Räikkönen about his tough year

Now the Finnish superstar is loading again - and arrives to the start line with his own team: There's more to come

The starting position to rally was difficult.

He got critisism for his way of treating media and fans.

And worst of all: His dad and biggest supporter Matti died, only 56 years old.

Kimi Räikkönen's 2010 could have gone better.

– It was a tough year, he says.

Kimi Räikkönen's participation in WRC made both media and fans drool. A real superstar was just what the sport needed and Kimi did his best to live up to the myth.

During Rally Sweden everybody wanted to talk with the former WDC. Hardly anyone succeeded. And that's how it also continued. At the same time things weren't going exactly well in WRC. He was fifth at best in Turkey.

- Obviously there were people who expected us to do miracles already after the first rallies. But there really was no reason to expect more of my rookie-season, Räikkönen said.

After one year Räikkönen comes back to WRC. In a new car (Citroën DS3 WRC) and in an own team, Ice 1 Racing. The name is about his nickname 'Iceman' of course and he is going to have some amount of backing from Citroën.

But just as well there might not have been any rallying for him. Just before Christmas his dad Matti Räikkönen suddenly died. A hard setback for family Räikkönen.

But although all speculations of him taking a sabbatical year, Kimi will be on the starting line in Sweden too.

He will drive 10 rallies, all execpt Argentina, Italy and Mexico and he is counting on some better positions this year. Especially to learn to make better notes.

That was one of his biggest challenges last year.

– During my time in F1 I never wanted the engineers to talk to me on the radio while I was driving. Now it's part of the job. Hopefully I can drive faster when I make better notes, I think that there is most to find, Räikkönen says.

– Of course I thought about F1 last year. But never really seriously, fact is that I didn't miss F1 last season.

And he also thinks that rally is a much tougher challenge.

– Rally is more difficult than F1, especially for me. If you can drive on some of the roads we drove last year, then you can drive everywhere, Kimi said.

Source:Swedish Rallybilaga
Courtesy: Nicole

Kimi's end of year report

At the end of his first season of World Championship rallying with Red Bull, we caught up with Kimi Räikkönen to find out his best memories. There are lots of things that will stick in his mind forever from this year – including sand, public transport, shopping centres and the Pope. Eclectic enough for you? Then read on…

Kimi, how has this year been for you?
On balance, it’s been pretty much as I expected. There have been good bits and bad bits, and on the whole it’s been really tough with a lot of learning. In some ways it reminds me of the very first years when I was starting out in racing: it was a little bit the same feeling.

'I thought it would be interesting to see if I missed F1 at all and in fact I didn’t'

What was your favourite rally of the year?
That’s a tough one, a really tough one as all the rallies were so different. But actually I liked Bulgaria as straight away we were in the top four there and it was nice to fight closer to the front, which is not something that we were really expecting to do. Britain was a good rally too: not so much for the result but for the stages.

Was the Rally of Spain, where you crashed in the shakedown, the biggest disappointment of the year?
Yes I suppose so, but actually it’s not something that I’ve really thought about much since it happened because there’s no point. It’s over, it’s history and there’s no point in imagining what might have been. That’s how I’ve always dealt with things and I’m not going to change now.

Did you ever think about going back to Formula One next year?
Of course I thought about it, because you think about everything. But I never really thought seriously about it, because actually I didn’t miss Formula One at all this season. Before the start of this year I thought it would be interesting to see if I missed it at all and in fact I didn’t.

So does that mean that you are staying in rallying next year?
It means that I’d like to. But for the moment we haven’t got a deal sorted.

What are the moments you are going to remember most, apart from just driving the car?
There were lots of things that happened that I think everyone in our team will remember. In Jordan we scored our first points and ended up covered in sand. In Turkey, there was the problem with the ash cloud and all our team had to go home to France by coach for three days. We drove a go-kart in a shopping mall in Japan; then in Portugal we did this road show in Faro, where we had almost the same number of people that had come to see the Pope the week before. So there are lots of funny memories.

Have you improved as a driver this year?
For sure. Rallying is a lot harder than F1: certainly for me. If you can drive on some of the roads we did this year, you can drive anywhere…

Source: Red Bull

Interview from GP Week Magazine: Räikkönen on his first year in WRC

Wales Rally Gb represented the end of Kimi Räikkönen's first season in rallying, in which he became the first Formula1 champion to score points in the World Rally Championship and to win a special stage

When you look back to you career with the C4, what have been your emotions? What is as exciting as you thought?
I think it was more or less what I expected.Some accidents, some much better rallies and some not so good.I knew it was going to be hard and we were going to have some problems so it was more less what I expected. I didn't have much expectation but now it feels more normal to listen to the pace-notes. That took time.
Hopefully we should to be able to do it next year and it should be much easier... but let's see what happens.

It has benn good fun for thousands and thousands of people to have you here but itas been good fun for you as well?
I would not have como here if I wouldn't enjoy it. The few rallies I did last year in my own car I enjoyed and wanted to see what it was like in a World Rally Car.
I knew that these cars went very fast, but it has no been easy but I have enjoyed it. It is completely different and it is hard sometimes because it's a lot of work when you have to make notes for every rally so you get up early. For me that is something new and you have to get used to it.
I guess if we can do it next year it will be easier because we have learned things and it is more normal now. I din't have to think about having to listem to the notes.

Which is more to drive. a Ferrari or C4?
I am probaly not the right person to say because this is new and is much more difficult. Especially with notes and everything, you have to put a lot of effort in to listem correctly.
In Formula 1 I knew exactly how circuits were and how things happened, I didn't even have to think about it. You just drove normally but becuse I knew everything so well. Probably it is the same for the top rally drivers here but it is normal for them what happens when they are driving.
But rallying is more exciting, there are always things happening. In rallying for example a small mistake makes you pay a much bigger price than you do in Formula 1. You can drop many places. In Formula 1 if you miss a braking point you still have 200m on tarmac to run-off areas. Here you make a little mistake and you slide wide and you easily go off completely or roll. It is a much smaller margin of error here than Formula1.

Source: GP Week Magazine
Courtesy: sleenster