Formula 1 News

Kimi Raikkonen: “supersoft tires won’t be a problem” 

Kimi Raikkonen dismissed suggestions that his Ferrari team will be disadvantaged by Bridgestone’s supersoft tires in Brazil this weekend, and reiterated his intentions to win the season finale on Sunday. Raikkonen trails championship leader Lewis Hamilton by seven points and Fernando Alonso by four.

The Finn will only be able to win the championship if he finishes the Brazilian Grand Prix at least second while Hamilton scores no points and Alonso finishes no higher than fifth. And with McLaren previously proving the better car on Bridgestone’s supersoft tires, paddock pundits have speculated that Raikkonen could be disadvantaged at Interlagos. But Raikkonen believes this is no longer the case.

“I’ve been reading stories that the supersoft tires should be better for our competitors,” Raikkonen said on Ferrari’s official website. “That might have been true early in the season. But then things improved for us in terms of the set-up. So we just have to wait and see how it goes in Brazil. We go to Brazil in position three, so I’m not really the favourite for the title. But as we saw at Shanghai two weeks ago anything can happen. Whatever will happen, it’s going to be a very exciting race. We will give it all. We couldn’t do very much to prepare ourselves for Interlagos,” Raikkonen continued. “We have just done some simulations and analysed the data. At Interlagos we need a strong package, especially the engine is very important for the long rising main straight. Let’s hope that everything will be all right for this demanding and bumpy track. I know that the track has been redone, but we have to wait and see. I think that our competitors have done their job as we did. There’s lots of pressure on both sides. They have two drivers in the race for the title and they also fight each other. Hopefully we can benefit from that. I go into this race the same way as into the last two: my aim is to win, and the rest is not up to me. It is a similar situation as in 2003, when I lost the title to Michael Schumacher. Hamilton has seven points more than us: there’s not much to calculate. We have to win and that’s it.”