08/07/2008
NEWS STORY
Although his team has been lambasted for its Silverstone performance, World Champion Kimi Raikkonen claims it could have been worse, but that there is no need to panic.
"We didn't win the British GP, but at least as far as I'm concerned, I didn't lose too much ground," writes the Finn in his Ferrari blog. "It was a very difficult race. We didn't expect the rain to become more intense immediately after our pit stop: but that's what happened and we found ourselves in one of the worst possible situations for nine endless laps. I think I've never driven a Formula One race under such difficult conditions. It was almost impossible to stay on the track with used tyres and so much water. Although going slow I was almost everywhere aquaplaning! I could just hope not to bump into someone or something.
"But one should never give up," he continues, "and that's what me and the team did. Once we had changed the tyres the situation was under control and I could make up ground. It was a great feeling to get back and into the points so fast. Then there was the battle with Alonso for fourth position. It was a very important point to compete for, but I didn't want to risk too much. In the end I managed to overtake him and get that place.
"Considering everything that happened, it could have gone worse," he admits. "We had the pace to win and there's no doubt about it, but we took a wrong decision. We spoke about it via radio with the pit-wall and we thought that, based on the forecast, the rain should not have lasted much longer than a couple of minutes and that's why we decided to keep the same set of tyres. But the forecast was wrong and I had to slow down a lot: This shower seemed to last forever.
"Having said that, the whole weekend was not very easy. We came to Silverstone with a good feeling after the tests, but for some reason or other, the car didn't go as well on Friday. It went better on Saturday, but the wind made everything much more difficult during Q3: the third spot on the grid was not too bad.
"I had a good start and tried to find a gap to overtake Heikki and Webber. But suddenly Mark came to the left and I had to slow down, because I had nowhere to go. Hamilton had a good start and I lost a position to him. When we came close to the pit stop I had the highest pace over the weekend and it seemed as if everything went in the right direction. Unfortunately the black clouds came back and everything changed again. The five points and the fact that I'm leading the standings with Felipe and Lewis give me satisfaction nevertheless. If I'm in such a position after four races, where everything happened, my confidence can only be strengthened.
"Now we are looking ahead to the next race and react without panic. We know that we have a winning car: we just need a weekend without big problems. As of today we are at Hockenheim for two days of testing, with Felipe, who'll be on the track on Thursday. It's my first race with Ferrari on this track, so it's a new experience for me. I'd say that we'll be competitive, because the F2008 has demonstrated to be competitive wherever we are: so we can fight back!