my past
years like that. It is up to the drivers and our engineers. Whoever is
quicker is going to have the better chance. It is difficult to put one
guy ahead of another. I think Ferrari are only interested in one of us
winning and hopefully we can have a 1-2. That is what we are aiming for.
Q. Monza has similar characteristics to Montreal and Indy. Do you
think it could be one of the worst Grands Prix for you? What are the
differences between the North American races and Monza?
KR: I think the only problem that we can probably have in
Monza is through kerbs. Maybe it hasn’t been our strongest point going
over the kerbs, and trying to get the traction back.
But I know from the past that Ferrari were always very strong in
their home race. We improved for the last race the car handling over
the bumps so we should be okay there.
Q. Some people are talking about the possibility of Fernando Alonso at Ferrari. What do you think about that?
KR: I haven’t heard anything about that. You need to ask the team.
Q. Ron Dennis revealed to the press in Hungary that McLaren have
a definitive policy about which driver per race is allowed to go for
the extra lap in Q3. What is the Ferrari situation, and do you think it
is necessary to make that decision?
KR: For sure it helps if you can do an extra lap, but we have
some rules about who is going to get it. It depends on many other
things, so it is not so clear. It is not like we can decide it before
qualifying.
For sure usually we try to do it with whoever has the better
chance. Like we saw we thought it would be difficult to get it at the
last race but even with all the things that happened there we were able
to get it.
It is really very difficult to say, you have it this time and
I’ll have it next time, because anything can happen. You might miss it,
and for sure there is a chance to have both of the cars make the extra
lap.
Personally, I always must look at it objectively and more so this year because it’s such a close championship!
Not being biased at all (lol) but it’s gotta be Kimi from me. What
other reason is there why he shouldn’t be able to win? (Unless he has
car trouble, god forbid!)
Ferrari will have the superior car here as the circuit suits their
aero and balance with the medium to fast corners, unless McLaren have a
big suprise up their sleeves Ferrari should win, either one of the
drivers. And since the race at Indy, Kimi has been the better and
faster driver than Felipe, so it’s Kimi for me.
Hopefully it’ll come true! 
Oh and BMW will be much stronger in Turkey to I think, they might even be a problem in qualifying for McLaren and Ferrari…
Also > Ferrari: McLaren fight no help to us and Coulthard needles Massa over fuel gaffe…
Joke or not, it does remind you of how stupid forgetting to refuel Felipe’s car was. If that has happened to Kimi, you can only imagine the reaction of the fans. Thankfully, it didn’t happen to Kimi and he drove a good qualifying lap and race. Felipe had a terrible qualifying hot lap even before his pitlane drama ensued. So, Felipe better make sure he’s right up there to help Ferrari and Kimi.
Don’t forget to download this great onboard pole position lap of Kimi’s in 2005 at Turkey!
FUCK ISRAEL 