Raikkonen: I am happy to be here

Kimi Raikkonen met the media at the Circuit of Americas this morning as usual on Thursdays and said he was looking forward to the next few days.

“Hopefully we can have a nice clean weekend, starting with getting everything sorted in practice and then be as strong as possible,” said the Ferrari man.

Looking much further ahead, the Finn was asked what he expected from next year’s car. “I have a hundred percent trust in the people who run the team and build the cars,” he began. “I am sure we can have a good package: will it be good enough? Only time will tell. We have a lot of work to do and we have learned a lot from this year. We don’t expect to suddenly jump to the front and be winning the races, but we can make a big leap and be up there fighting. Until we put it on track and do those first laps at the first test we won’t know. We know where the issues are and our people are smart enough to fix them. According to the rules, there are limits to what we can do but we will improve.”

There is no hiding the fact this has been a tough year for Raikkonen, but it has not dented his confidence.

“For sure I made a hundred percent the right decision to return to Ferrari,” he maintained. “The results have not been the ones I wanted or the team wanted, but that’s how it goes. We have made progress from where we started, but it’s not easy to get things exactly as you want. But I am happy to be here. I’d rather be with Ferrari than with any other team. So I’m sure I made the right decision coming here.”

Asked to elaborate on the problems he has encountered in 2014, Kimi did not want to go into too many details: “I’ve been suffering with lots of small things, but the front end has not been as good as I wanted and that’s not easy to fix. It’s better, but it’s taken a bit too long.”

The final question concerned the Finn’s views on the double points on offer at the final round and, as usual, Kimi’s view was very straightforward.

“That’s how the rules are now and if we like it or not, it makes no difference as we drivers do not decide the rules,” concluded the Finn. “Obviously, whoever has the most points at the end of the year, whether he has won ten races or one race wil won and I’m sure whoever it is will deserve it.”