Interview with Kimi at Hockenheim, Video

From ITV-F1.com and extra quotes from FerrariWorld.com
 
Q: Can you talk about how your car compared to the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton during the early stages of the British Grand Prix. How do you think it would have gone had the conditions not changed?

Kimi Raikkonen: They changed! We had a good car and it worked pretty well. I took it quite easy in the fast corners and I thought that when it was easier to go fast I did, but I didn’t want to take any risks. Unfortunately we made a mistake with the tyre choice and it cost us a lot.

Q: Rubens Barrichello said he got on the radio and said he was coming in for the extreme wets when the rain got worse. Did it cross your mind to do that sort of thing?

KR: No. In the end we decided to change the used tyres for a new set, but there were a few issues why we didn’t come in earlier.

First of all we didn’t expect it to keep raining for long and thought it would stop pretty soon, but it didn’t. In the end we had to wait a few laps so we could get enough fuel in the car to the end. You can say afterwards maybe we should have done something else, but we got good points and it wasn’t a disaster.

Q: If this was the Michael Schumacher era and your team-mate was Rubens Barrichello, you would be leading the championship now by about seven points. How do you feel about the next part of the season, particularly with Felipe alongside you and the intra-team rivalry you have at Ferrari now? You are taking points from one another in affect…

KR: I don’t see how it is any different from last year, so nothing has changed.

Q: But you only just won the title…

KR: That was enough, so it doesn’t make any difference. [This year] We had some bad races and we still gained the points after we fell behind after Monaco.

For sure we could have had better results since then, but we could be in a much worse position than we are right now. There is always going to be a fight between the team-mates and I think in the end whoever has the better chance…maybe there will be decisions or maybe not, it all depends really what is going to happen in the season half of the season now.

Q: Would you like another race in the rain this weekend?

KR: I don’t mind, it is the same for everybody and hopefully if it rains we have made some changes, we have learned from the mistakes and hopefully we can get it right this time.
Q: I’m sure they have done the analysis back at Maranello since the last race, but once they put the right tyres back on you were still spinning off all over the place. Why was that?

KR: I went off a few times, but that happens some times. The first time I just aquaplaned off, the second time was more or less my mistake as I wanted to get a fast exit [out of the corner] but just spun off. That’s racing.

Q: There wasn’t an issue with not getting the heat into the tyres? Why doesn’t the Ferrari work in wet conditions?

KR: No, we made mistakes and the wrong decision on tyres. I wouldn’t say we are not fast in the wet – we won last year in the wet, so once we get it right I don’t think there will be any problems.

Q: Who do you think is best placed to win the most races, score the most points in the second half of the season?

KR: I don’t know. We are all on the same points; there are some new races, so it is very difficult to say what could happen.

I still think that there are some circuits that are stronger for one team that the others, so it’s more of a question to get it right the whole weekend and then we can win some races. We haven’t lost anything, but we could be in a better position also.

Q: Why do you think each driver has made so many mistakes so far this season? What can you do to ensure you make less mistakes than the others?

KR: We always try to make fewer mistakes, but sometimes they happen when you push hard. It’s up to us drivers, up to the team, to try and ensure they don’t happen.

But unfortunately in racing so many things can happen and sometimes it can be your fault, sometimes someone else’s and sometimes things don’t go exactly like you expect. Hopefully we can overcome the problems, not make so many mistakes and we can be up there when it counts.

Q: In terms of the world championship, how do you view your position now at this point of the season?

KR: It’s all open. There are three guys on the same points and the fourth guy is only two behind, so anything can really happen.

But hopefully we get some good races now and get good points, then we can see after that. It will probably be really close with all the guys until the end and if someone has a really bad race it could cost them a lot, but hopefully we don’t make many more mistakes.

Q: You have already had some bad luck and the team has made some errors, so could it be said that the other title challengers didn’t make the most of those problems?

KR: Like I said, in the last four races I didn’t score points in two of them and didn’t exactly have the best race in the last one.

But still even with those results, we gained on the leader so we caught up with them. We could have been in a far worse position, so I’m pretty happy as, although we didn’t get the results we wanted, we are back in the joint lead and haven’t lost any ground. Maybe they should be a bit further ahead, but they are not so I’m happy for that.

Q: At Silverstone the McLarens were closer and faster than at Magny-Cours, so after the test here last week what do you expect here?

KR: It’s difficult to tell from testing, but I think it’s going to be very close between the two teams.

At Silverstone they seemed to be very fast in qualifying. I think if it had been a dry race we could have been very strong, but it in the wet it was what it was. Here it will probably be a similar story, so let’s see what we can do over the weekend, starting tomorrow, and we will get a little bit better of an idea.

Q: Do you think the fact that you finally won the world championship last year give you any sort of extra mental calmness for this year?

KR: For sure whatever is going to happen, if I lose I’m probably not going to be hurting as much as if I hadn’t won it before.

Last year, nobody really expected us to win and we were still able to win. So even when we have had bad races this year I wasn’t particularly worried about it, as even this season we have seen how quickly things can change. We are in a pretty good position and it is up to us to make the best out of it. We will do our best and hopefully it is enough.

Q: Psychologically, though, do you think you have the edge over your rivals, as you know what’s needed to win the championship and they don’t?

KR: I don’t think it makes any difference. All the drivers, including those who have never been champion have their own idea about what it takes. Some people are stronger in the head than others. I’m pretty relaxed about it. I will do my best and hopefully that will be enough. If it’s not, then I can deal with that too, because there are more important things in life.

I don’t know if I am stronger [mentally] – I am pretty relaxed, I don’t really think about that too much and I do the best and hopefully it is enough. When it’s a bad race I worry about it for a while, but put it out of my mind as there are much more serious things than just racing.

These words from Kimi Raikkonen, maybe less colourful than others, are always true and encouraging nonetheless. And typically to brush off any criticism and the thoughts of failure he says there are ‘more important things in life’. We shall see if this laidback mentality can be a winning one in the end again.

Update 21:38 – On the Official KR forum, member TaniaS shared this piece of information with us: "Today on SkySport an italian journalist has confirmed an important rumor: Kimi is working with Ferrari to renew his contract until 2011." This is greats news, if this journalist’s revelation is unrefutable! Let’s hope so.

Video below from MTV3 and their usual GP preview with the Finns:

http://www.viddler.com/simple/4c607f22/