|
"I left Germany with the same feeling I had
many times in the past," said Kimi
Raikkonen, "It was certainly the most
difficult weekend of the year: a horrible
Friday, an even more complicated Saturday
and a very bad Sunday." |
|
|
|
"I left
Germany after a race weekend with the same feeling I had
many times in the past: the best thing is that the
weekend is over," said Scuderia Ferrari driver Kimi
Raikkonen this week. "It was certainly the most
difficult weekend of the year: a horrible Friday, an
even more complicated Saturday and a very bad Sunday.
During the tests on this track the week before the car
went pretty well, at least that was the feeling we got.
In the race it seemed as we were in a different place.
We never managed to find a good set up and the car had
absolutely no stability. You need good grip to drive
good lap times at Hockenheim, but the rear went all over
the place for the whole race. It's true that we had some
problems at the beginning of the season to set up the
car as I wanted, but we never had problems like we had
at Hockenheim. When you're lacking grip in the rear you
can't go fast enough to fight for the top positions. For
a couple of laps, especially in the end, the situation
seemed to improve a bit, but it never went as it should
have.
"Usually we have our biggest problems in the Qualifying,
but we're never short on pace in the race: this time we
were. The temperatures were slightly higher on Sunday
than the days before, but that didn't help either. Quite
the opposite actually. At the beginning of the race we
were especially in trouble: I drove consistant lap
times, but I was too slow. At the first pit stop we
changed to the soft compound and the situation improved
slightly. Then the safety car came out, which didn't
help me at all. We lost some time during the double pit
stop and I lost some positions in the field. I managed
to overtake some cars and at least I gained some points
at this really difficult weekend.
"It's obvious that the situation has changed. I'm seven
points behind in the standings, as I was after the
Canadian GP. We have to check and analyze every single
detail we've done during the preparations for Hockenheim
and find out why we went so slowly, because there has to
be something that didn't work properly. Sometimes these
things happen, when you want to improve the car. I'm
confident: we'll have a F2008 that can fight for the win
again soon.
"The situation is quite complicated, but nothing is
lost: We have to stay calm and react the way we know how
to. The desire to win hasn't decreased at all: last year
I had a period of six consecutive races without a
success and the same things is happening this year.
Let's hope that seven I my lucky number also this time
and that I can get back to success immediately."
|