Senin, 14 September 2009

Ferrari stay silent on Raikkonen future.

Although the Finn has a contract for 2010, the Formula One rumour mill insists that he is most likely to be replaced by double world champion Fernando Alonso, should Felipe Massa return, as planned, from injury. Raikkonen has made the most of his regular team-mate's absence, scooping top three finishes in Hungary, Valencia, Belgium and now Italy, but team boss Stefano Domenicali offered no clues as to his future when cornered by the Finnish media at Monza.

"I think that, as we said, we don't want to discuss this now because I don't think it is correct," he said, "As you know, Kimi has a contract with us next year and this is what we can say now.

"We are happy about his performance because, obviously, he is driving very well. The team is very happy with the way he is performing, above all in the second part of the season."

Despite the expected Alonso-Ferrari announcement not happening at Monza, Raikkonen avoided being questioned on the subject, preferring instead to reflect on a race where, despite having the supposed advantage of KERS, he was undone by the one-stop strategy of the Brawn team.

"I got a very good start but then something happened with Lewis [Hamilton]," he reported, "He slowed down, but I had nowhere to go and had to go around the left, half on the grass. But I needed to back off before then. If I had had some space to go around him, I would have got him at the start.

"Anyhow, it didn't really change the end of the race. He went off, [so] we got third place a little bit on a gift. But it doesn't matter, it all counts, and it is good points for us.

"It is a bit disappointing to drive as well as you can every lap, not really making any mistakes, and still finish quite far away from the first two. It is not the perfect position for me or for the team, but at least we scored some points - which we needed. I think we got the most out of the car this weekend, and it is good for the fans to be on the podium - it is much better than finishing fourth."

The 2007 world champion admitted that he was surprised to have racked up four straight podium finishes, especially as he has not been happy with his set-up this season.

"We've been chasing the car a bit since the last five races and it's been working well for us," he reported, "We've been getting the best out of it, and other people have got the most out of their cars and their package, so it has worked out very well for us. It's a big surprise to finish on the podium but, okay, here we were a bit lucky. No matter how it comes, you need to finish the race, so we will try again in the next races and try to keep third place in the constructors' championship."

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar