Kimi Raikkonen says he is not dwelling on his disappointing 2008 season as he aims to bounce back in this year's championship. The 2007 world champion was unable to defend his title last season, enduring a difficult campaign during which he was overshadowed by Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa. Raikkonen was unable to feel perfectly comfortable with the handling of the Italian squad's car for most of the season, but the Finn admits he already has a better feeling with this year's F60. "It's too early to tell. For sure the feeling has been good," Raikkonen told Corriere della Sera. "You always learn from your mistakes, but I'm not particularly interested in understanding last year: we can't change the way things went, and it doesn't help us to do things better now. "I'm happy to talk about what we can do this year." The Finn also said he's not looking for revenge following his poor 2008 season. "No, I only try to give my best," he added. "Everyone knows what we can do and our objective is to win the championship. "There are many things that need to go well to achieve that, and I'm not necessarily talking about luck. But I'm not thinking of that now: I think about doing some good tests and having a strong start to the season in the early races." The Ferrari driver admitted he was left pleased with how last week's Bahrain test went. "Very well," he said of the test. "It was a good first step, everything worked. As for slicks, in the end I haven't found many differences compared to when we tried them on the old car before Christmas." Raikkonen, who scored just two victories last year, said he was not looking at what his rivals were doing during the winter. "I have no idea how the other teams are working," he said. "So far the laptimes have all been very close, but during testing you use different tyres, you try things that will turn out to be good or bad only later. But I'm neither interested nor worried about the others. Let's think about ourselves." The former world champion, who has a contract with Ferrari until 2010, insisted the Maranello squad will be the last he drives for in F1. "We'll see whether in two years' time I'm still enjoying myself or whether I want to do other things," Raikkonen said of his future. "But what's certain is that Ferrari will be my last team. Which doesn't meant that I will definitely quit in 2010..." Source: autosport.com
Interesting... "We'll see whether in two years' time I'm still enjoying myself or whether I want to do other things," Raikkonen said of his future. "But what's certain is that Ferrari will be my last team. Which doesn't meant that I will definitely quit in 2010..."
That's a huge understatement! This is really good news. If Ferrari can get the car/tire situation worked out this year, Kimi will match his fastest laps last year with wins this year!
We will see if he gets along with the new car. It seems that he gets along well with his new drinking buddy, Axl Rose! http://www.paddocktalk.com/news/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=103155&newlang=&topic=8&catid=0
