F1 News
Date: 25/October/2012
Michael Schumacher may have been forced to wait until midway through his third comeback season to stand on the F1 podium, but fellow former World Champion Kimi Raikkonen took just four races.
And it was no fluke. The Finn, who spent two seasons rallying after leaving F1 at the end of 2009, has steered his Lotus to no less than six top-three finishes so far this year.
Add to that his third place in the World Championship and Raikkonen, accused of lacking motivation during his final season at Ferrari, is a contender for any ‘surprise of the season’ award.
“For me, nothing's really changed,” he shrugged. “People always talk about where I was last time [Ferrari] and that I didn't have the motivation, but I thought I drove better than ever in the last year; it was just that we had a pretty bad car.”
Much had changed in F1 technically since Raikkonen’s departure, most notably the switch to fast-wearing Pirelli tyres.
“I admit I had some [worries] about the tyres,” conceded Raikkonen, “but then I did a private test and thought that they were fine. Coming from rallying, they have much more grip anyway and also I didn't really remember how it was [with the Bridgestone tyres] two years earlier.
“[The Pirelli tyres] wear a bit faster than in the past, but it's the same for everybody and they've been doing a very good job for Formula One so I'm happy with that.”
Although without a race win, Raikkonen still has a slim chance of winning the title with four rounds remaining.
The former Sauber, McLaren and Ferrari driver is 48 points from Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, and 42 from his Ferrari replacement Fernando Alonso
“I'm happy,” he said. “If you had told me before the season that I will be in this position with this many points I would have taken it. But of course when you do some good races you always want more. It could have been better but it could have been much worse also.”
Raikkonen’s only concern is that, since the summer break, Lotus looks to have lost ground to some of its opponents and he has finished no higher than fifth for the last four rounds.
“For some reason, after the summer break, some of the teams have been much more consistent,” he said. “I think we still have a good car. We improved it in the last race again, but we are not at the level that we maybe were compared to others at the beginning of the season.”
Looking ahead, it seems certain that Raikkonen will continue with Lotus, given that the 2013 race seats at Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes are now all occupied.
“We have options, but nothing is decided,” commented Raikkonen.
Raikkonen will be making his Indian Grand Prix debut in this weekend’s second F1 visit to the Buddh International Circuit.
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