Fresh F1

Interview with Kimi in the Finnish Gazette Turun Sanomat

TS reporter: Did you do qualifying runs [in testing this winter]?
Kimi Räikkönen: We didn’t focus on that; we focused on race lengths and reliability. In Bahrain we only had one new car [fitted] with the new parts so there was no time for anything else. I don’t think that would be a problem. Usually the car is quite the same to drive qualifying laps, it’s just the fuel load that is different. Of course it would help if we had practiced qualifying laps, but different tracks have different tricks. We still have all the Fridays and Saturdays to do set up work for qualifying too.

TS reporter: Is Ferrari as strong as the rivals have said?
Kimi Räikkönen: Tricky to say. We had a good pace in Bahrain with our new car. Hard to say if it’s the same somewhere else (at other tracks), but I think it will be good. We have a strong package. However anyone alse can find something `crucial` that will get them right to the top. We’ll see in races. Australia will tell where we are. You can always speculate who is the fastest and who is not. I think that there could be some surprises too.

TS reporter: Who may surprise?
Kimi Räikkönen: I’d say most likely BMW, they have been quite competitive all winter. I don’t know about Renault, they have been quite `mild`, but at the end Bahrain test they got some speed. McLaren will be strong. They are our biggest rivals.

Translation by Warwick.

~ by Wiz Kid on March 10, 2007.