Kimi was part of the Thursday press conference today, along with Alonso, Webber, Kubica and Vettel.
Thursday’s full press conference – China
Q. Kimi, third and second places here over the last couple of years, what are your feelings about this track?
Kimi Raikkonen: It’s quite OK usually. I quite enjoy it. We will see how it goes this year but it doesn’t really change what has happened in previous years here.
Q. And the championship, your feelings about that?
KR: For sure it’s not a good position where we are, but we still try to win races and see what happens. It’s not really up to us any more, even if we win both races it’s probably not going to happen for us but it’s the only thing we can do, try to win and see where we end up.
Q. What are your feelings about the possibility of rain on Sunday – again?
KR: It’s the same for all the teams and drivers, so I don’t mind really. I think it was quite an exciting race last time in the rain, so for sure it makes it a bit livelier if it’s raining.
Q. (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question to Kimi: how do you explain the many mistakes that Ferrari has been doing in the last race?
KR: I don’t think that we made so many mistakes. We had a misunderstanding with the stewards or the FIA or whatever you call it and that’s only what really hurt us. That’s the only… I don’t know why you say we made so many mistakes.
Q. Kimi, I’m from China, so can you tell me what the important thing for an F1 racer is?
KR: To have good results, a good team. It’s pretty normal for us to always try our best and I’m not sure what’s most important but I think it’s probably having a good team behind you and a good environment in which to race.
Q. (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) And the other question is for Kimi. The tyre selection was starting the race on the intermediate in Japan. Do you take the responsibility or was it a common team decision?
KR: It doesn’t matter whose it was, we took the decision as a team. We spoke with Bridgestone, we didn’t expect any more rain and we took the intermediate and for sure we didn’t take them because it was against the rules – at that point we didn’t know that.
I guess before you ask me why we stopped so many times, why does it make any difference when we are last and second last behind the Safety Car. As long as we got more fuel in the car and didn’t lose any places it was good, so it wasn’t any mistake because we didn’t lose any places.
Q. (Marco Evangelisti – Corriere dello Sport) For Kimi. You left McLaren and now they are going to win the championship. Any regrets?
KR: No.
Massa changed his mind: I won’t help Raikkonen
Felipe Massa said before the Japanese Grand Prix he would do what he could to help Kimi Raikkonen win the championship whenever he could. But with two races to go and Raikkonen 17 points behind on Hamilton the Brazilian will try and get the best results for himself. "I will try to win both races. I am not planning to help him (Raikkonen)," Felipe Massa said. It is nearly impossible for his team-mate from Finland to win the championship being 17 points behind and currently third in the drivers’ championship.
In 2008 Felipe Massa will do whatever he can once more to win the championship. "Next season I will approach the season the same as I did this year. I have to try to be more consistent and finish every race. We will also try to get our cars more reliable," Massa said.
Stewards investigating Hamilton’s driving
It is understood that the FIA has been supplied with new information about Hamilton’s driving behind the second safety car phase – where it is suggested that he contributed to the collision between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.
It is not clear what this new evidence may be, but it could relate to video footage suggesting that Hamilton was braking and accelerating excessively.
An FIA spokesman confirmed that the stewards were looking into the matter.
"New evidence has been brought to the stewards attention and they are currently investigating the matter," he said.
It is understood Hamilton has been asked to meet with the stewards tomorrow.
The Webber/Vettel accident was not caught on camera by Formula One’s official coverage, but a Youtube video of the accident filmed from the grandstands has highlighted how Hamilton slowed down dramatically on the right of the track, forcing Webber to slow down and catch Vettel unaware.
Formula One’s regulations dictate that the race leader must keep a standard distance behind the safety car until the lap before it is due to come into the pits.
With Vettel having already been handed a 10-place grid penalty in China for his part in the accident, it is thought that if the stewards believe Hamilton has done wrong then he could be punished in a similar fashion.
Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber said on Thursday that he believed Hamilton’s behaviour had contributed to the accident.
"It definitely contributed to Sebastian hitting me up the back because he (Hamilton) wasn’t doing what he was supposed to be doing, clearly," Webber told a news conference.
"He spoke in the drivers’ meeting about how good a job he was going to do and he did the opposite. Still, we know for next time."
Maybe Lewis ‘Perfect Boy’ Hamilton has shown a bit of inexperience for a change. You do not drive like that especially when it’s extremely wet, behind a safety car. Consideration for the others please. You are the responsible leader, act like it. This isn’t the only time though, because I didn’t like how he was excessively bunching up the cars before the safety went in at the start of the race. We saw him brake heavily forcing Alonso to go straight past – what if the cars behind were closer to Alonso? The same accident would have happened and Hamilton isn’t realising his aggressive driving (in the sense of being competitive) is actually unneccessarily dangerous.
Whichever fan recorded this incident on video in the Japanese grandstand, he/she may change the course of this championship…although if Hamilton gets punished he’ll get a grid penalty at most, like Vettel has for the Chinese GP.
Kimi defends his team very sternly today, and Massa changes his mind as to not help Kimi win the WDC. Massa probably feels more confident in himself after that last lap battle with Kubica at Fuji. He aims to do the best job he can so obviously helping Kimi is out of the question. This may prove a point – that Ferrari have not decided a No.1 driver within the team after this season. Interesting things going on!
FUCK ISRAEL 