Kimi Raikkonen
is very confident for the upcoming French GP, the eighth
round of the Formula One world championship. "Last week was
a perfect week," said the Finnish driver. "We had a very
good test in Silverstone: the car was much better than at
the races in North America. So I'm really very confident of
the race in Magny-Cours. We have new components, above all
in the section of aerodynamics; and we have taken a step
forward as far as the performance is concerned: if it is
enough, we'll only know in France, when we go on the track
under the same conditions as our competitors. This is the
question mark you always carry with you after the tests.
What we know for sure is that we think that we are
competitive."
The races in Montreal and Indianapolis fell short of
expectations, mainly because of the problems in qualifying:
"This year it is fundamental to start from the front row,
because it is very difficult to drive, when you're stuck
behind other cars: unfortunately I've experienced that quite
often at these races. I'm more and more confident with the
F2007: we found a good setup, what you could already see in
the race at Indianapolis. Now we have to transfer what we've
seen yesterday afternoon and at Silverstone to the next two
Grands Prix." Kimi is still missing a victory at
Magny-Cours, but the Finnish driver admits, that he likes
the French track:" It's true, I never came in first here,
but I really enjoy driving on this track.
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Kimi Raikkonen talks to
Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo during the
60th Anniversary celebrations at Maranello last
weekend. |
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Kimi Raikkonen, along
with Felipe Massa, Jean Todt and Luca Badoer during
the 60th Anniversary charity auction at Maranello
last weekend. |
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The tarmac is extremely even and the track
offers slow and fast corners; that makes it very
challenging. Good aerodynamics and good traction for the
exits of the slow corners are very important here. Five
years ago I came close to victory: I was leading the race,
but then I spun off the track due to oil lost by a Toyota
and Michael passed me to win his fifth of his seven titles.
I hope that this year things will be different! I don't know
yet if we will race at Magny-Cours next year: maybe there
will be new tracks, such as Valencia and Singapore; it's
always nice for a driver to discover new circuits. After the
first seven races of the season, we need to close the gap on
our competitors: we will give our best to achieve that goal,
right from the start."
Kimi spent the last weekend at Maranello: "It was a great
honour to participate in the celebrations of the 60th
anniversary of Ferrari, a wonderful experience: it was
wonderful, being part of the great legend of the House of
Maranello."
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