10/01/2008
NEWS STORY
Three days after his first taste of the F2008, the car with which he will defend his title, 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen sat down with reporters at Madonna di Campiglio.
We're in Madonna di Campiglio which might remind you of your home country. When you're in the snow, do you enjoy the sensation of speed just as much as you enjoy the sensation of speed in a racing car?
Kimi Raikkonen: For sure it's completely different to racing but it's good fun. I enjoy it, I will do more snowboarding than I did last year when I was skiing for fun. It's good days.
Coming back here for the second year, perhaps you might have thought back to last year. Did you honestly ever think last year that you would have come back here as a World Champion?
KR: For sure we were hoping for it but you never know. We try to do all our work as well as we can and hopefully to achieve what everybody wants, every year, to win the championship. We won two championships last year so I'm very happy for that and it's much nicer to come back here now, one year later, than it was a year ago when I didn't know the people, I didn't know the team, but now it's much easier for me also.
You had the first shakedown with the new car earlier this week in Fiorano and you're testing the car probably more extensively next week in Jerez. Do have an idea what the testing schedule will be like?
KR: I think it's going to be a normal test for us. The car ran very well in Fiorano and of course the conditions were not ideal. It's hard to say exactly how you feel about the car, but for me the feeling was very good so that's the only way I can tell. I think we are going to see next week in Jerez when we take the car on a normal circuit and then we see. Hopefully the weather will be good. We will have two cars so we hope to have good running and a lot of laps so then we will see.
Kimi, Casey Stoner was very complimentary about you and also about your achievements on track. He said that watched your season this year. Do you watch MotoGP also and what do you think about Casey as a person and his achievements as well?
KR: Yeah, for sure I enjoy watching the MotoGP because there are a lot of things happening and the racing is usually very exciting, plus being in kind of the same team, so I watch most of the races, but not all of course, but he's a nice guy, we've met in some events which we've done together. He's achieved a lot this year and I think he's going to be there for many many years, winning the championships. He's a nice guy. Compliments back to him. It's nice to hear he says good things.
How long do you want to work together with Ferrari?
KR: Yeah, I have a contract for two more years and then I always said before that I'm not in a hurry to make any new contracts. For sure, if I want, I could make a new contract tomorrow but when I feel like it, I will see what it feels like and then I will finish my contract and before I finish it I will make a new plan and then we will see what happens. So far I enjoy Formula One, I'm very happy with the team, I like to work with the people but we will see what happens in the future.
Kimi, you know Ron Dennis quite well. He told us a while ago that he was a very honest man. It turns out that he wasn't as honest as he told us. Were you surprised by that?
KR: I don't really want to get involved in things about other people because to do with me. It's better not to say anything because otherwise people start thinking differently about us. I think he's a nice guy, seriously. There are many different ways to look at the whole situation. Everybody has their own ideas.
Kimi, would you like Michael Schumacher more involved in testing?
KR: I think that how the testing is now it's very difficult for the test drivers to have many laps, many days, because we don't have such a lot of testing. We drivers do most of the testing just purely because we test what we get. If we are not able to test, it's good that he's doing it and for sure it's not going to hurt us. He has good experience of Formula One, he knows what he's doing. For me it's good that he does the tests if we cannot do it.
In the Ducati team, everybody is in no doubt who is the number one on the team. Casey is the new World Champion, but at Ferrari it seems there are some doubts about this position. Do you think you are the World Champion and you have to be number one in the team?
KR: I think that it's been the same for me. We start the season at the same level, everybody, and we do the best that we can. We try to win races. There's a point in the season when the other guy's in a better position, you need to make sure that he can get all the efforts from the team and all the chances so I don't really worry about whether I'm number one or number two. I always do my best. That's the main thing.
Kimi, has winning the World Championship changed you at all, and if so, how do you approach the coming season? Is it any different to previous years?
KR: I think I haven't changed myself too much. Sure, I had achieved what I wanted in my life, so it's a nice thing, but I wouldn't say that it has changed me as a person. Coming to this new season, it's hopefully going to be more easy-going, the first part of the season than it was last year. It's a new season but it's with the same team, so it's going to be kind of much easier for me and much easier for the team, so I wish we can have a slightly stronger start of the year and then we will go from there.
We have two new venues this season, both of them are street circuits. What are your feelings about street circuits?
KR: Actually, I like them a lot. I enjoy Monaco. It's maybe not the nicest thing for the spectators and maybe on TV it doesn't look the most exciting, but as a person, when you want to go fast, it's good fun there. It will be interesting to see how they do. We are going to have two new street circuits and how they are going to come, how they are going to look and what they are like to drive. I enjoy it for sure.
What do you think you can improve for next season over last year?
KR: I think we want to improve everywhere, the car, we know where we have the most difficult time in certain areas in races and on certain circuits, but also I improve my driving every time I go in the car so as a team we are pushing forward and hopefully we can improve in those areas where want.