Montezemolo: Raikkonen must win '07 title

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says Kimi Raikkonen must seize the opportunity and win the world championship for the Italian team next season.

With rivals Renault having captured the title in the past two years, di Montezemolo believes that Raikkonen must fulfil his potential in 2007 and win his first title, which the Ferrari president believes would have already happened had it not been for poor car reliability at McLaren.

"It must be said that in 2005 Raikkonen would have won the championship with a more reliable car," he was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport.

"He broke down five times, and he was always in the lead. So now he must understand this is the time to win the title.

"(Felipe) Massa goes extremely quickly and maybe he will be faster systematically. I hope they will both go quickly."

He added: "We are ready to get back to winning ways. This way Jean Todt would be able to retire serenely and so would I.

"Schumacher arrived at the right time and now arrives Raikkonen, also at the right time."

Amid continued questioning about Raikkonen's partying lifestyle, di Montezemolo said he has no concerns about the Finn's approach to the job.

"It happens to everyone to get drunk at times," he said. "(Eddie) Irvine was a bit like that too. It also happened to a guy from Kerpen, no matter how difficult it is to believe it.

"I'm not worried at all about Kimi. He is motivated and he has the right approach with Ferrari."

McLaren Wouldn't Let Raikkonen Test with Ferrari

Ron Dennis pushed for Fernando Alonso's early test debut but did not allow Kimi Raikkonen to similarly drive before Christmas, according to a report in the Spanish press.

The newspaper El Mundo Deportivo claims that while Raikkonen seemed unbothered about whether or not he would win an early release from his McLaren contract, Ferrari chiefs actually did ask their McLaren counterparts for clearance for a 2006 test.

"Ron Dennis did not give his approval," the Spanish nationwide daily sports newspaper read.

El Mundo Deportivo quoted Dennis, Woking based McLaren's chairman, as recently saying that negotiations for Alonso's release from his Renault contract would likely differ from the talks with Ferrari.

The Briton reportedly said: "(That is) because the relationship between McLaren-Mercedes and Renault is very different to the relationship between McLaren and Ferrari."

Montezemolo: Ferrari's year next year.

Having had to play second fiddle to Renault for the past two seasons, Ferrari will be back on top of the Formula One world in 2007, according to president Luca di Montezemolo.

Despite losing Michael Schumacher to retirement, and seeing several key technical changes, at the end of the 2006 campaign, di Montezemolo is confident that the Scuderia can bounce back and take the fight to both Renault and McLaren, which itself is predicting a resurgence following the capture of world champion Fernando Alonso for next year.

Ferrari made its own high-profile recruitment after Schumacher's decision to quit, but di Montezemolo puts his optimism down to the spirit of the people working at Maranello as much as having landed Kimi Raikkonen to partner 2006 race winner Felipe Massa.

"Next year, we will win back the world championship because we have extraordinary persons," he told Italy's Domenico In, "Ferrari is my life, something that began 25 years ago with a person that taught me a lot, Enzo Ferrari. Since then, our fans have lived through some difficult moments but, with Michael Schumacher and Jean Todt, also some extraordinary ones. Next year, we will win back the championship because we still have extraordinary persons."

Ferrari: Kimi can booze

Jean Todt says he is not overly concerned that new acquisition Kimi Raikkonen, to replace Michael Schumacher from 2007, is fond of an alcoholic beverage or two.

Ferrari's CEO and temporary team principal, however, suggested to the 27-year-old Finn that his tolerance could run dry if Kimi continues to be a drunken regular on the tabloid front pages.

"If from time to time he wants to have some drinks with his friends," Todt, 60, told the French daily newspaper Le Figaro, "We will ask him kindly to do so with discretion."

Generally, Todt is excited by Raikkonen's arrival at the Prancing Horse, and he denied that Schumacher's withdrawal means that the term "dream team" should no longer be used.

Referring to Raikkonen, he insisted, "The boy has talent, he deals with defeat with dignity and does not go around talking too much or complaining."

Kimi Raikkonen about his scandals in media

Kimi Raikkonen is very reluctant to draw attention to himself.

He rather avoid contact with the media, even if he seems to get more and more relaxed with it as time passes by. However, sometimes one would think that Raikkonen really is hiding from public image and because of that it seems that he has created an image of a person who drinks alcohol at every opportunity. The journalists made fun of him, e.g. once Michael Schumacher said he would like to meet Kimi and have a drink with him. The audience of journalists burst out in laughter as they pictured Kimi drunk together with Michael. So that has been the image of Kimi Raikkonen: a heavy drinking F1driver and it seems to follow him for the rest of his career.

Kimi himself thinks the media exaggerates a lot and he was very sad about it in the beginning of his career. Whatever he had in his glass, media assumed it was alcohol. Also whenever he goes to a nightclub, media exaggerates a lot, even if he behaves normal. Media has said he has been thrown out because of his bad behavour, which has not been the truth. Kimi admits that he is hurt many times of media in that sense, but he refuses to let it change his life. He knows the stories are used only to sell the papers. More and more he is able to laugh at it. My life isn’t what the papers make it out to be, Raikkonen states. “I still do things that I like and if the papers choose to write about them, well, let them do so.”

Anyhow, there is a limit to everything. Recently there was an article in AutoBild motorsportmagazine about Kimi Raikkonen being drunk and naked in the gardens of Monza during a test session in Italy. It was also published in Finland. Kimi Raikkonen gets very angry when the magazine ran the story without even bothering to find out if the rumors they heard had any truth in it. It has gone too far with media and we will probably sue them for that in order to stop those kind of articles, says Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonen´s relationship with the scandals in media is the same as with everything else he regards as irrelevant to his driving: he just tries to block it out of his mind.

Source: car-spin.com

Kovalainen tips Kimi for Title

Renault rookie Heikki Kovalainen is backing countryman Kimi Raikkonen, not Fernando Alonso, to win the world title next season.

Although Alonso is the current holder of the title having won it in 2005 and again in 2006, Kovalainen believes the Spaniard's move to McLaren could cost him a third successive championship in 2007.

Instead, he says the honour will go to Raikkonen, who is in leaving McLaren and heading to Ferrari at the end of the year.

He told Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat: "Kimi is the biggest favourite.

"Alonso is also strong but only if McLaren will get their car working properly. Massa can also be good."

As for his own chances in 2007, his first year as a F1 driver, the 25-year-old Finn said: "At the moment I don't take stress about winning races.

"I want finish my first grand prix in Melbourne and I want get a good start this season."

Raikkonen visits Ferrari in Jerez

On Thursday Kimi Raikkonen joined Ferrari in Jerez de la Frontera to see the action from up close. The Finn won't be testing until January for the Italian team, but did get his first preview on track. In Jerez Ferrari's test drivers Luca Badoer and Felipe Massa are covering the laps to prepare the team for 2007. Kimi Raikkonen will most likely step into the Ferrari car for the first time during a test session in Valencia in January.

Todt vows to 'protect' Raikkonen

Ferrari boss Jean Todt has vowed to 'protect' Kimi Raikkonen when the Finn arrives to replace Michael Schumacher in 2007.

The Italian team's principal said in Maranello this week that he is looking forward to a long term relationship with the Finn, despite the fact that Raikkonen's immediate tenure is for three years only.

Asked by a journalist for the British newspaper The Times whether he thought the hard-partying 27-year-old will fill Schumacher's boots successfully, Todt said: "I don't like to talk too much. I think the facts are more important.

"People who work at Ferrari have stayed for ten years, so I really hope that Kimi will stay for the next ten years at Ferrari.

"I have a very good feeling with Kimi. My responsibility, our responsibility, will be to allow him to work as best he can and to protect him."

Todt denied that Raikkonen will automatically enjoy 'number one' status, amid team-mate Felipe Massa's insistence that he is not going to play a subordinate role at Ferrari.

The Frenchman said: "Felipe is going to drive for Ferrari, Kimi is going to drive for Ferrari - there never has been a number one or number two.

"Time will tell who has the best chance to compete for Ferrari for the championship."

Source: GMM CAPSIS International

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