A chat with Kimi - from Turun Sanomat

Kimi Räikkönen's debut with Red Bull Citroen's WRC car has attracted 170 media people to Rovaniemi. As many as there were when Ferrari and McLaren presented their cars this week. On Thursday night Räikkönen spent over an hour interviewed first by the tv and after that by the press people.

In F1 you said that you will always drive for victory? Is it possible this year in rally?

"No and that's for sure. There are pretty tough drivers out there and they have raced for many years the same rallies. They remember quite a lot from the stages and know what to do where. Like I said, you have to learn a lot before you get experience and can start improving your pace," Räikkönen says.

So this new challenge with a WRC car will replace his will to win this season.

What kind of expectations do you have from Sweden's rally?

"Everything is new to me so first of all I have to be patient. It's difficult to say what to expect when I haven't raced with this car. We'll see in Sweden how it goes. It's useless to say anything beforehand when there are so many things that can go wrong," Räikkönen said.

Sordo can't afford to lose

On Thursday Räikkönen got some comparison to Daniel Sordo's times when the duo drove the same stages with the same cars.

"Tunturi-rally is just a practice for Sweden. It's difficult to say how it goes here either. I have so much to learn in many things so the result doesn't mean anything to me in this race. You will see our pace in Sweden."

Sordo has drove in even colder conditions in Norway. Tunturi is his 6th snow rally. How badly will it hurt if the 3rd overall in WRC would lose to Räikkönen right from the beginning?

"Kimi is undoubtly fast but we try to go faster. If Kimi is faster it's not a good thing for me," Sordo thought.

There will be enough testing

Räikkönen had time to test for three days with Citroen before the races start. If there is need for it, can you test as much as you want?

"Of course there are some limitations. It depends on so many things, what kind of contracts who has and who pays what. I'm not even sure what the regulations say but I think you can test pretty freely in WRC. Other teams test, others don't," Räikkönen said.

Räikkönen denied many times the claims that he wouldn't have been motivated in F1 tests.

"Everyone can have their own view even if I wouldn't even know about the whole thing. The truth is that I have never had anything against any test where you try new parts and new things. It's a different thing if you just drive 600 km per day just to try if the car can take it without breaking," Kimi assures.

Brothers as competitors

Big brother Rami Räikkönen will drive in Tunturi in Kimi's old car Fiat Abarth Grande Punto. Now the brothers compete on rally paths for the first time.

"It's still my car but when Rami wanted to try rally and has been doing it for a longer time as a hobby I thought why not?"

Own pace notes to polish

So at what stage will the widely discussed Räikkönen's practice to make pace notes take place? How much do you trust the notes Kaj Lindström gives you?

"I trust in them because I have made them myself. There are many things. Of course I trust what Kaitsu says when I have made them myself and he has so much experience that if I would have made them totally senseless, he would have mentioned about it already when we made them. There won't be that kind of a mistake. It's more about the driver listening properly to the notes so that he doesn't make an error because of not listening."

"There is a lot to learn so that you can make good notes in a good place and precisely understand how fast you can drive there. Easily it goes so that if you can't describe it well enough it means that you can't drive as fast as you should."

A year in rally is not an obstacle for coming back to F1

Did you look at Ferrari's new F10 car from the internet?

"I have seen the car. It's hard to say anything based upon pictures. I guess they will start testing it next week. You see it then. It looked a lot like it looked last year ago too. Nothing terribly different," Räikkönen summed up.

Do you still have a burn for a comeback to F1?

"I have no contract with anyone for year 2011. Of course a lot depends on what happens and where. I guess I have a long year ahead of me and you can never know what is going to happen."
Will this year be wasted if you decide to go back to F1?

" It's not wasted in any way. I always do my best. In the final games this was the best option of all options for this year. That's why I drive rally now."

Thanks: KR Spaces and Nicole