02/07/2015
NEWS STORY
Despite being the most popular driver on the 2015 grid, according to the GPDA survey, whether Kimi Raikkonen is still on the grid in 2016 is one of the major topics up for discussion at present.
Speaking at today's official press conference, the Finn, as ever, was giving little away.
"I don't know," he replied, when asked if he was confident he could meet the team's targets. "Obviously they'll make the decision.
"We try to do good races," he continued. "Obviously the last race was a bit difficult but that's part of the game, sometimes you have that. Who knows: I don't know anything more than you guys, so I will know hopefully at some point what will happen. There are always speculations to start off the year and it's always the same stories. It doesn't really surprise me a lot so let's see what happens."
However, elsewhere in the paddock, former Ferrari driver, Felipe Massa, claimed that all is not what it seems.
"Everybody says 'Iceman', I tell you he's not really like that," said the Brazilian, who having partnered the Finn at Ferrari between 2007 and 2009, was subsequently replaced by him in 2014.
"For sure, he can suffer as well with the pressure and he shows that as well in some results," he continued. "He needs to relax and try to do his best because he's definitely a big talent and can do a lot better than what he's doing. Everybody knows that."
Other than pressure within the team, and Massa talks from experience, there is the pressure from the media and the tifosi.
"Ferrari is a big company so every day you are in the media for good or for bad," said the Brazilian. "Sometimes this is not helping the driver or even the team. Definitely you have a lot more pressure there than maybe other team.
"I felt a lot of pressure in difficult moments and you need to just relax," he concluded. "That's what I did, I was happy to go to the right place and things changed in the better way for me."