It appears that Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen finally admitted to what seemed very obvious to anyone that watched the 2008 F1 season....he simply was not interested.
Reported on F1 Technical, Raikkonen declared to Finnish TV channel 'MTV3'; "When there are no opportunities to overtake or to improve your position it is definitely not very interesting. But that is the way it is. When you know you're fighting for just P3 you simply don't always have the same speed for the whole race as you would normally have."
This coming from a man that was sitting in a car that won the Constructor's title in 2008! I wonder how much of his "lack of interest" was due to the emergence of Felipe Massa who is clearly the strongest teammate Raikkonen has ever had.
It is worthwhile to revisit a Raikkonen post at the beginning of October:
http://formulaoneamerica.blogspot.com/2008/10/has-kimi-raikkonen-quit-already.html
5 comments:
Actually, F1technical misquoted the original news. Räikkönen was talking about the Brazilian Grand Prix where he was not allowed to take any risk to gain position.
Thought I'd let you know.
-Chili-
Hi Chili,
I will be happy to spread that bit of information. I am having a difficult time finding a source. Do you have a source for that information? Thanks.
Here is the original article in Finnish: http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f1/uutiset.shtml/arkistot/f1/2008/11/745642
Key points translated:
...Räikkönen admits that it was difficult to get motivated to the final races when he didn't get to drive at his fullest...
...'when you are driving on third place and can't do anything to improve, you won't drive at your fullest...'
'...if you fight for position, you'll try as long as you can as I did in last race (Brazil). But if aren't really allowed to overtake or anything..."
"...I think we'll have a strong season next year. We'll try to improve."
F1Technical's article about a lack of interest on the entire 2008 season is either a mistranslation or fiction.
Thanks for that. Is it possible to send me a full translation? I would like to have it straight, as my personal opinion is that he was not particularly motivated for whatever reason during the season.
However, I will at least correctly discuss the comments made and post it accurately here. Feel free to send a full translation if possible to formulaoneamerica@gmail.com
Again, in any case, thanks for that info and for reading posts and participating. I'll make sure to credit you with that observation and translation.
OK, I sent you the full translation!
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