AutoSprint: Into Kimi’s World

Exclusive interview
Räikkönen without secrets

June is time for drawing up a balance sheet. Six months after the “big leap”, the ex F1 Champion tells about himself. And he often surprises.

Excited girls. Noisy kids. And above suspicion men of fifty. They would all ready to give a push with the elbow or to tread on somebody toes at their side if only they could get an autograph, or even take a photo with him. He himself, who is afraid of the crowd. Life is strange. Kimi Raikkonen withdraws, shrinks, hides himself when he’s surrounded by a human mass that chases him. It’s the price to pay for the notoriety, for the title won in F1 with Ferrari and for having answered no, one day, to GPs to switch to the less famous rallies. The only way to survive in this situation is to retire into himself, in his own world. The Kimi’s world.

Away from the crazy crowd
But it’s not so impossible to speak with him. You just need to wait for the right moment and being in the conditions he prefers. Almost like the wild animal which lets you get closer when you expect it less and just for few moments. Then Kimi comes out of the den and he brings himself into play. He speaks. A long time.

“The F1? I watch it on tv and I don’t miss it. Well, the driving, of course yes. But not all the rest. No, thanks. I have thought about rallies for years. I’ve always wanted to race them, at a high level if possible. I couldn’t wait anymore, then it would be too late. At the end of 2009 it was ended with Ferrari and there weren’t the conditions to come back to McLaren or to another top team. The moment of doing what I had always dreamt had come.”

- So, farewell to F1, without regrets. After nine seasons, with a Title and 18 victories. Who will win the Championship this year?
- “One of the RedBull drivers. Or Hamilton.”

- And about Sch., what do you think?
- “It’s his own choice.” (He said this shrugging his shoulders, and making you clearly know that Raikkonen doesn’t agree...)

- And Kimi? Will he come back to F1?
- “I’ll make my decision calmly, in peace, without any pressure from the outside. My contract in Rally is for 2010 only, but I’m not in hurry to decide. No pressure.”

- How do you feel six months after your big leap?
-“I’m learning. Every time it’s all new for me. Lanterna race was my eleventh rally of my new life, the first one on tarmac with a WRC car. I learn in every race, I go on more and more, trying to understand every secrets, every detail.”

He doesn’t say it, but you have to consider that Raikkonen has always to fight against competitors who know by heart stages that on the contrary he sees for the first time. So it’s in the Championship and so it was at the Lanterna, where he had to fight on a surface almost unknown for him – in a rallying level obviously – against people who could even make those stages with closed eyes. Someone even lives there, where the rally is, but Kimi didn’t cut a poor figure, not at all. And this also considering that at the start the stages were a bit dry and a bit wet, thing that is not an advantage for a rookie.

- But are you satisfied of the level you have reached so far? Did you expect more or you thought to be lower?
- “No, I’m not satisfied. Well, not completely. In Turkey I went well, I drove like I wanted and the final result was satisfactory. In Mexico, if I didn’t go out, it wasn’t going too bad. But in Portugal I had some more problems that I didn’t expect. We can say that it depends on every single rally. In Portugal, like in Jordan, I didn’t like myself. In Mexico and Turkey I did. Sweden was the first race, so...”

- What comes in your mind when you have to compare F1 and Rally?
- “You can’t compare them. The driving itself is completely different. The rally level his very very high. If you put any top F1 driver in a WRC race, he will be in a mess. Kubica apart! You can learn the circuit, but in rally every curve is different and it’s impossible to remember them all.”

HE NEEDS TIME TO GROW

Benoit Nogier – He goes faster than music

Who’s better than a technician to describe a driver? Benoit Nogier frequently sees Kimi Raikkonen at work, so it’s perfectly able to judge him.

- What kind of rally driver is Kimi?

“On the gravel, at the beginning, he made slide the car too much. While the others, Loeb, Ogier and so on, usually try to run along the road in the shorter way, he skidded a lot. In a finnish way old style, I would say, but today that kind of driving doesn’t worth. You lose downforce and traction and you can see it in the final times.”

- Speaking about laptimes, why is Kimi still so far away from the top at the end of the race? "Today rallies are very fast, we can’t forget it. And he has improved a lot. It’s all about experience. In Portugal he was at 1.5-1.7 sec/km, in Turkey, where he felt better, the gap was less than 1 sec/km.”

- Is he an istinctive or a calculating driver?

“Both. Like all the good drivers. Today Kimi is aware of his level, he knows what it is. He has understood he has to improve and he’ll improve on the way. He has to know everything, make more experience. He just lacks of that. He has the skills to go fast but he lacks of experience and so he takes risks that he doesn’t even know he’s taking. Speaking about one who exaggerates, in France we say: “he goes faster than music”. And that’s what Kimi did, for example, in Mexico.”

- Does he feel the changes of the car?

“Yes. But he’s never sure if he’s going in the right direction.”

- What kind of results can we expect from now to the end of the year?

“It’s difficult to say. All the rallies are new for him, Finland apart, where anyway he raced with a Super200 and not with a WRC. Japan and Wales are both two difficult races for one who has never raced there. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to see what will happen on the tarmac in Bulgaria, specially after the second place he got at the Lanterna Rally.

- What do you like most in Kimi?

“His sobriety”.

And he maliciously smiles, Nogier, while he’s saying it...

KaJ Lindstrom Raikkonen’s co-driver

He is more secure now

One that has run for two World Championships (2002 and 2003) beside Tommy Makinen, winning Montecarlo’s Rally, should be satisfied. Instead, Kaj Lindstrom is facing the adventure beside Raikkonen with beginner’s enthusiasm. The 41 years-old is an expert after 20 rally seasons.

What have you and Kimi have said to each other, before and after the last super special, in the Lanterna Rally?

“Before, we were talking about pushing and trying to keep Ogier behind us. Later we said to ourselves that we were to slow. All here. We ruined the front-left and the rear-left wheels in the penultimate stage, that long one: signs of battle. It was a great challenge, and for the first time Kimi felt like a real rally driver”.

And Now?

“Now he has grown. Having battled like that with Ogier, that is the driver of the moment, it has been much more profitable in sight of Rally Bulgaria. We go there in order to be with the big ones. This is the difference between here and there. But we think about nothing: just drive”.

Raikkonen seen from his point of view…

“He is a pretty boy, easy going: it’s easy to do things with him. He has approached Rally with the right attitude, knowing how to drive but wanting to learn with humility. He has never thought: this I know already. And he doesn’t expect miracles”.

What is missing now to arrive to the summit?

“Experience, just that. Talent he has more than enough, but rallies are completely different from F1. He doesn’t want to rush, he have said this to you before

MAREK NAWARECKI (Citroen PR) - It's a Global Challenge

Even from the media point of view – well, above all from that – Kimi Raikkonen makes himself conspicuous. So, we asked to a PR what is the impact on the media of such a character.

- Does it work more one like Loeb or like Raikkonen?

“Kimi has a large following around the world – explains Marek Nawarecki. Loeb too. But the difference is that Raikkonen attracts new people, not necessarily informed about rally, so he “fishes” in a new kind of audience. That is very good for this sport. On the contrary, Loeb attracts the fans who already follow the rallies.”

- What does it mean to have a character like Raikkonen in a team like Citroen?

“Firstly I have to say that it’s a great honour for us the fact he chose us, above all if we consider that he came from two myths of the races like McLaren and Ferrari. Then, we like a lot the kind of challenge that he’s facing. His adventure is a nice story, mainly for the sport. Also because none of the F1 drivers has ever competed in rally at this level, the highest level, and in this total way, that is to say applying himself in an exclusive way."

Source: AutoSprint
Courtesy:_TaniaS_ and WHATEVER