Over the years, Kimi’s proved that he’s game for most things, such as dressing up in a gorilla suit and calling himself James Hunt. He’s that increasingly rare animal: a racing driver with a life. But one thing he’s not had that much practice of yet is rallying. Next weekend Kimi takes on what will be only his seventh World Championship Rally at the wheel of his Red Bull-backed Citroen C4 WRC, but it’s possibly his biggest one yet: Rally Finland.
Known as the ‘Finnish Grand Prix’ and famous for its trampoline-like crests that launch cars into the air for up to 100 metres, Rally Finland is the Monaco of the World Rally Championship; the one that all the drivers want to win.
Particularly, if like Kimi, they happen to be Finnish and blessed with the trenchant quality of sisu: that untranslatable Finnish word that means something between fire in the belly and strength in the face of adversity.
We caught up with Kimi as he tested for two days close to Jyvaskyla this week: the base for the Rally Finland from July 29-31. He comes to it with an important ace up his Nomex sleeve: of all the rallies this year, Finland is the only one he’s done before.
But as the Iceman explains, the circumstances are somewhat different…
Redbull.com: You’ve already done Rally Finland last year. Is that going to help?
Kimi Raikkonen: “It helps a bit, for sure. But last year I did it in a Fiat Punto Super 2000, which is quite a lot slower than the Citroen C4 WRC that I have now. It’s almost like driving a different rally. The speed is so much faster in the Citroen that we will have to make a completely new set of pace notes. And then I didn’t finish the rally last year because unfortunately we went off. So while some things are going to be a bit familiar, other things are going to be very different as well.”
RB: What were you testing in Finland this week?
KR: “Everything basically. That’s the thing for me this year: because every event is new to us, we’re starting from scratch with the set-up every time. I really don’t know what to expect. For example, our last rally was Bulgaria. I hadn’t even set foot in the country before we started the recce there. But in Finland it’s very fast, with lots of big jumps. So the main thing we are concentrating on there is getting the suspension and dampers right. Like all these things it is a compromise. You need to make the car stiff enough to cope with all the crests but soft enough to get good traction. That’s why we go testing.”
RB: Do you feel a lot of extra pressure at home?
KR: “Not really. I’ve been used to pressure in Formula One and in rallying there’s a little less pressure, because the atmosphere is more relaxed generally and also because it’s unrealistic for people to expect us to win in our first year. Even a podium would be a lot. Being at home means that there are even more crowds and people wanting autographs than usual but I’m certainly used to that as well. The way I look at it is that it is nice to get to drive at the top in my home country: that’s an opportunity that I never had in Formula One.”
RB: How difficult is it to cope with challenging for a win at every Grand Prix to just trying to score points on every rally now?
KR: “These things are only difficult if you are disappointed by your results and I’m not disappointed. I came into this year with my eyes open and no real expectations apart from the fact that it would be difficult to switch. And I was certainly right about that. Don’t forget that I had options in Formula One and I still have them: this is what I chose for myself. So it’s not a problem.”
RB: Finally the killer question: are you going back to Formula One?
KR: “Good question. I’ve never been asked that before. Seriously? OK, I’ll tell you: I don’t know.”
And some people say that Finns have no sense of humour…!
Source: RedBull.com
