Formula 1 News

Kimi Raikkonen: “Ferrari can be really strong in Istanbul” 

“It was nice that I was able to relax a bit with my good friends in Finland, before leaving for Istanbul; we were really lucky, because we had very good weather. We didn’t have any tests after the race at Barcelona, but I bet that our competitors have worked hard to be prepared as good as possible to beat us at Istanbul.”

“But I’m not worried at all. We worked and I’m convinced that Ferrari can be really strong there. And when you have a look at this year’s tracks so far, Istanbul Park is very similar to Sepang and Sakhir, where we could win. That makes us think that we’ll be competitive over the weekend.”

“Barcelona was a perfect weekend for me and the Team. Now we want to keep that rhythm and we will push very hard. The Pole helped a lot and it seems that starting ahead of everybody else is a necessary condition for winning the race at Istanbul, too. Last year I made a mistake in Q3 and I paid a very high price.”

“I like the Turkish GP’s circuit, it’s the best of the new circuits. You go uphill and downhill and it has some very challenging corners. You get a great feeling, especially when you get Turn 8 right. We are racing anticlockwise for the first time this season and it will out our neck muscles under pressure. I won two out of four races and got one second position. With my 29 points I’m leading the Championship by 9. I’m very happy how things have gone so far, but the situation can change in a second; we need to push 100 percent to stay ahead of our competitors. I won’t change my approach. It’s too early to think about anything else than a victory. I want to bring home as many points as possible; I like to race with this aim in mind.

“We’re leading the Championship, but that is not important at the moment; what counts is that we’re leading at the end of the season. If we want to stay ahead the easiest thing is that we keep the others behind in the races. Our goal is to get another one-two win as hard as the Finnish ice-hockey team at the World Championships in Canada at the moment.”

“I’m glad that Heikki is well: the safety standard of our racing cars is really high, which is good for all of us and for our sport.”

source: Ferrari