18/04/2007
NEWS STORY
Although he is joint leader of the World Championship, Kimi Raikkonen is fully aware that he could be doing better. On Sunday, in particular, even though he finished third, for much of the race he was uninspired, making a rare mistake when he was clearly caught napping at the restart.
Although he is happy with some aspects of his opening three races with Ferrari, he admits that there is room for improvement, particularly when it comes to qualifying.
"We picked up a lot of points, but we could have done even better," he says. "We were unable to get as much out of the car as we would have liked.
"We have to work hard to achieve this and now we must wait for the Barcelona test to see how the new parts we have coming will work," he continues.
"The Bahrain weekend was difficult: the car was not quite the way I wanted and we did not do everything perfectly. I would say it can't be denied that the main problem is in qualifying. Our race pace is good and we can go up against anyone but over the single lap we are not there yet. And if you are not up with the front runners right from the start then you can say goodbye to the chance of winning."
Looking back at the race, he says: "I lost a place to Alonso and then I did not have a big enough edge to overtake him on the track and was stuck behind him. The only hope was the pit stop. You never know what can happen, but the team did a great job, calling me in at the right time and doing everything perfectly, as only the Ferrari lads can do. Unfortunately, the leaders were already a way ahead and there was little I could do about winning. So I didn't see the point in taking any risks and chose to look after the car, especially as I will be using that same engine in Barcelona.
"Twenty two points are a good amount, but I think I could have got all the available points," he continues. "I am sure we can be stronger if we manage to optimise the performance of the car and I hope we start doing at the next test session."
The Melbourne winner is looking forward to the start of the European season, which gets underway on May 13, almost a month from now, following a major test at the Spanish track.,
"I am happy to be back racing in Europe and having less travelling to do before getting to the track," he admits. "Even if all the teams will have new things, we can be sure that the fight will still be very tight.
"At the moment, there are at least two cars and four drivers at the same level, so it's going to be busy out there! For the fans it will definitely be exciting and spectacular and for our part, we cannot afford to make the slightest slip up if we want to win."