Kimi’s Column: Bahrain GP Review

From KimiRaikkonen.com

A Mouthful of Oxygen

Let’s say that I’m not too thrilled about sixth place, but considering the circumstances I’m glad I gained these three points, the first of this season for me and the team. It wasn’t the start to the season as we had expected, but that’s how it went. Three points are not much, considering that the championship leader won the race but it’s still better than nothing. Finally, bringing home both cars, we’ve made a small step foward. Now we’re ready to make the most important thing, hoping that it will enable us to fight for the top positions.

The race at Sahkir was the hottest of the season. It was really hard work, but I did not have any problems; I really liked it, because that means that the hard preparations during the winter bears fruits.

The F60 did fine in Bahrain, although we lacked some speed. The set-up was good, especially with the softer tyres. The trend seems to be confirmed that our cars run better in higher temperatures. A fifth place might have been possible, but we lost some precious seconds due to the small problem during the final pit-stop, otherwise I would have rejoined infront of Rubens although then it would have been difficult keeping him under control. I fought with Glock’s Toyota, although I had the harder compound, but my car was faster on the straight; that was enough to keep him behind me.

I’ve been asked how many points we’ve thrown away during the first races. It’s difficult to reply, but most of all I don’t want to continue talking about the mistakes and problems that we’ve had. As usual, we have to look ahead; the past is the past and we can’t change it. The most important thing is that now there is an important development of the car coming up. The Team works an awful lot to improvement the performance for the next race in Barcelona, although we know that the other teams are doing the same. Let’s hope that we can make a bigger step forward than the other teams. If we manage to gain at least three tenths of a second then we will be able to fight for more than just sixth place.

Before we start thinking again about the championship, we’ve got to see what we can do at Barcelona. It’s obvious that the situation in difficult, especially because there is a driver who has won three out of four races. Obviously I won’t surrender, but we’ve got to get back onto the podium as soon as possible and make the car faster so we are able to fight for the win as of mid-season.

These days I’m following one of my preferred sports; ice-hockey. The world championships are held in Switzerland and Finland is playing at an ice rink close to my house. I hope my team will continue to win, as last night against Denmark, the first match I’ve watched. I’ll try to go to the stadium as often as possible, I know several players and I’m really enjoying watching them playing live.

 
I’m glad he didn’t find the heat in Bahrain too bad, as he trained a
lot in the season preparations he said. I felt bad to see Alonso was so
badly dehydrated, as he had no water!
Anyways, Kimi is so mature and he has a well-thought out
mentality about the championship situation – I can’t believe people
question his attitude towards the team. I doubt he’ll be treated any kinder despite scoring the first points for Ferrari but watch the 2009 Bahrain GP Highlights that i posted last night and you’ll hopefully share in my sense of feeling better things to come. Of course, he has to mention the ice-hockey in this column and it was just so cool to see Kimi so happy and relaxed:

  

The Iceman was at the ice-hockey match between Finland and
Denmark in Switzerland yesterday evening. Kimi, sitting in the audience in
his black cap and jeans, was shown on television with the "Formula One
Champion 2007" tagline and he happily waved back with a mate (more pictures here courtesy of Vakie, including the video below). Kimi rushed from Bahrain
to Switzerland to make it in time for the game. Ain’t that sweet, the
lad’s enjoying his time and he loves his ice hockey so goes to see it
whenever he can. Kimi is awesome! And he’ll probably be at the next match this Wednesday. Keep Flying Kimi!