Watch the full conference in video below.
Q: Kimi, another Monaco winner, do you consider a win here to be more important than other races? What did you feel when you ticked that Monaco win off your bucket list?
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Obviously it’s been pretty OK many times for me the race but then it’s not always from your side that the things go wrong here. There’s so many things that can affect your result in the end. Previous years haven’t been the most best again but hopefully this year can be a bit better and hopefully we get some good points but obviously it’s too early to say how the car will be. Everything is different from last year so we have to just go open-minded and try to do the best that we can.
Q: Was Spain something of a turning point for you in terms of being able to extract closer to the maximum potential from the Ferrari? What made the difference there for you? And also, can you say anything about your analysis of the strategy in that race afterwards?
KR: We’ve been pretty good in other races also but obviously had some problems in the race or in practice and always messed up the complete big picture a bit. But obviously it was a bit better last time around. To be honest, if we finished where we finished, I think sixth and seventh, it’s not at all where we want to be as a team, so we still have an awful lot of work to do. We improve things little-by-little but the other teams are also going forward so it’s not a simple thing to fix and be in front suddenly. We know how it works and we know how much things have to improve but we keep working hard and for sure one day we will get there.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Aron Day – FormulaSpy.com) Kimi, you’ve driven the V10s, the V8s around Monaco. Do you think the new cars will be more difficult to drive?
KR: It’s difficult to say before we drive. I think if your car is normally good, it doesn’t really matter where you go. You know how it behaves and it will be OK. Obviously a bit less grip this year and maybe some cars are a bit more hard to handle but we have to see how it goes on the first practice and see what it is. But I think we’ve improved a lot since the winter and it should be OK.
Q: (Vladamir Rogovets – SB Belarus Segodnya) To all of you: what is your favourite braking zone in Monaco?
JB: Well, I think after the tunnel, that’s good, I like that.
J-EV: Last corner, there is nearly no braking. I don’t know.
VB: Yeah, I think the tunnel as well, because that’s one of the places it could be possible to overtake, so let’s say that. Yeah.
RG: Casino. It goes quickly up hill and when you get to the top you just have to brake. It’s quite a nice feeling.
NR: Same, up the hill, it’s very very difficult because it’s a very very fast corner and you’re trying to carry the speed in and if you get it wrong and you’re going too fast, it’s very easy to lose the line.
KR: No, I don’t really have one favourite one. Any of them. You can chose.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, are you going to carry on with the James Hunt-style design of your helmet here?
KR: No.
Q: (Vincent Marre – Sports Zeitung) To all six of you: if there is one day race that we have now in this calendar that you would like to change into a night race, assuming there is no technical issue, which one would it be? There must be one.
VB: This one would be cool, I think. It would look nice.
J-EV: Yeah, I think this one as well under lights.
JB: Same, same thing. It would be really nice to race in Monaco at night.
RG: I don’t know; why not Melbourne?
NR: Japan, so there’s no jetlag.
KR: I cannot hear the question. I understood by their answers but I’m happy how they are, we can always dream about things but we don’t make the rules, so there’s no point.
Q: (Ben Edwards – BBC) Nico and Kimi; we lost a legend of Formula One, Sir Jack Brabham, this last week. Obviously his exploits were before you guys were born but can I just ask if you had any contact with Sir Jack Brabham, if you have any thoughts about his career and also if you’d been born in a different era, would you have ever considered going down that kind of route that he did, of building his own car? Kimi, you’ve set up teams; Nico you have an interest in engineering. If you’d been born in that era, could you have seen yourselves go down that route?
KR: Obviously I read and I was so sad to hear that he had passed away. Obviously these days are different than the days that they used to race and they could do different categories, different races. It would be very nice if they would be able to do different things at the same time and different races and try different things more. But the problem is everything gets so much more expensive these days and obviously people are more scared that you get hurt that they try to limit everything that you do. It’s a shame because I think it would be more fun for everybody and all sports would also benefit from it, and F1. It would be nice to do stuff like they did.
NR: It’s an amazing achievement that he did at the time, to win in another team but also in his own team, in his own car that he built. It’s extremely unlikely to ever happen again but you never know, but it’s a record that is definitely going to last a long time.
VIDEO
(Source: fia.com)
KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN SPACE 