WRC RALLY GERMANY 2010: KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN OFFICIAL WEB SITE

Source: KIMIRAIKKONEN.COM

Not even Spa tempts Kimi

Turun Sanomat 23.8 2010

Rally Germany is over. The drivers are packing their stuff at the end of Sunday afternoon at Trier's service area and heading home.

There would be only about 100 km from Germany to Belgium GP. Obviously Räikkönen is almost as bugged about the lost 6th place in rally as he was when losing the victory in Belgium GP in 2008.

You claim that you don't miss F1-races. Don't you miss back at all at this moment when the next race is on your favourite track Spa?

– It would be cool to race there. Of course. The track is great and it's always a cool race. But generally speaking it doesn't fascinate me at all, Räikkönen replied to the question many fans have asked him through Turun Sanomat.

How closely does Räikkönen usually follow the F1-races?

– I didn't see at all a couple of races and I'm not interested in watching them afterwards. It never interested me at the time I was driving there either.

Are you deliberately taking distance from F1?

– Not deliberately at least. I just don't have the interest to stare at the tv and watch what they are doing there, Räikkönen claims.

Räikkönen won 4 times in Spa. The 5th possible victory didn't happen when the heavy rain significantly slowed down the Finn who already had a superior lead four laps before the finish line.

Räikkönen gave it his everything to beat Lewis Hamilton, but ended in the wall from the slippery track.

Maximization of masterpieces

Last year Räikkönen saved Ferrari's continuous row of victories by getting a bull's eye particularly in Spa.

Räikkönen got almost a quarter of all his 18 victories from Belgium. Why does Spa suit him better than any other track?

– It's not more difficult than any other track. As a matter of fact I know many more difficult tracks. Of course you have to have a good car and although last year's Ferrari wasn't any top car it still was fast enough for Spa, Räikkönen thought.

Steve Robertson revealed a little more about Kimi's recipe for victory.

– Spa is an extremely demanding track. Yet Kimi is able to maximize his car on that track better than anywhere else. Although the more downforce you have there, the more competitiveness, Kimi can still compensate the slight defeat by being fast all through the lap in every single corner, Robertson thinks.

Facts

Most GP-victories in Spa:

6 Michael Schumacher

5 Ayrton Senna

4 Jim Clark and Kimi Räikkönen

3 Juan Manuel Fangio and Damon Hill.

Turun Sanomat, Trier

HEIKKI KULTA

Source: Turun Sanomat
Courtesy: Nicole

Ogier's fast development is a too big challenge for Kimi

Sebastien Ogier became during his second season in Citroen a WRC-winner and redeemed at once his promotion to drive beside Sebastien Loeb next season.

It is very obvious that Kimi Räikkönen will drive next year his second season in Citroen's Junior team. Team manager Benoit Nogier doesn't yet promise Kimi the same speed in development as Ogier has had.

– One has to remember that Ogier drove three years on Junior-level before he came to WRC. This weekend is Kimi's whole life's 12th rally, Nogier reminded in Turun Sanomat's interview.

– Even though Ogier learned quickly his situation can't be compared to Kimi's development in rally. Kimi has started from zero whereas Sebastien's basic work was already done.

– The only way to compare is that Sebastien was about 1,2-1,3 seconds per kilometer behind the lead during his first WRC-season whereas Kimi has been pretty much the same behind the lead.

Kimi's potential has not yet taken form

How big thing would it be for Citroen Junior Team if Räikkönen would want to continue his rally career in 2011?

– Whatever Kimi is going to do is his own decision. Let's just wait for his final decision but at least he looks like he is happy here in the rally-world. Of course it would be a great thing for us if Kimi would decide to continue in rally next year, Nogier says.

Since Räikkönen has this year learned everything from scratch, how much better could he be next year?

– It's always very difficult to estimate these kind of things beforehand. Probably Kimi will then be less than a second behind the top in speed/km. But we can get an image of what Kimi could do at his best only after Kimi gets even close to his own limits.

– At this moment everything is purely learning for Kimi and we can't know his real potential. This is only the beginning of the story but we can already see that the potential is big. That's for sure, Nogier says.

Both teams get same cars next year

Nogier tells that Citroen's Junior team gets to start working with the new DS3-car at the same time as the main team.

– This year regulations ordered that the main team has to use a newer model. Next year that regulation is gone and the cars in both teams are classified equally, Nogier clears up.

– We don't yet know more specifically but the new cars should be ready in January when we start testing for Rally Sweden.

Räikkönen doesn't believe that switching to S2000-cars would devastate anything if he would drive rally next year.

– It's not any big change. Those new cars are sort of a combination of these WRC-cars and the S2000-car I drove last year. They just have a different engine and power transmission.

Will the change in car require some more learning again?

– I don't know but they are a bit different and at least a little smaller than these current one, Räikkönen thinks.

Manager isn't yet negotiating

Kimi Räikkönen's manager Steve Robertson is on the paddock-area in Trier. He denies that he is there to negotiate.

– It's best to follow the situation on different frontiers rather than seal a deal at this stage, Robertson tells Turun Sanomat.

HEIKKI KULTA

Source: Turun Sanomat
Courtesy: Nicole

Driving with Kimi – Kaj Lindström; Back to asphalt

After a break of a few weeks work in the rally car continued with a two-day asphalt test. The first test day we drove a week ago on Sunday in Germany and the second one last Friday in France.

It's nice to go do another tarmac rally. Rally Bulgaria already showed us that asphalt is a familiar surface for Kimi. Although, Rally Germany is a peculiar rally in the sense that the character and the grip of the roads is different on each race day. The first day is driven in the middle of the vineyards of the Mosel valley on narrow, bumpy and quite dirty roads. On the second day we go to the area of Nato's military base in Baumholder where the special stages are uneven and in some places very dirty and slippery roads paved with concrete. The rally's longest stage, the 48 km long Panzerplatten SS, will be driven twice on those army base concrete roads. We went there to test last week just because there are no such roads anywhere else in Europe.

The rally ends with style on Sunday with a super special stage (4.37 km) driven in Trier's Porta Nigra. The area is one of UNESCO's world heritage sites. The old buildings there are magnificent.

We got the car into good shape in the tests. Kimi has his own vision of what kind of a car fits his driving style on tarmac and we believe that we have a car like that available during the weekend.

The roads in Rally Germany are so different on each day that we have to make daily changes to the suspension. This rally is a again new experince for Kimi so our goal has not changed: let's drive to the finish line and avoid mistakes.

In Rally Germany we mainly use the PZero one-type tyre designed by Pirelli for asphalt. We also have a limited option of the same tyre with a softer compound in case the weather suddenly gets rainy or cold. In Rally Germany the weather often changes unexpectedly so based on my experience I believe that we'll use both tyre choices in the race.

This rally wasn't driven last year but when compared with 2008 the special stages are almost the same. There's only one new SS on the route and it's driven on Saturday. There's quite a huge amount of SS-kilometers, 407.31 km.

I'll get back to you in a week after we've made our trip to Germany.

Best wishes
Kaitsu

Source: Kolmeks.fi
Courtesy: Dracaena

Co-driver promises: Kimi can do much better

Kaj Lindström, who reads notes for Kimi Räikkönen in WRC, is convinced of the former F1 driver's talent in the rally car

-We've made progress in every race which is the most important thing for us this year, Lindströn said in a press release of the Citroen junior team.

The next WRC race is driven on Germany's tarmac roads next weekend.

-Our performance in the first asphalt rally in Bulgaria was the most impressive one this season. I know that there's a lot more to come from Kimi, Lindström continued.

Räikkönen himself goes to Germany with a cautious mind and is aiming for a good position.

-This is a new competition for me again. In my first asphalt rally with the Citroen C4 WRC car I immediately found a good feeling. The most important thing for me is to get used to driving a WRC car on this surface. Based on my previous experience I can say that driving on tarmac feels a bit more natural for me but driving a rally car is still a copletely different thing than driving on track, Räikkönen reminds.

Source: MTV3
Courtesy: Dracaena

Team boss's goal for Räikkönen: No mistakes

Citroen's junior team will go to Rally Germany with a confident mind since in the last tarmac rally in Bulgaria both Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Ogier were in excellent speed

-Everyone in our team has good memories from our trip to Bulgaria. Kimi has so incredibly much to learn this year but in his first WRC tarmac rally he showed his abilities and Sebastien was also very competitive, chief of the junior team Benoit Nogier praised.

-But Rally Bulgaria was new for everyone. In Germany we will be against drivers who have a lot of experience of the circumstances. So we've given our drivers a goal of not making any mistakes, Nogier continued.

Räikkönen drives in Germany for the first time and Ogier hasn't driven the special stages with a WRC car yet either. When the German WRC rally was driven the previous time two years ago, Ogier won the juniors' WRC race with Citroen's Super 1600 car.

Source: MTV3
Courtesy: Dracaena

Robert Kubica is enjoying his rallying

Renault Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica has been speaking about his recent rally exploits ahead of this weekend's European Grand Prix.

The Pole has shown some impressive speed in the rallies he has been contesting this year, particularly on the recent Rally del Taro and Rally del Salento events in Italy where he drove a Twister Corse prepared Renault Clio S1600.

“I’m somebody who likes extra competition in what I do,” said Kubica. “It wasn’t actually my plan to go rallying during the season, but I had some problems when I competed last winter, so I had to do it more and it’s been going really well.

"What I love about it is that you always have a question mark in your mind: when you approach each corner, you never know what’s going to happen.

"In Formula 1, I can predict 80 or 90 percent of what will happen on each lap, but in rallying you can predict nothing. You go into the corner thinking ‘what the hell will happen now?’ That’s what I enjoy most.”

Meanwhile, Kubica has recently been quoted, by the Polish media, as expressing an interest in possibly contesting WRC Rally Germany in August, though this will largely depend on his F1 schedule.

Source: RallyBuzz