Raikkonen: We have to put in a clean weekend with no issues

On Thursday before the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, Kimi Raikkonen addressed questions from the media. Many of them focused on his predictions for the week end.

“Obviously we have to put in a clean weekend with no issues, then I’ m sure we could be pretty happy with the result. This is a different track but so far the car has been working well in all kind of conditions on every place and I don’t see reasons why it should be different here. Here it can be a little bit different because it’s cold and the track is challenging, but of course if you have a good car it helps. Tomorrow we’ll go out and see but I don’t expect big surprises.”

Can you say you can challenge Mercedes even if, unlike Sepang, the weather here is not so hot and this one is not a rear tyre limited track?

“All track are different and every condition too, and one car can behave better in a place that in another one. Maybe we are not where we would like to be, but compared to last year things have changed a lot even if we still have a lot to do.”

The win in Malaysia is a very good result for the team and for Sebastian.

“We knew from testing we have a good package but the two first races for me have been pretty difficult, although I could take some good points in Malaysia. We keep pushing as hard as we can trying to do things right knowing that every race can be different, but generally I think we can be quite strong everywhere. In general we know we have the speed but we have to get rid of all the issues even if they are not our fault like the puncture”.