07/07/2016
NEWS STORY
Ahead of his 100th Grand Prix for Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen insists he is as driven as ever.
The Finn, currently level with teammate Sebastian Vettel on 96 points and third in the championship, is on notice from Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne that if he wants to remain in F1 in 2017 he has to demonstrate that he's still up for it and hungry.
Ahead of his one hundredth Grand Prix for the Italian team, with which he won the title in 2007, the Finn insists that if his heart wasn't in it he wouldn't still be racing.
"I have always said that I would not be here if I didn't enjoy it or felt that I can't drive, or do it 100 percent," he told reporters. "That hasn't changed. If I wasn't motivated, I wouldn't be here wasting my own time or the team's time.
"I feel I drive as well as I've ever driven," he continued. "If I didn't feel like I'm driving well, I would be the first one to go away and not do it, but it's not that.
"I obviously enjoy it more when the results are better," he admitted, "but that doesn't mean that you drive better than you drove before. It's just that the whole package is better around you and we do a better job improving the package.
"This is my 100th race with Ferrari, it doesn't sound like a lot but it's quite a few years. This is the best team in F1, together we won a title in 2007, we had good years and some difficult ones. I'm really happy to be part of Ferrari, the atmosphere is fantastic, we are always pushing each other forward and hopefully we'll get the team back where it belongs.
"I always said that my last team would be Ferrari and it's still like that. What happens in the future I don't know, time will tell, but I usually don't make plans for a very long future.
"Things change in life very quickly and hopefully I'll stay healthy and we'll see what happens in the future. I haven't really put a lot of thought into it but I'm sure there's a lot of nice things to do in the future.
"It's still a long season to go," he concluded, "we'll face every race trying to maximize the result. We'll see where we end up at the end of the year but I'm sure we can win races this year, we'll keep fighting until is possible."
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