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Here we are with the Spanish Grand Prix just round the corner, a race that has a special feel about it for me. I will arrive in Barcelona tonight, because right from tomorrow morning I’ve got an appointment in my diary: attending the launch of the first ever Ferrari Store to be opened in Spain, in the heart of the Catalan capital, on one of the most important streets in the city, Paseo de Gracia. Felipe will be there, as will Marc who will be very much the main man given he is from Barcelona. Then it will be time to head off to the track for the usual Thursday jobs, most of them dealing with media work.
It’s always nice to race in Spain. I love the feeling of warmth one gets from the fans right from the very first free practice sessions. Day after day, you can see the grandstands fill with flags – the red of Ferrari and the azure blue of my compatriots from Asturias – and that is a special feeling for me. My win here in 2006 is still one of the best moments of my career and it would be a dream come true to do it again with Ferrari sooner or later.
I know that you all want to know if that might happen already this weekend, but I am not able to give you an answer to that. On paper, we do not yet have the potential to be in a straight fight for the win, with one team clearly the favourite in this regard. However, we know things can change quickly in our sport and, in Turkey, finally we managed to bring home a podium finish. The road is still long, but I believe we have at least started down it going in the right direction.
These past few days, the team has worked so hard in Maranello on developing the 150° Italia and in order to be as well prepared as possible for these two back to back races, given that next week will be back on track in Monaco. During the days I spent in the factory I could feel that everyone there really wants to fight back: the feeling is so strong you can almost touch it, whether you are speaking with people in meetings or as you walk around the Gestione Sportiva. Both Felipe and I have done so many kilometres in the simulator and we feel that the updates being introduced will see us make progress in terms of performance. Whether or not this will be enough to close the gap to the best, we will only find out over the weekend, because we cannot ignore the fact that the others have not been twiddling their thumbs. We will see who has been the cleverest in the development championship.
The Catalunya Circuit is one of the ones we know best because traditionally it is a favourite venue for winter testing. This year, we have already had two sessions there, one at the end of February and the other in early March.
This means we will all arrive there with a pretty good idea of what settings we will use as a baseline on the car to start the weekend, even if the conditions we will encounter will be very different, especially in terms of temperature.
It will be very important to run continuously in Friday’s two free practice sessions to fine tune the car and check out the behaviour of the new technical components. It will also be vital to study the performance and wear of the tyres. In the race simulations we did during testing we saw significant degradation, especially on the front left tyre, which is put under major stress: we will see if, with different temperatures, that situation changes. Compared to previous races at this track I think we will see more overtaking, especially down to the difference in tyre performance that could be a factor during the race: further reason to come to the track to watch the Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon. It would be nice to jump on the podium again and be able to salute all our fans from there: as far as me and the team are concerned, as usual, we will be giving it our very best shot.
Source: Ferrari.com
Loeb, Sordo, Hirvonen, Ogier, Latvala, Solberg... at the wheel of go karts
On the occasion of the RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, the main drivers of the WRC will be taking part in a karting exhibition at the Salou Karting Centre. Most of them being karting fans, the drivers who have confirmed their attendance to the exhibition are the main stars of the championship such as World Champion, Sébastien Loeb and his Spanish team mate Dani Sordo; Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala, Sébastien Ogier, Kimi Räikkönen, Matthew Wilson, Ken Block, Petter Solberg, Khalid Al Qassimi and also Federico Villagra.
This true show with the best drivers of the World Rally Championship, perfectly kitted out to drive a professional kart, will start with a group photograph of all participants followed by the exhibition as such, and will be held on Thursday, 21 October, from 3.00 to 4.00 p.m. on the 900-m track of the Salou Karting Centre.
For the agenda:
- Event: WRC stars in karts
- Place: Karting Salou (Autovía de Salou a Reus, km 2.1)
- Date: Thursday, 21 de October
-Time: 3.00 p.m. Source: RallyRACC.com
This weekend, Red Bull driver Kimi Räikkönen will travel from Mexico to Polynesia to China to the Wild West. And he's not even going to leave Spain once
This geographic miracle is made possible by the fact that the Rally de Espana, also known to fans as the Catalunya Rally, is based in the Port Aventura theme park: Europe's answer to the famous Universal Studios in America. All these exotic regions of the world are represented in the park, thanks to stomach-churning rides such as the Grand Canyon Rapids, Furius Baco (the fastest rollercoaster in Europe with a top speed of 135kph) and the Dragon Khan (another rollercoaster, this time featuring eight inversions). Hold onto your paella...
Kimi's rally diet will be equally mixed, because the Rally de Espana takes in both asphalt and gravel surfaces this year. On Friday, the drivers will compete on gravel roads, whereas on Saturday and Sunday the surface will be the more typical fast and flowing asphalt that Spain's round of the World Rally Championship is famous for.
It is often said that the Catalunya Rally is the closest that world rallying comes to circuit racing. Kimi, knows a few things about racing thanks to his 18 Grand Prix wins, does not entirely agree. But like most of the events this year, it will be a brand new experience for the 'ice man'. So what does he think?
"I don't know the rally at all, but the route doesn't look like any race circuit I've ever seen, although I've heard some people say it's similar!" he joked before starting the recce. "This year it's going to be completely different too as the first day is gravel. But I think it's quite nice to have the variety on this event, even though gravel is not our strongest surface. In the end we'll just do our best and try not to make any mistakes, which has been our goal since the start of the year. It should be a very interesting rally that teaches us a lot, but I don't think we should have expectations that are too high. If we can be near the top six then that would be great, but the main is just to get to the end. If you go like crazy on the first day and go off, then you don't learn anything. And that's why I'm here: to learn."
Kaj Lindstrom, the man who reads Kimi his notes, has plenty of experience to pass on in Spain. But as Kaj points out, Kimi has been pretty good at teaching himself too. "Kimi's obviously been used to winning in Formula One all the time, and now in rallying he starts from scratch,'" said the Finn. "It can't be easy, having to go back to basics when you're a World Champion. But I've been really impressed by his attitude. He takes in absolutely everything and if you consider what he's achieved despite his lack of experience, it's pretty impressive. Hopefully Spain will be good for us: Kimi should be more comfortable on the asphalt roads of Saturday and Sunday."
The Rally de Espana is based in the popular tourist resort of Salou, an hour's drive south of Barcelona on the Costa Daurada. While the town is normally famous for buckets, spades and beaches, the coming weekend is going to be a long way from being a holiday for Kimi, Kaj and all the other intrepid Red Bull-backed World Rally Championship crews...Source: RedBullRallye
