Participating: Fernando ALONSO (Renault), Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren
Mercedes), Robert KUBICA (BMW Sauber), Kimi RAIKKONEN (Ferrari).
Q. Kimi, a winner here last year and three times on the podium. What are your thoughts about this race?
KR: It is nice to come back here. I have had some
good races in the past here but hopefully we can have similar
achievement this year but we need to see what we can do.
Q. It is your birthday tomorrow, what is the best present you could give yourself or could be given to you?
KR: Like I said, hopefully I can challenge for a win. The car
is definitely improving and it is better for me but we are still not
exactly where we want to be. But this is a different place from the
last circuit. Last year we had a good time and hopefully this year we
can again.
Q. Is qualifying going to be any better for Ferrari than, say at Fuji?
KR: I mean at Fuji I had a pretty okay qualifying but then it
didn’t work out in the race as well. For sure qualifying for all the
teams is going to make a big difference and if you are driving behind
cars it is going to be difficult to get past anybody.
Q. Lewis, dramas last weekend and last year here as well. What are the lessons you have taken from last year and last weekend?
LH: I think from last year it is just keep your
head up, things happen and I guess to avoid the gravel trap here. I
think from last weekend there are quite a lot of positives I took from
the weekend and I move forward, put that in the past. The team remain
positive. We make mistakes together as a team and we move on together,
so onwards and upwards for us.
Q. Has your approach changed from last weekend to how you approach this weekend’s race?
LH: No.
Q. So what is the general approach then?
LH: The same as always. We come here and we are going to try
and do the best job we can. The car is very competitive and we were
very quick here last year but we should perhaps be a little bit more
competitive this year with the good car that we have. But it is going
to be a very tough weekend without a doubt, so we will try and do the
best job we can.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q. (Chinese media) Kimi, you said you would challenge for a win
for your birthday present, so what will you do if you are first and
Felipe was second?
KR: I always try to win but hopefully we are in a position
this weekend to fight for that. I know what the team expects from me
and I know what they want, they want both championships, so we will see
how the race goes and where we are and then maybe there is some
different approach we can take. That we will see during the race.
Q. (Chinese media) Fernando, you said earlier this week you would
do your best to help Felipe win the World Championship. Could I ask in
which aspects in detail, what you will do? By the way, my home city is
the sister city of Oviedo.
FA: Very good. Obviously I was asked this question. When I
said this in Fuji what I meant is that now we have a competitive car it
seems that we are able to fight sometimes with Ferrari and McLaren and
first of all we need to have a competitive, hard car here in Shanghai
and Brazil to be fighting with Ferrari and McLaren. If we do that and
Felipe wins the race and I can be second or third I will be happy to
help Felipe to take as many points as possible and this is the only
approach.
Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To all drivers. What
do you think about the last punishment by the stewards? Do you agree or
do you feel some hesitation next time you try to overtake your
competitor?
LH: We both had penalties, Felipe and I, but that is motor racing. You move forward and try to avoid it in the future.
Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Does it affect your driving?
LH: No.
RK: It is very easy. I haven’t seen them, so I cannot judge them. I don’t know what happened.
FA: It is the same as always. We probably believe
that there are too many penalties because sometimes the races are
decided by the stewards. Sometimes they are wrong, sometimes they are
fair.
KR: I haven’t been hurt too badly by any of those
but I mean sometimes it is difficult to say. Everybody has their own
opinions whether it is right or wrong and that is always going to be
the case. Some like it, some not and for me it is okay. Whatever we say
is not going to change much, so there is no point to put too much input
in.
Q. (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, can I just get
your opinion on Fernando’s comment that he is willing to help Felipe
get the title?
LH: Honestly, I don’t have an opinion on it. I focus on my
job and that’s the most important thing. I think we can be competitive
this weekend and challenge for points and try to win. What the others
do is none of my business.
Q. (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) Fernando, you said to AS on
Sunday that although you hadn’t seen what Lewis did at the start of the
race you agreed with what the stewards did. Can you explain that?
FA: I saw it as I was just behind them.
Q. (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) It is just to AS you said that you didn’t see it but you agreed with it anyway?
FA: Sometimes what you read in newspapers is wrong.
Q. (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) So would you like to see Lewis win as much as the other two drivers?
FA: We can be here forever and you cannot misunderstand what
I say, you know. When we say all these things, my best relationship for
example is with Robert. I would like to see him winning the
championship but I know this is quite difficult because I think the
performance of his car etc it will be difficult to recover 12 points.
I will do my own race but after all, when you finish the race and
see the results, you prefer some drivers to win or some teams to win
compared to others but I don’t think that I will be a key part of the
championship. Whatever driver wins will win because he won the last two
races or did a better job than the other one, so that’s all. You can
take whatever you can from my comment but it is very simple.
Q. (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi, compared to
last season when you were chasing Lewis and looking now at the
situation how much different is it? Will it be easier or more difficult
for Ferrari to try to achieve everything?
KR: What do you mean? I mean we try as a team to win both championships. It’s as simple as that.
Q. (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Will it be easier or more difficult for Ferrari to try to achieve everything?
KR: Yeah, it can be easier or it can be more difficult. It
depends really how these last two races go. Anything can happen. There
are three guys who can win, so last year I was quite a bit behind and I
was still able to do it, so I am not going to start guessing who is
going to win. I am sure whoever wins deserves it in the end and we hope
that our team will be there.
Q. (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) To all of you: it seems that
the number of races is reducing. What is the ideal number of races for
an ideal fight for the championship?
FA: It’s OK like this, I think.
KR: Yeah, I guess we expect to have 18 or maybe 17
next year but one or two races doesn’t make much difference. I think we
would have more testing if we don’t have races and if we do more
racing, there’s less testing, so for us racing is always the nicest
thing, I prefer races.
LH: I agree.
RK: This season the best would be seven, from my point of view. Someone should know why.
Q. (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, do you feel your driving is at all dangerous in any way?
LH: Not really.
Q. (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Do
Fernando or Kimi feel anything about Lewis’s driving this season, that
perhaps it’s been a bit over the edge?
KR: No comment.
FA: No comment.
Q. (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, could I just ask
you about your mood coming into this race because following what
happened in Fuji you’ve received quite a lot of criticism from both
drivers old and new, past and present…
LH: Have I? Well, I haven’t seen that. I was in Tokyo for a
couple of days and then I came here and I’ve not really paid any
attention to it. When you have not such a good race there’s always
going to be criticism which doesn’t matter whether it’s positive or
negative, you move forward, you put it in the past but coming here, I
feel just as strong as I always do. We’ve still got two races, we’re
still five points ahead, I still have a great opportunity to make the
next step. My team and myself have really collected ourselves and are
kind of moving forward.
Q. (Will Buxton – Australasian Motorsport News) Question to all
four drivers: the whole notion of what makes a safe or an unsafe
overtaking move – obviously you guys are out there racing, you are not
going for a Sunday afternoon drive over to your grandma’s house. What,
in your mind, constitutes an unsafe move and what constitutes a safe
move?
KR: First of all, it is a dangerous sport, so when you race
against somebody, you try to make sure that first of all you want to
get round him and not crash into him because it’s not going to help you
or him. But sometimes you get it wrong, when you push on the limit and
both guys try to go as fast as possible in a corner and not try to let
the other guy past. Sometimes you end up hitting each other and that’s
racing. The rules are quite tight.
Sometimes you get penalised, sometimes not but as I said, there are
always many different views of the same incidents or the same
situations. There is always going to be talk about penalties and stuff
but that’s unfortunately going to be a big part of Formula One. It’s
not always best for the sport but we’re here to race and try to get
past people and sometimes you get penalties out of it, even when you
don’t think it’s right. But that’s how it goes.
FA: Nothing to add.
Q. (Chinese Media) To all of you: this year, seven drivers have
already won races. Moreover, neither a McLaren nor a Ferrari driver was
able to once in the last three races. Do you think there will be even
more uncertainties in the final two races this year than last year?
LH: I think McLaren and Ferrari will both be competitive in
the last two races, as will BMW and Renault but who knows who’s going
to win? For sure whoever does the best job will finish at the top. We
all have a chance of doing that.
KR: There’s a lot of… you win a lot or you can lose
a lot in the last two races. For me or Heikki it’s more for the team,
to get the points in the first place and Lewis and Felipe are racing
against themselves. At some point, when the points are close, the other
guy needs to try to keep the other bloke behind and vice versa, so a
lot of things can easily go well for one guy and go badly for another.
Then you see different results sometimes, it can be because of the
weather but I wouldn’t put money on anybody, anybody can win really.
It gets more exciting in the last couple of races, especially for the
guys who are fighting for the championship.
FA: I think Ferrari and McLaren are clear
favourites to win the last races, one of the four guys. But I think the
last few races were a little bit special. In Monza it rained a lot, the
favourites started behind. Singapore was (affected by) the safety car,
if not the Ferrari and McLaren were leading the race until the safety
cars. With normal conditions, I think you will have more normal results.
RK: Same.
Q. (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) To all drivers other than Lewis:
do you think there’s a feeling among the drivers that you are jealous
or envious of the fact that Lewis at the moment is leading the drivers’
standings and also that wherever you go he seems to be the biggest star?
RK: I’m pretty happy with what I’m doing, so I’m fine.
FA: I’m very happy.
KR: I’m happy with my life, I wouldn’t change it.
Q. (Will Buxton – Australasian Motorsport News) To all drivers:
going back to the point of safe driving and punishments handed out by
stewards. As you say, you guys know in your own minds when you’ve
pulled off a safe move or a fair move. How much do you think it would
help having a permanent steward and more particularly a permanent
steward who was a former racing driver to be able to understand exactly
what racing is all about?
FA: I think it’s a good idea to have an ex-driver with the
stewards just to help them, just because the decisions they take are
difficult to know from the outside if you never drove a Formula One
car. As Kimi said before, I think it’s difficult to get the same
feeling and the same comment from all the drivers on the same accident.
Some of them will think that it’s fair, some of them not because I
think that’s normal. For the drivers, what will help is to have
consistency in the penalties. If one time you do something and you get
penalised, it’s not possible that the next time you do the same thing
and you don’t get penalised. I think we ask for a little bit more
consistency, even if they are very harsh.
KR: Yeah, for sure that would help. It would keep
people happier also, that every time you get the same decision. Maybe
if there would be an older driver there would be more respect and
people wouldn’t complain as much. It’s only that people want to have
the same thing happening every time, the same penalties and same rules.
LH: I’ve not really given it much thought to be honest.
RK: I agree with them.
That
was interesting and some questions were tricky, but it was not as rowdy
as we would have liked with these four drivers! Mr Big Balls decided to
remain oblivious to everything. Alonso had no problem expressing his
friendship with Kubica and Massa and using that to help them in the
championship. Kubica played it cool and didn’t directly claim to have
criticised Mr Big Balls specifically. I did laugh out loud at Kimi’s and Alonso’s "no comment" when being asked on his aggressive driving though, it says more. And
Kimi, well, he’s happy with his life and isn’t too bothered. That says
enough. He does prefer more racing to testing but for being a naughty
boy this season he has the biggest testing programme of his life this
winter, hahaha. Kimi explained the racing and penalty situation very well, that’s as straight forward as it can get.
Some of the drivers have spoken about ‘race driver stewarding’
and are asking for more consistancy with the penalties, which is no
surprise and we fans feel the same. And the drivers part of the GPDA will indeed go forward with their meeting later today, to raise concerns about Mr Big Ball’s driving behaviour:
Trulli is upset about the way Hamilton behaved when the Italian
tried to lap him during the Fuji race – claiming he lost valuable
seconds that cost him the chance of beating Nelson Piquet’s Renault for
fourth place."I am definitely unhappy," Trulli told autosport.com about
his views on Hamilton’s driving in Japan. "I was leading the race, he
was lapped and for two laps he held me up. This cost me 1.5 seconds,
which if we are going to put it back on my second pitstop could have
given me the chance to stay ahead of Renault after the stop."I am not saying I would have finished in front, but sometimes thing
like this can change a lot. Lewis did not even watch the mirrors
because he came back on the track right in front of me and he held me
up for two laps. And probably he should have paid more attention
because he was more or less out of the race. He was dead last and I
don’t understand why."Webber has said he wants to raise with Whiting the way that Hamilton
approached the first corner in Fuji – even though the Briton was
already handed a drive-through penalty for forcing Kimi Raikkonen off
the track."The braking areas is an issue because you cannot move around in the
braking areas like that," said Webber. "We lost a marshal at Monza (in
2000) when there were guys moving around in the braking areas and it is
very hard to change your line if you don’t know what is going to come.
That is the only thing that we need to look at."
I wonder what this meeting’s outcome will bring.
Whatever goes on around him, Kimi will do his best to go and get that win this weekend! We want to see you smiling on the top step at least one more time this year. I want to give a shout out to the girls at KimiChina.com as they’ll be in Shanghai supporting Kimi and have also designed some great fan t-shirts, promoting the slogan that was born here: Keep flying Kimi! ~
FUCK ISRAEL 
Com come, lovely dark maiden. There is dangerous driving, i.e. collisions at high differences in speed. And there are racing bumps.
Your Kimi has always been swift to chop across or take the line of a passed driver leaving no room for a come back.
None of the drivers present felt that these ‘skirmishes’ going into or round corners are dangerous. They are however subject to what is considered to be ‘fair’. Lewis has made mistakes and bumped Kimi because Kimi is experienced and skilled at being hard to overtake. Lewis has to push upto his limit to pass Kimi and occasionally makes a mistake. Lewis is quick to back off and allow a re-pass if he feels he has breached the rules. The Nurburg ring was an unjust penalty.
The other ‘touches’ are racing incidents. same as spins, brake failure and tyre failure. Just not as dangerous.
I have really enjoyed the close competition this season and applaud all the top contenders for a good competition and I am always sorry to see a driver drop out due to reasons not in his control. The penalties at Fuji were not justified. Any collision, even very minor cna cause damage. Kimi reckons Keikki was the biggest hit but Lewis got penalised. Ask Kimi if he wanted either to be penalised? It suited him, he was probably ‘cross’ at the time, but he’d be happy racing with people he knows may race hard but will never try to knock him further than close to the edge of the track.
I look forward to your response, Saisa.
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I know very well what bumping wheels is thank you very much! But there’s a limit, and that’s called be dangerous or simply stupid. Hamilton has been guilty of these two very things and why do you wonder he is a subject of discussion in the GPDA? Are they not racers too?I don’t need to justify Kimi’s racing behaviour, because he’s always been fair. Hard, but fair. Not wreckless, not overly selfish. He could have tried to pass Kubica again at Fuji but he didn’t because his second attempt was good enough and it saw him having to run wide to avoid a collision. So he felt he didn’t need to try again as any further attempt would obviously need to be more aggressive and perhaps wreckless. Hamilton’s problem is that he can’t drive professionally like this.I don’t agree with your view that the reason Hamilton ‘ups his game’ is because Kimi is hard to overtake. Hamilton could have waited after turn 1 to pass safely and not wrecklessly. He did the same at Spa after cutting the chicane – he didn’t give the lead back to Kimi, he re-positioned himself to make another attempt at turn 1 which the stewards felt was advantaged by cutting the chicane. Why Hamilton fans find it so hard to understand this is beyond me.We love racing, that’s why I’ve watched F1 for nearly 9 years, once I was old enough to understand it obviously. I’m sure the reason you still watch it after many years, is because you enjoy the competition. No one is complaining about the rivalry! We don’t like it when drivers disrespect others and feel they can do whatever they like as if they’re playing in the Playstation. That’s Hamilton’s problem. He is not a professional. F1 is for a place for the elite drivers of the world, not just the fastest. That’s my opinion. There’s a reason why it’s called the Pinnacle of motorsport.The penalties at Fuji were justified from the information and video footage the stewards had, that were not available to us spectators. The only penalty I disagree with is Bourdais. The FOM haven’t shown his onboard footage but showed Massa’s side camera footage.Hamilton took wreckless action in the braking points for turn 1, that’s been dangerous. Any idiot knows there will be consequences for that. i.e running wide/going off track. If there was gravel or grass there, do you think Hamilton would have bothered? You saw by his action that he took the main top 4 cars with him straight past the corner. Not just Kimi, 2 others. Heikki, Massa and Hamilton himself. As a result, Heikki made contact with Kimi and damaged his car. F1 cars are very fragile, more fragile than they were 10 years ago. Any slightest contact with the aero, which plays a big part in performance more than the engines now, causes a problem. That’s why the sport is so heavily regulated today. And that’s why Hamilton received his penalty, for causing the avoidable problem in the first place. It wasn’t Heikki’s fault that he touched Kimi, it wasn’t Heikki who was driving wrecklessly. Hamilton caused the problem. Kimi doesn’t care who gets penalties or not, he cares about the racing. He enjoyed racing with Kubica, he loved it. But that doesn’t mean he should be wreckless about it.Hamilton’s a hard racer, that’s fine, but he doesn’t know the limits. Watch his ‘racing’ performance at Bahrain, France, Monza, Spa, and now Fuji. That’s plenty of proof to confirm he has a problem.And my name is Saima, thanks!
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I believe Kimi will try his best to win the racing this weekend as he is a power man.
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Excellent press conference. Nice to see them all get stuck in to "dear Lulu" (I so love that name) for a change and to note that he can’t scramble together a decent reply to any of it.
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Hellooooo!Who´s this OldeWalde person? Don´t pay attention to him/her, obvious Hamster fan that wants to stir up the place here; we(you) know how Kimi is, how talented he is and that he never, ever pulls dirty tricks on anybody; whatever happened to him this year that may have seemed "wreckless" was not in his control (Monaco, for example); but I understand your need to defend what´s said and done, I would do the same ;pWell that was interesting, although I expected a bit more……fighting? But of course they´re not going to fight in a press conference…..Alonso was subtle anyway, no comment on whether he thought Hamster´s driving was over the edge; that a**hole from the Daily Mail asking them if they were jealous of Lewis because he´s a star, WTF was that? he´s a star at f**ing up!(sorry, I´m ranting too, hehe). And Hamster being his usual robotic self, with the same bs after he´s done something royally stupid like in Japan, "we move forward together, as a team, blah, blah", Dennis wasn´t happy with you dear after Fuji!And dear Kimster is at ease "racing for the team"….I think that know that he´s got the pressure to win back to back WDC´s off him, he can enjoy the end of the season(even if that means helping Felipe, but he´s a true sportsman, unlike others), and he´ll be looking forward to next year and that suuuper intensive testing programme. I think it´s good that they want him to test so much, it will certainly help him get the new car the way he wants, and to get to grips with the tyres.Tomorrow is his birthday, I´m so excited, I have yet to leave my greeting on Kimi.fr, but I will today, I just wanted to look for something really special to say….KEEP FLYING KIMI – KEEP FLYING EVENSTAR!!!!
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OldeWalde’s been around here for a while, even before you and Nicki appeared. He just supports racing, but I feel he’s getting annoyed at Hamilton criticisms. He does like Kimi, well he used to!That’s how rubbish our British reporters are, especially for the newspapers like Daily Mail, ugh! Sorry about that Kimi lol.
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kimi’s birthday is coming advance happy b-day kimi wish you good luck win the race and kick hamilton butt again in the next race..hehehhe..kip flying raikko #1
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Mr White has written his blog on the race in Fuji, finally 🙂 Some points I want to add:1. It wasn’t just me then who thought Hamster deserved a greater punishment for what he did. But it was interesting to hear from Peter that Heikki was also part of the dirty tactics. I don’t agree with this though, McLaren would have had no guessing about Kimi’s improvement in qualy and therefore starting on the dirty side should originally be a disadvantage. It was Hamster’s idiocy, plain and simple in my opinion. McLaren defending him is just obviously what they’re going to do anyway.2. I understand why Ferrari may have been annoyed with Kimi’s race, to be frank, he could have won if Hamster didn’t do what he did. Kimi had nowhere to go at all but straight, he was concerned about his car getting damaged and couldn’t do anything for Massa. He avoided touching Massa and because Kimi was on the kerbs, Massa was able to pass anyway. I don’t think Kimi cost Massa anything at the start. Kimi went to the left before Hamster braked because he was getting ready to turn into the corner, but obviously Hamster braked too late and locked, sending Kimi straight with him.3. I also noticed Kimi looking at his mirrors before the start, it looked funny indeed as if he were saying "I’m going to get you" but once they also showed Massa looking at his mirror too I knew it was clear they were following the progress going on at the back as the grid lined up, hehe!
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Thanks for posting that, it made me laugh lots, oh to have been a fly on the wall at that conference! Peter’s blog certainly gives food for thought, and although I remain a tad skeptical, after watching the link he provided I can see where he’s coming from. I guess it’s because I know I’d be so disappointed that any team could be so unsporting, but, at the same time, after the Spygate last year I’m not sure I’d put anything past McLaren. It”s all conjecture really, but it does put me off the ‘sport’ to an extent.
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"Keep flying, Kimi!"–> you must be so proud of that. 🙂 It’s an amazing slogan, really. So fitting, so uplifting. :DThose comments of Peter White explained why Ferrari were disgruntled at Kimi’s race. We didn’t know why, when Kimi had, in our opinion, a better race than Massa- he finished ahead, anyway, and moved from 8th to 2nd. We didn’t know why Massa had a "marvelous race" or something like that while Kimi had a "good race". But really, it must be difficult to try to think of how best to help your teammate. In a situation like that, you do think of yourself, first and foremost. Unless you’re someone like… well, Barrichello (nothing against him, of course), who played 2nd driver to Michael Schumacher for many years. :)Great conference, hehe. The ‘no comment’ says so much. And Kimi always has the best answers. 🙂
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