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