Thursday in Germany: “We always hope for a win”

| Source: autosport.com |

[ Listen to Kimi speaking ahead of the German GP here ]

Kimi Raikkonen says he has no concerns that Pirelli’s new Formula 1 tyres will hurt his Lotus team’s form from the German Grand Prix.

Pirelli is introducing revised tyres featuring a Kevlar belt in order to avoid the problems seen in the British Grand Prix last weekend.

Lotus was among the teams that lobbied against tyre changes for the Canadian GP as it felt the move could hurt its form.

Raikkonen feels there is no reason to worry, as he says the tyres he tested in Canada felt fine.

“They have to do some changes and that is what has been decided,” said Raikkonen in Germany. “If they are similar tyres to those we tried in Canada it actually felt better.

“So, I don’t know if it is going to be the same but I have no concerns.

“I think we had one run, but it was OK.”

Q&A from Lotus Team audio interview:

Q: How are you looking forward to the Nurburgring?

KR: Hopefully we can have a good strong weekend and we can try to gain some points to the guys infront of us.

Q: What do you think of this circuit, is it difficult to set up the car for?

KR: We’ll see how it goes this weekend, I haven’t been in here for many years and with the team so we’ll see how it starts tomorrow.

Q: The tyres have changed, do you see that as a challenge or is it same for everyone?

KR: Same for everyone, obviously they had to do something so we tried the tyres in Canada and they felt pretty good so.

Q: You’ve had fast cars in Germany before but you’ve never won here, do you think this could be the year?

KR: We hope. If not win, at least to go a bit better than usually here.

On Twitter:

@adamcooperf1
Kimi opens up to the media on his future: “It’s four days ago when you probably asked last time. It hasn’t changed anything…”

@KoiranenGP
I think a certain Finn is visiting our Finnish team… Welcome #Kimi! #LordsOfRing #GP3 @Lotus_F1Team #KoiranenGP pic.twitter.com/8qXheRPGJs

@F1Photographer
Just had fun 2-1/2 min shoot with Kimi “Ok that’s enough pictures!” #raikkonen & @eboulier You gotta be quick in #f1 #GermanGP

Other News:

Sebastian Vettel on Kimi/RedBull in today’s drivers press conference

Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Sebastian, would you like to have Daniel Ricciardo as your teammate next season?
SV: Well, I don’t mind. As I said at Silverstone, after Mark announced his retirement, obviously I think it’s early days to talk about that and even if it’s not my decision, he sits here, right now so if I could I would give him the seat but equally if Kimi was there, I would give him the seat. It’s not my intention to do any good or any bad to people. I think it’s something decided by the team and so far we haven’t really spoken about it. At the moment, we have other concerns. As you saw last race we retired, that was the number one concern, so to fix that problem for this race to make sure that we don’t retire for the same reason again and maybe a little bit later we talk about drivers as well, but again it’s not my decision. As far as I know, I think Daniel is doing a very good job and all the rest is not in my hands. Sorry mate…