25 days to Räikkönen's big bang

Turun Sanomat 25.4 2011

Kimi Räikkönen's 'big bang' in the States and elsewhere in motorsporting world, due to his Nascar-debut will be seen in 25 days in Charlotte, North-Carolina.

Camping World Truck -serie's 7th race along with qualification will be held on Friday 20th May. Charlotte Motor Speedway is a 1,5 mile long so called square oval.

On Saturday they will drive for a million dollar prize in all star Sprint Cup -race, where only the established stars in the serie have been invited to.

Räikkönen's ICE1 Racing -team will lease a car from Kyle Busch Motorsports. Kyle Busch himself won the Truck-season during the weekend in Nashville.

Nelson Piquet junior came in 2nd. It was the Brazilian's first podium on Nascar-level and his all time best result in the three main series.

So far they are still only building up Räikkönen's schedule. On top of Charlotte's races we might see Kimi in at least two Nascar-races on normal racing arenas.

Räikkönen's next WRC-rally is in Greece from where he immediately leaves to California.

Räikkönen spent the weekend with his own motocross-team as a mechanic and supporter in Holland's second race of the season. Kimi participated with enthusiasm in the maintenance of the bikes.

Mark Arnall hasn't yet made any special programs for his driver's Nascar-challenges.

– In tests Kimi drove a couple of hundred laps on an oval per day. They turn into the same direction there all the time and in theory the strain on certain muscles is different than for example in rally. The faster you go, the more harder it is on the neck muscles, Arnall thinks.

– In tests Kimi drove about 20 lap stints. I massaged the muscles in the evening. The neck was a bit stiff but I can't say if it was because of the driving strain or something else.

– Let's just wait for the first races. Then they drive 300-400 laps flat out and we will see if something special is required when it comes to the muscles. I think it's the same as it was when starting the season in a F1-car, the more you drive the better your muscles get used to it.

Arnall can't use any expertise-help since on Nascar-level the drivers don't have a personal trainer to help them.

Kaj Lindström doesn't believe that combining two very different genres would in any way mess up the performance level in either way.

– There's nothing wondrous about that. Kimi has planned his Nascar-job so that it won't interfere with our rallies. It didn't come to me as any surprise. You have to try out everything when you get the chance and they have been asking him there for so many times already, Lindström says.

– We were holding the 5th place and we lost it without the driver's mistake. A success like that rewards in a nice way between the ears and gives more trust into one's own doing in the future, Lindström praised.

Then what does Foster Gillett who lured Räikkönen to Nascar-circles expect from the Finn:

– There is a lot of challenge to come come out of the bushes in the middle of the season. Yet Kimi has so much experience of all kind of racing in all kinds of circumstances that I would believe he would feel good in Nascar-races too. I'm sure he will in a way have an advantage of driving rally after his F1-career, Gillett thinks.

– All decisions about his Nascar-continuance is completely up to Kimi, he reminds.

Turun Sanomat

HEIKKI KULTA

Courtesy: Nicole

THE JUMP FROM F1 TO WRC IS ALSO A LEARNING YEAR FOR KIMI'S PERSONAL TRAINER

The alarm clock goes off at 4.14 in the morning in Karlstad hotel. It means that the working day has started for both Kimi and especially his personal trainer Mark Arnall.

Ahead of them is a 110 km drive to the service park. There they will have a 20 minute breakfast.

Arnall is responsible for Red Bull Citroen junior team's both drivers and co-drivers drink supplies. Räikkönen gets two drink-bags in his car and Ogier gets two backpacks containing sportdrinks.

The service is in the noon. This is when the drivers quickly eat and Arnall fills the drink supplies to the cars.

The day ends when it's dark. After that they drive to the hotel where the bed is calling about 9-10 in the evening when you have to get up in the morning before the rooster in the henhouse does.

Arnall has been with Räikkönen ever since Kimi went to McLaren in 2002. His switch from F1 to WRC was also a big jump for his training guru.

– A racer has to be able to concentrate in the driving every moment. The trainer's job is to make sure that the driver is able to do that all the time both mentally and physically, Arnall listed.

– In this sense the difference between a F1- and a rally-driver is huge. When a F1-driver drives about 20 laps during in practice, then one hour in qualification and usually one hour and 40 minutes in the race, it leaves a lot of time to treat the physical and mental aspect.

– In rally it's completely different when you get going in the morning, drive about 10-20 minutes, then eat quickly during service and drive again intensively the afternoon. We get to the hotel in the evening and Kimi wants to go to sleep as fast as possible. Therefore the massage and after-treatment is really short. Of course if Kimi's back is in a condition that he needs a longer treatment, then it has to be done at the expense of his night sleep.

– It's going to be especially challenging to keep Kimi's physical and mental storages at the same level in hot races, Arnall thinks.

Physically and mentally the rally career is extremely tough for Räikkönen at this stage. Kimi has never before had to dig up his car with a shovel for 30 minutes and sweat as much as in some of the hottest GP's somewhere in Malaysia.

The mental bruises are a different thing. Being mentally strong Kimi seems to be able to take these setback as a part of his tough school in order to achieve a top speed in rally.

Source: Turun Sanomat
Courtesy: Nicole Planet-F1

Mark Arnall admits that the F1-regulations changed to Kimi's disadvantage last season.

- The driver's weight was important in F1 because of the KERS-drvice. We did a lot of work to make Kimi smaller because he was 2-3 kg overweight after KERS was put in. Some bigger drivers had even more difficulties, Arnall told MTV3.

In rally Räikkönen is weighed together with Kaitsu.

- The minimum weight is 150 kg. We are a little above it. We are more or less where we should be, Arnall said.

- Driving rally is more easier on Kimi because he doesn't have to put up with the same G-forces as in F1. The driving position is quite different so the muscles work in a different way. We will change the training according to which parts work more than before and which less, Arnall tells.

- In rally you sit in the car more than in F1 with pace notes and transitions. The rally car bumps the driver up and down more than a F1-car. That kind of bumping strains the lower back, Arnall continues

Source: MTV3
Courtesy: Nicole