Interview: underdog Raikkonen keeps cool
Kimi Raikkonen arrives at Interlagos for the season finale as the underdog in Formula One’s first three-way championship battle in 21 years, yet the Finn appears as cool as always ahead of Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver, who trails title leader Lewis Hamilton by seven points – and reigning champion Fernando Alonso by three, seems happy at the Italian team.
There are no complaints about his treatment, not even over the fact that were it not for mechanical failures, Raikkonen would surely have had the title wrapped up by now.
And he isn’t even overly concerned about whether or not his teammate Felipe Massa will help him in Sunday’s race to improve his chances of winning the championship.
Autosport.com caught up with Raikkonen at the Shell-arranged media meeting at the Transamerica to hear his thoughts on the final round of the year – and beyond.
Q: Would you say you are adopting a cautious approach to this weekend?
Kimi Raikkonen: "I don’t know. We don’t have much to lose and I think we will treat it more like a normal race. Maybe we will need to do something during the race, but we won’t do anything crazy because it probably won’t work out.
"But it is difficult to say before the race. We need to look at how it goes tomorrow and then try to make the best plan that we can think of."
Q: If you win the championship, will it be a big surprise for you?
Raikkonen: "I don’t know about a surprise. But for sure we have not been in the best position at some points this year, we had some problems and we dropped out of the points. So we were quite far away.
Q: How did you celebrate your birthday yesterday?
Raikkonen: "Nothing really. It was just a normal day, we just went to eat. That was all."
Q: Was there any present from the team?
Raikkonen: "I haven’t seen them yet, I am staying in a different hotel to them. Maybe I get something, maybe not. It is not such an important thing when you are getting older. More or less when you are ten years old, you are more excited."
Q: Felipe Massa has just extended his deal at Ferrari. What is your reaction to that, and what about your own future at Ferrari?
Raikkonen: "Actually it is nothing really to do with me. He made a new contract and that is fine for me. I have a contract for two years too, I am happy with that and I need to decide after that what I want to do. If I want to race, or not. I am not worried about my future at all."
Q: What is your assessment of the season?
Raikkonen: "My season has been okay. When you come to a new team it can be a bit difficult sometimes, and it is not so easy as if you have been at a team for many years – then you know exactly what is going on, what is going to happen. So I am pretty happy of course, but we could have had a better season.
"But I think the problems we had as a team, we had a little bit difficulty sometimes with reliability and that has been hurting us more than anything else.
"Otherwise I am very happy with the team, very happy to work with the people, they are nice people to work with and we have a very good relationship. So that is the main thing and I am sure it is much easier to go for next year and be even stronger as a team."
Q: What has your relationship with Felipe been like? And what do you think about the possibility of him helping you this weekend?
Raikkonen: "I think we have a good relationship together. We always push each other. That is normal between teammates. We have a very fair and clean relationship between the two of us.
"I don’t know what is going to happen in the race this weekend, it depends on so many different things, but the main thing is that as a team we are going to try and do the best result we can and try to be one and two."
Q: This has been your first year at Ferrari and you have mentioned the reliability problems. But coming here you have the best chance you have ever had to win the championship, so how does that feel?
Raikkonen: "Like I said, we had a few problems but it is part of the racing. I know everybody is pushing hard to get rid of the problems. No one wants to see those things but unfortunately that is part of the racing for all the teams. We found out the problems, we fixed them and we haven’t had any more.
"We learn always from the mistakes and this year is I think, okay. We are still in the championship but we are not in as strong a position as we would be without the problems, but we can still hopefully do it. We are going to try at least, and it has been a good first year like I said.
"We are still in the championship. I am pretty happy, even with the difficulties we had. We showed we can come back and fight for wins at every race."
Q: Your main rivals have all had difficulties and incidents this year. Why do you think you have stayed away from problems this season?
Raikkonen: "I don’t know really. Okay, they had some accidents and other things happened. I have only two times technical problems, it is nothing I can really change. Nobody liked that those things happened. It is part of the racing and unfortunately it happened.
"Like I said before, without those we would be in a better position but at least something went wrong to the other cars also. They have had a very good car this year but they have also had their problems which helped a little bit for us. I don’t think it is anything to do with my driving style, I have just been unlucky."
Q: If Fernando Alonso leaves McLaren at the end of the year, will it make next year’s battle easier?
Raikkonen: "I don’t think it is going to change anything for next year, if he goes or not. Nobody knows, maybe he knows himself. But I am not really interested and it doesn’t change anything for me.
"For me it doesn’t make any difference if he stays there or goes somewhere else. I think the championship will be difficult anyhow, every year there is always good guys in different teams. Different teams can make better cars for next year and you never know.
"Next year will be completely different without the traction control, without the engine braking and all those things, so I think it will be nice to see. It can be a completely different story.
"We need to just finish this season and work hard for next year, see who goes where, and then decide what happens."
Thursday’s press conference – Brazilian GP – Q: (Niki Takeda – Formula PA) To you all, has it seemed a longer season than normal?
LH: It is my first season in Formula One, so it has seemed a very
long season to me and different to anything I have experienced before,
but I am enjoying it. I am looking forward to more races in the future.
FA: Quite long for me…
KR: … (inaudible) the races go quickly and it has been the same for me this season.
FM: Very quick.
That’s my boy! Mumble away!
Ferrari announced that Felipe Massa would retain his seat for a further year after 2009 and at the same time the Red team denounced 
any speculation of another driver moving into the camp. Fernando Alonso was widely rumoured to be leaving McLaren and join Ferrari, despite Massa and Raikkonen having firm contracts through to the end of 2009.
"I’m proud. It’s important for me and for F1 in Brazil. Now I can really chase the dream I’ve had since I was a kid: to become world champion."
Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni added that the team announced Massa’s new deal as a way of bringing an end to the rumours about his future.
"We’ve decided it was the right time to kill off any speculation: we believe in Felipe and this is the demonstration," he said.
"It’s true he is out of the championship fight, but it’s not just his fault but everyone’s. And in two years with us he’s won five races and got eight pole positions."
This is great news for Felipe and it shows committment from both sides. However, Kimi should be a big concern for Felipe, because in one year Kimi has won 5 races and would have two wins more than his championship rivals if he wins at Brazil. I guess what the team expects from Kimi is to do double of the job since they’re paying him double of Massa’s wages! I can’t help but crack a joke: "They pay me half the wages so I’ll do half the job!" – Felipe (he didn’t really say this, hence the joke).
Webber Hopes Kimi Steals Title
A three-way fight is pretty cool. It’s something I haven’t seen for a long time. We’re talking way back with Nigel Mansell, Piquet and Prost in Adelaide. I was only ten but I remember it well
I’ve got a great theory for a result. Whoever wins it, deserves it, but I’d really love to see Kimi win the race and the title. That’s my tip. Ferrari to turn over McLaren. Nothing against Lewis or Fernando, it’s just what I’d like to see.
I hear there’s a scenario where Kimi can win with Fernando and Lewis further back so that they all finish level on points, but Kimi would win the title because he’s won more races. That would be pretty cool.
I think a lot of us would like to see that, Mark! It’s nice to see atleast one driver on the grid on Kimi’s side. But Kimi’s going to go for it no matter what people think! Come on Kimster!
Schumacher looks forward to finale
Seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher knows exactly what the pressure feels like before the deciding race of the season and is glad to be watching this year’s gripping conclusion at home on television.
"I can well think back to the tension a weekend like this one means to the driver and to be honest, I’m quite happy to be watching the race from my sofa at home this time," the most successful Formula One driver said on his Web site (www.michael-schumacher.de).
"Not only as a fan but more so as a driver you dream of a big fight like this and it goes without saying, that I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Kimi and our team," said Schumacher, who retired after the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix but still works with Ferrari.
"I’m sure it’s going to be a thrilling race — just like the whole year has been, in my opinion, an extremely exciting championship. I was happy to see that no matter what happened we always remained competitive and consistent, despite all the changes within the team and the technical problems we were facing sometimes. The guys have done a great job.
"It’s now been a full year since I drove my last race and, looking back on that final day in Interlagos, I’ve got some very good memories that have stayed with me. But all in all, my family and I feel wonderful with the life that we have nowadays."
And thank goodness he isn’t anywhere near the race track – considering the bad luck Kimi has had when the old Baron is hanging about! Enjoy the race and Ferrari’s future world champion Schumi – it’s going to a spectacular drive from Kimi.
FUCK ISRAEL 
To me it certainly feels like Ferrari have secured a No 2 driver for themselves. Ferrari have done this in the past. They did the same thing when shumi was there…first rubens, then massa and now they have extended massa’s contract….. They have always stuck to this strategy….we will know next year… this year looks like they wanted to find out who was better. Obv our man stood out. Very interesting to note things at Mclaren too, they always wanted competition between their drivers; they had it with Juan and Kimi sometime back. But earlier when Hakkinen and David were there, it was a David supporting Mika. I definitely think they are going to switch back to Mika-David strategy next year with some driver (Im sure it won’t be Alonso) supporting Lewis….
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