JENSON BUTTON: KIDS CAN SLOW YOU DOWN

Jenson Button will not have a family until his Formula One career is over, in case it distracts him from chasing his goals

Button heads into the new season determined to regain the title he had to concede to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel last season and he laughs at the idea that, having just turned 31, his attitude to racing at 200mph might change.

“No, when I have kids it will change but not yet,” says Button, who is dating model Jessica Michibata. “That’s one reason why I don’t want to have kids while I am racing. It’s not worth the risk.

“Also, you don’t get enough time to spend with them. It hasn’t crept in yet. I will stop when it does. If you start feeling fearful of pushing the car to the limit, you have got to stop. There is no point.”

Button and Lewis Hamilton head to the final F1 test in Barcelona this week before the start of the season in Australia on March 27, both hoping to see improvements in pace and reliability to get closer to Red Bull and Ferrari.

The McLaren car may not be up to the challenge yet but Button dismisses the idea that Vettel will be more ravenous for success because of an eight-year age difference.

“He won’t be any hungrier than I am,” says Button. “I’m as fit as I have ever been. Mentally? We have to make sure we are mentally strong and make sure everyone in the team is focused and positive.”

He won’t rule out Michael Schumacher as a contender either, even though the seven times champion is now 42 years old.

Suggest that Schumacher has lost raw pace and Button says: “I don’t agree with that at all.

“I think he is not happy with the car. Look at NASCAR, where you have guys in their 50s still winning.

“I know it is very different but you need to have a good reaction, a good eye.

“As long as his fitness levels are good – and his are pretty damn good – he is fine.”

Source: EXPRESS.CO.UK

Showdown in Lapland - Nico vs. Keke in a Family Duel

Source: nicorosbergtv

The Secret Life of Michael Schumacher

Nineteen years ago Michael Schumacher made his Formula One debut. Nineteen years of interviews - and seven world titles - later, there’s very little we don’t know about Schumacher. But after he agreed to partake in our Secret Life series, we managed to wrangle a few surprises out of the German legend. Samuel Beckett, skydiving and Italian culinary exploits are just some of his unexpected answers…

Q: Are you a ‘Plan-B’ kind of guy?
Michael Schumacher: No.

Q: Driving a Formula One car aside, what is your favourite buzz?
MS: At the moment it is skydiving.

Q: Who do you most look forward to seeing when you arrive in the paddock on a Thursday?
MS: The engineers.

Q: Who is your dream date?
MS: She is also my dream come true - Corinna.

Q: Which film has made you cry?
MS: Lately it was Slumdog Millionaire. Well, at least a little.

Q: What are you afraid of - and why?
MS: It was heights, but not anymore.

Q: What was the last book you read?
MS: Something from Samuel Beckett. I am very bad at remembering the titles of books and movies and stuff like that.

Q: What is your favourite way to relax?
MS: A glass of red wine and a cigar.

Q: Five things that you hate?
MS: I don’t really hate anything.

Q: Have you ever - or would you ever - dye your hair?
MS: Sure. Why not?

Q: What was the first CD that you bought?
MS: It was an LP - I think some hard rock, metal stuff.

Q: Do you have any tattoos or piercings?
MS: Only temporary ones.

Q: What did teachers say about you in your school report?
MS: Not nice things.

Q: Who were your childhood heroes?
MS: Hard to tell. I did not really have any.

Q: Do you have any guilty pleasures?
MS: Cigars? Poker? I don’t think I should feel guilty about it.

Q: Do you collect anything?
MS: Watches maybe. But not madly.

Q: What do you miss most about home when you are on the road?
MS: My family.

Q: What was your worst-ever buy?
MS: That changes with every fashion change.

Q: How do you take your coffee?
MS: With hot milk.

Q: Your ideal non-race Sunday morning?
MS: A long breakfast with my family.

Q: What was the first car or machine you drove?
MS: A Fiat 500 - well, actually I drove a lot of karts before that.

Q: What was the most embarrassing mistake you have made?
MS: Choose one.

Q: What is the best thing that you can cook?
MS: Italian pasta probably.

Q: When was the last time you were really furious?
MS: Really, really furious? In Spa, 1998 [when he crashed into the rear of David Coulthard’s McLaren while leading a very wet Belgian Grand Prix. Coulthard was a lap down and Schumacher blamed the Scot for the incident.]

Source: Formula1.com

Seiska article: Kimi has lived in Switzerland already for 10 years

HERE'S MY HOME SCENERY

- We searched for years for an unbuilt property until we found a completely move-in ready Villa Butterfly, Kimi Räikkönen introduced.
How embarrasing! Seiska's reporter was late for the interview because of a break-problem in the airplane and because of missing luggage. F1-champion and WRC-driver Kimi Räikkönen had to wait 2,5 hours for the interview to begin and arranged his already tight schedule again. - No worries, things happen, Kimi comforted and noted that because of such roadblocks he often resorts to rent a private plane. - I usually do my Middle-Europe trips with the car. Last night I rented this Ford from Austria where I had a TV-shoot and I drove 500km home. Tomorrow I will leave for a 400km trip with my co-driver Kaj and with my friends to Genova, where I will try to drive on tarmac for the first time, Kimi told while he was showing the beautiful scenery of his homecountry.

Abroad his whole adulthood
Kimi, who celebrated his 30th birthday last fall, moved away from Finland already before he turned 18.

First he lived in Holland, then for 1,5 years in England. He did however finish the army in his native country where he still has couple aparments.

In Switzerland he has lived permanently for over ten years and he doesn't plan to move away. In Finland he visits a couple of times a year to greet his friends and family.
-It's nice to visit Finland but there isn't enough to do to make me stay and live there, the speed-rascal noted.

Here you don't hear karaoke!
Kimi lives 30km from Zürich in the village of Baar where he moved with his wife Jenni a year ago from Wollerau.
-We searched for about 5 years for a property where we could build our own house. Then we found Villa Butterfly which was ready for move-in and had a name too.

The stylish, beautifully furnished home is situated on a hillside of a small village, where is amazing view to the Zug lake and the Alps behind it. The scenery from the living room is like work of art no matter what the weather is.
-Although there is a short distance to the clubs in Zürich, I don't visit them often. I like to scour the cafés and bars of the small towns of Switzerland more. I haven't found any karaoke places from here, Kimi smirked.

MY FRIENDS LEND MY HOLIDAY-HOME!
Many people imagine Switzerland as the neat paradise of happy and rich people. Kimi tells however, that the country has many problems including the living politics.
-You can own your house but the property where your home stands belongs nearly always to the government!

The suidice rates confuses Kimi
-In Zürich there is also a very bad drug-problem. I was also surprised to read some time ago that the Swiss people do suicides nearly as much as Finns, Kimi wondered.
The statistics of WHO from 2008 tell that Switzerland has risen after the millenium to the 17th spot, while Finland has fallen to the 14th position. In Switzerland most of the suicides are done by elderly people.

Three dogs as company
In Kimi's garage the attention is fixed to two beauties, which stand beside each other looking like their abandoned. Iceman I and Iceman II are motorcycles customized by German Walz Hardcore Cycles, which Kimi got a few years ago and has been driving them a couple of times to the races in Middle-Europe. The bikes have also been the attraction in Helsinki's American Car Show.
- I haven't used the motorcycles lately since it is boring to drive alone no matter how interesting the roads are, Kimi confessed.

Although Kimi doesn't have proper driving-company, he doesn't suffer from loneliness. The doors of Villa Butterfly are open for friends, who willingly travel to accompany him in different racing venues.

Kimi also gives open-handedly the keys to his friends, who want to have a vacation for example in his villa in Phuket.
-I have been there only once. I should probably travel to Thailand again but isn't there pretty uncomfortable heat right now?
Kimi and Jenni also have three dogs as their company, a German Shepherd Ajax and Jack Russel terriers Peppi and Reiska, who travel easily between the two home countries.

THERE ARE FRACTURES IN MY SPINE!
Kimi's first rally-season has been very ascending and will be stay in the history of sport, since Räikkönen is only the second F1-driver in the worlds who has also in WRC-rally reached for points. The man tells that he enjoys himself in Red Bull because of the professional and relaxed atmosphere of the team.

I don't follow F1 actively
Kimi plays down his achievements in rally contrary to the people who know the rally-world, who say Räikkönen is a exceptional talent behind any wheel.

Kimi hasn't followed the F1-races actively, just like many other Finns either, after the Iceman was out of the picture.
-Although I was in Monaco during the race, I only glanced the happenings from the TV. I didn't go to the paddock even once.

Of course Kimi has his F1-favourites.
-I want Red Bull to win and it would be great if Sebastien Vettel would become world champion, Kimi hopes for his friend who was fifth after the Canadian GP.

Spinal disc herniation an annoyance for Kimi
The beginning of Kimi's racing-season was painful, since an old spinal disc herniation started to remind of itself.
-There are hairline capillary cracks on my vertebra. They have originated from my several different crashes during the ten years.

Kimi fortunately got into a new kind of laser-treatment in Strasbourg, France, and he wasn't operated but the liquid which had build up in the distention was sucked with a needle which made the pressure on the nerves loosen.
- I will have to go to a 2-hour operation once more and after that I have to be more relaxed for couple of weeks.

I LOST MY DRIVING LICENSE!
Kimi keeps his muscular strenght up daily. There is a well-equipped gym in his Switzerland home. He also likes to drive different kinds of water-vehicles.

People who know Kimi have said many times that if he wouldn't have chosen motorsport as his sport, he would have been a hardcore ice hockey player.

Ice hockey is a very dear sport to Kimi and he has many friends who are NHL-stars.

An ice-hockey hall in the neighbourhood
Kimi wanted to show the reporter the big pride of his home region, the EV Zug ice rink, which will be opened to the public in August. The assistant coach is Waltter Immonen and there are many other Finns seen on the ice. -Soon I will be able to play ice-hockey here with my old buddies!

To Finland in July
The worldchampion zigzags in the Swiss traffic calmly and safely - occassionally he remarks about the interesting lane switches of other drivers just like Finns usually do. Only the parallel parking which is inches from the car's plates makes the people in the car babble. - The police are too strict in traffic in this country. The speed limits are the same as in Finland and violation-customs are similar too. If you get three speeding tickets you will loose your driving license for a month. This happened to me a couple of years ago, Kimi revealed.

Kimi's next rally-contest is in Bulgay on 9.-11th of July and in Finland's rally-paths the man will drive at the end of July. After the interview he was fantasticly places 2nd in Italy's rally.

Source: Seiska.fi (paper edition)
Courtesy: Leijona

Heidfeld expecting third child

Nick Heidfeld is set to welcome a third child to his family.

The Mercedes reserve driver's wife Patricia is pregnant, according to the German newspaper Bild.

Domiciled in Stafa, Switzerland, they already have two young children, a daughter Juni (4) and son Joda (2).

"We're really looking forward to our third child," the veteran of 169 grands prix, who turns 33 in a few days, confirmed.

Source: F1 Complete