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Raikkonen: "It's time to concentrate again" |
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Wednesday, 20 August 2008 |
Maranello, 19th August 2008 - The break is over and it's time for the
last part of the season to start. The weather wasn't great during my
short holidays, but I chilled out a lot with my family, played some
golf, watched the Olympics on TV and rode my new bike. I love all sorts
of sport and the Olympics are an incredible event. It's exciting to
watch athletes giving it all and fighting for the gold medals.
I have great respect for athletes like Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt,
who are the best of the best. Obviously I like it when the Finns are
doing well, too!
It's time to concentrate again on my work now.
Formula 1 is a sport, which never stops. The Team has worked hard to be
ready for the race at Valencia, the first of the last part of the
season. From now on every single race will be extremely important and
every single point wil have a great value: the less there are the more
important they become.
I know Valencia, because we've done
several tests here last winter, but now we're racing in the city on a
new track: I'm sure it will be a great atmosphere. I've seen the new
track only from the position of an on-board camera and it seems to be
very fast for a street circuit. I always love to drive on new tracks
and I am always very quick to know them. I can't wait to race at
Valencia.
Again this season shows that you should never give up.
There were some races, where things didn't go well, but for one reason
or the other I was able to collect some precious points. My position
after Hungary is better than before the race. We haven't lost anything,
but we need to get better results, consistently. I think that the
outcoming of the Championship will be very tight, with Ferrari and
McLaren very close together in terms of performance and three drivers
in a position to win the title. I need to have at least one point more
than my competitors after the last race of the season: this is the sole
aim, the rest is details. We have to start well at Valencia, where it's
more important than in other places to drive with continuity from
Friday on: I hope I'll have a trouble-free weekend to try to set up the
car the best way possible, especially for the qualifying lap. The
qualifying will be extremely important, although I think that there are
some possibilities on the track to overtake. If it's hot that will help
Ferrari. Like at Montreal you also need a bit of luck and I hope that
it will not end for me as it did in Canada: anyway, there's no need to
worry until we race.
We just have to fight until the end and try to win.
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