Raikkonen: All I’m missing is a race simulation

For Kimi, this was the penultimate day of testing before the start of the season as he got back behind the wheel of the F14 T. His last day comes on Saturday. This morning’s the Finn’s progress was delayed by a problem, but the afternoon went well.

“Before I leave Sakhir, it’s planned that I should do a race distance and that’s the only thing I’m missing. Today we chose to concentrate on some of the many things we still have to work on and we won’t assess the winter testing until the final day, when we will put together all the data we have gathered. What I can say is that I have been through worse winters than this.”

Raikkonen seemed very relaxed about the topic of fuel consumption and how it could influence the races, when asked about it by journalists.

“It’s been years now that we haven’t been able to drive flat out from start to finish,” he replied. “First you had to look after the engines, then it was the tyres. You are never pushing 100% on every lap because there is always something you have to keep an eye on. We will also get used to the 2014 situation, but we have to start racing before worrying about it.”

As for what he thought the others were up to, Kimi gave his characteristically succinct response.

“We have been on different programmes and I don’t think you can judge a car’s potential from how many laps it does in testing. We have a lot of things to test and we want to make the most of these days to check everythting, because the race weekend doesn’t last long and the hours on Friday fly by, while on the other days you are only looking for performance.”

Tomorrow, the second day of this final test, Fernando Alonso will be in the F14 T.