Three days after
the victory in Melbourne, Kimi Raikkonen spoke to Ferrari
World about his impressions: "I've never hidden my joy,
since the first day I came to Maranello," said Kimi. "Now,
after the success in the first race with the team, I am - in
case this is possible - even more joyful. When I signed my
contract with Ferrari I thought that it would be nice to win
as soon as possible, but in Melbourne it came even faster
than expected, when I managed to win in my first race with
the Prancing Horse. I have never in my whole career won the
opening race of the season and that was something that gave
me a whole lot of satisfaction.
"When you start to race for a
new team, you try to be successful as soon as possible and
to manage to do that on the day of the debut means that you
couldn't' be any better. In a certain sense last winter's
dream came true. Ferrari and I really started with the best
foot forward: victory, pole position and fastest lap in the
race. From the outside it might have seemed an easy race,
but as I already said on Sunday afternoon at the press
conference, it was not easy at all. There are no easy
victories. We had some minor problems in Melbourne, the
biggest of which was the malfunctioning of the radio, caused
by a plug defect. It all began as soon as I got into the car
on the grid: from there on I could not communicate anymore
with the pitwall. Fortunately we had planned the race down
to minute detail and I just concentrated on this program
over the 58 laps. We knew that the start was crucial: I gave
my all to hold the position I had conquered the day before
and I succeeded. Once ahead of the pack after the first
turn, things became slightly easier, although I could not
communicate with my engineer Chris Dyer.
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"When I signed my contract with Ferrari I thought
that it would be nice to win as soon as possible,
but in Melbourne it came even faster than expected,
when I managed to win in my first race with the
Prancing Horse." |
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"I've never hidden my joy, since the first day I
came to Maranello," said Kimi Raikkonen. "Now, after
the success in the first race with the team, I am -
in case this is possible - even more joyful." |
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"We knew that our rhythm in the race was
very competitive: I did not have to go to the limit, but
maybe if the radio had worked I would have gone faster. On
one occasion - just about ten laps before the end the race -
I almost fell asleep! I got distracted, my concentration
levels dropped a bit and I locked the wheels and took turn
number 3 slightly too wide: even without radio I knew that
they were saying: 'Kimi, wake up!'.
"The team had lots to do keeping me informed with the display
boards. A couple of times I couldn't see them, because it
was difficult to distinguish them from the ones of the other
teams. When I passed the chequered flag it was a really
emotional moment and it was fantastic to celebrate together
with the boys from the pitwall. It was a moment I would
never have missed for anything in the world.
"This victory was very important for the team, but the
problem Felipe had during the qualifying was a real pity: we
could not bring home the best possible result, as we should
have done. I hope that our fans had fun and that we could
share the joy we had in Melbourne. I wish to dedicate this
victory to Ferrari fans all over the world, especially the
Italian ones and the ones in my home country Finland. Let's
hope that we can give them something to celebrate again very
soon!"
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