Raikkonen: Difficult, but hopefully we are wrong!

The last championship round in Belgium saw something of a return to form for Kimi Raikkonen and at today’s press conference in the Monza paddock, the Finn reckoned the improvement actually pre-dated that race. “We had a pretty okay feeling in the races before Spa, but something always happened, being hit by another driver, or other small issues,” said the Scuderia Ferrari driver. “It’s very hard to get a good result when you have problems like that. In Belgium, the race itself was probably the first one where we had no issues at all and the result was a bit better. We can have a good race here. We need a clean weekend, so that we start by running our normal programme on Friday.”

The Finn admits the high speed nature of Monza will present some engineering challenges. “We expect to have a little bit more difficult race here because straight line speed is what we are lacking a bit, not so much in qualifying but in the race, where we have a bigger disadvantage,” he explained. “We expected that situation in Spa, but it turned out to be surprisingly good for us, so hopefully we will find something similar here, but we need to wait and see tomorrow. So it should be difficult, but hopefully we are wrong!”

Kimi was generally positive about the fact that part of the run-off area to the famous Parabolica corner has been asphalted. “It’s a pretty fast corner, easy to run wide in the final part and you can have a nasty accident there, when there is just gravel and so tarmac will help a lot. But then we can start getting complaints if people have four wheels over the white line and whether or not they gained an advantage. It’s better because you don’t damage the car and if you go off, you just lose one lap in free practice or qualifying and your race won’t be over, but maybe you just lose a place. So, there are two ways of looking at it.”

As for the rest of the season, Kimi reiterated the team’s intention of simply working as hard as it can over the remaining rounds of the 2014 championship. “Our aim is to be nearer the front because we are not where we should be as a team and we are working hard on that,” he concluded. “If it’s not for the end of the year, then it will be next year, because it will be hard to make big steps from now to the end of the season. We are improving little by little and hopefully we can be in the fight for podiums later in the year.”