Q; Kimi, it looked like a walk in Albert Park this afternoon; what a fantastic day for you!
Kimi RAIKKONEN: Yeah. The weekend has been very good, so thanks to the team. Today the race was not as easy as it might have looked. Just before the start my radio broke so I didn’t have a radio the whole race so it was a bit complicated but at least before the race we had a plan what we wanted to do so I knew pretty much what I was meant to do, but in some places it wasn’t an ideal situation. Anyhow, it was a good race for us. I didn’t have to push too hard, just have to pace myself a bit and look what the others were doing: an excellent start. Q: The two guys either side of you were racing each other at the start, giving you a bit of a break on the opening lap.
KR: Yeah, but I don’t think it made much difference in the end. We were quite quick so I didn’t have to push. Maybe it helped on the first laps that I didn’t have to push as hard as I could have. But as I said, the car was perfect all day and in the end we were just bringing it home.
Q: Well, you set fastest lap but we also saw you have a bit of a moment at turn three towards the end of the race; talk us through that.
KR: I just locked a wheel. I was looking at something else, not putting in too much effort. It was my mistake completely I was following another car but fortunately it didn’t cost me too much.
Q: It is your first win for over a year; what are your thoughts and emotions about that?
KR: Of course, it’s always nice to come to the first race and win straight away. I’ve never done that before. We’ve had good races here before, but we’ve never been able to win. With a new team, with everything basically new this year, it’s the ideal way to start the season. The car is very strong. I think the atmosphere in the team is perfect and the people are really making my life very good and easy. I really enjoy it. As I say, it’s a perfect way (to start the season) and I hope we can keep it up.
Q: Kimi, it was an easy day for your today, but how do you see the next few races, how do you see the competition developing?
KR: I don’t know really, it’s too early to say. We need to wait a couple of races before we can see where we are and what’s the deal with the other teams. We’re getting some new parts for the next race so for sure we can improve. And if it gets hot it can be useful for us. We will just do the best we can in the next race and see where we end up. We’re in a good position now, we just need to work hard, keeping improving and try to win as many races as we can.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Kimi, what was it like, standing on the rostrum there, with the Finnish anthem and then the Italian anthem?
KR: It was good, for sure. It’s been a long time since I heard the Finnish one. The Italian I’ve heard quite a number of times, but it was nice to be involved in the whole situation.
Q: It seemed to be quite hard to pull away in the opening stages, but then you seemed to pull away more easily.
KR: I didn’t push so hard at the beginning because I kind of knew what was going to happen in the race, so we didn’t really need to push as hard as we could have. So it was not so difficult, but of course we needed to be careful that if something did go wrong, we at least had some margin. The biggest problem was my radio. It stopped working just before the start, so I didn’t have radio contact with the team the whole race, but at least we had a plan which we went through before the race, so that helped.
Q: Were you relying on a pit board, then?
KR: Yeah, basically, and what we planned before. Luckily we didn’t have any major issues or anything so it wasn’t too difficult, but not ideal.
Q: You mentioned a moment that you had towards the end there, but at about half distance you lost about three seconds…
KR: Yeah, there was quite a lot of traffic and I followed a few cars for more than a lap, so it wasn’t ideal and they didn’t move over even though they had blue flags. That was quite poor in this race. Hopefully we can improve that because it’s not ideal if you’re leading and you have to wait and wait for people to let you past.
Q: And the difference between the two tyres; was there a big difference?
KR: Yeah, there was a difference but I didn’t need to push at the end so it was hard to say exactly what the difference was but for me, both tyres seemed to work pretty well so I was happy with them.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Salvatore Zanca – Associated Press) Kimi is this just another win or is it special because it is your first win for Ferrari?
KR: Of course, it is a special moment – with a new team, everything new and we can win in the first race so, it is ideal. At least people will not ask when you are going to win. I am happy because it is a new season and to win straightaway so that is good also. I am really happy with the team, and how things are going with the people, how the car is so it could not be better than it is now.
Q: (Tobias Holtkamp - Bild) Kimi, who was on the phone that Jean Todt gave you?
KR: I think it was Michael, but the line was pretty bad so I couldn’t hear him.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, is this the payback for your bad luck here in previous races?
KR: No, I wouldn’t say that. It was just a perfect day for us -- or not perfect because we still had some problems, but at least they didn’t cost us anything and so we can always improve, but at least we got the result we wanted from the first race of the season and it is a good place to start the season and hopefully we can keep it up.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi, did you have any problems in the race?
KR: Like I said, the radio broke before the start. That was the main issue we had. And in the race, nothing major really.
Q: (Georg Nolte - Bild) Kimi, how did you and Michael work together in the last month?
KR: I have seen him twice -- when they launched the car and I think at one test. He came, but I left at the same time almost. So, we haven’t really been spending time together.
Q: (Bobby Arifin - Bola) All three of you – Malaysia is a bigger track, hotter place. What do you think your chances are there?
KR: I will try to keep it up, like I said, but it is a completely different circuit, different weather that usually makes it much more difficult to get the car right because the tyres are not working as well in the hot conditions, probably. We will just see how we do in the testing next week and then we will work from there.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi, are you surprised at how easy it was today?
KR: I think we were expecting this, but we were not 100 per cent about what would happen and even today we did not have to push 100 per cent so we are in a good position right now but in the next race it could be a completely different story so we need to push and improve the whole package and go from there.
Q: (Niki Takeda – Formula PA) Kimi was the car close to perfect today?
KR: No, of course, you can always improve, but it was very good today. The biggest problems were with the back-markers to get past and it took ages for them to know you were there. The car was working well all the time so no complaints.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi, when did you realise that this was your race?
KR: When I passed the finish line, of course, but you know anything can happen even in the last lap. We knew that if everything worked we should be okay after yesterday. It all depends if you get a good start and you have the speed. We had the speed and everything kept going right and we thought it could be our race and that is what happened.
Q: (Juha Paatalo – Financial Times Deutschland) Kimi, since you made a mistake because you were looking at something else, did you have a lot of boring moments during this race?
KR: No I didn’t, but sometimes if you don’t push 100 per cent you can have one of those things if you decided to do something that you shouldn’t do but I was just a little too late on the brakes and locked a wheel, but I knew I had enough time so I didn’t have to hurry up too much.
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