Sunshine and warm weather
was the unusual feature of the Mount Fuji circuit this afternoon, when
Kimi Raikkonen faced the press for the first time on this Japanese
Grand Prix weekend.
Since Singapore the Ferrari team has made it clear that its target
for the remaining three races is to finish first and second in all of
them. Raikkonen was asked if a one-two was possible here.
"We have a good
car and a good team and, as long as we do everything right, I don’t see
why this should not be possible.
My personal situation is the same as
before the last race and of course I would rather win races than not
finish or fail to score points, but hopefully we can have a good race
on Sunday. We have had some bad ones recently so it would be nice to
change that. Let’s see how practice goes tomorrow. In the dry last
year, we were very competitive so hopefully we can get a good result.
"I
don’t feel under any pressure with the current situation. I know the
team expects me to produce a good result, but then I expect that of
myself anyway. It would be nice to win as I haven’t had a good result
in a while."
Asked about the Fuji track itself, the Ferrari driver admitted he
did not have much of a reference point.
"Like for everyone, last year
was my first time here and to be honest the weather was so bad then
that you could not see anything when you were following people in the
rain during the race and that is something that is not very nice about
this place. But hopefully, this year will be better and we can have a
nice race with a bit better visibility."
Asked about his role within the team given that team-mate Felipe
Massa is ahead of him in the championship, Raikkonen was very clear on
the situation:
"He will drive his race and I will drive mine," he said.
"The team wants to win both championships and I know what they expect
of me. Felipe needs to win the race for himself and I can probably help
in some way but it is not easy to say exactly how things would work. He
needs to get himself in front first. Anyway, I think our car will be
competitive in all the remaining races, as long as have no issues to
deal with. We are aiming to win all the races."
A driver cannot win in F1 unless all elements of the package are
working together and Raikkonen explained that he too plays a role
outside the cockpit.
"We are a big team and we work all together.
"When
we have meetings, everyone can say what they think about what they feel
should be done. It has always been like this and the driver has as much
input as anyone else in the team. We have a very good relationship
within the team and everyone works very well together and we are always
trying to make things better."
Good spirit in Kimi’s words here – he’s definately a team player. But’s he not a walk-over mat. He’s right to say Massa needs to help himself first, before Kimi can do anything. The rain at last year’s Fuji GP showed the ‘beginning’ of Ferrari’s wet woes. Their tyre decision was all wrong, and both Kimi and Massa spun on the formation lap. In the end, Kimi came 3rd and Massa 6th. So, not only compared to Singapore, the team have to do a better job compared to last year’s race at Fuji.
FUCK ISRAEL 