Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen said it was a pretty average year for him but vowed to come back stronger next season.
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Raikkonen’s new deal coincided with a spike in performance for the 36-year-old, but he has once again entered a period that has left many wondering if it was the right choice to keep him at Ferrari for 2016.
“Pretty average, I must say”, he summed up.
“We have good memories from past year, everyone in the team was so happy, it was a really special feeling after such a hard season in 2013 to confirm third in the constructors’ and my fourth place in the drivers’championship”.
The Italian believes that Raikkonen compliments Vettel well, and pointed to the 2007 World Champion’s unfortunate run of retirements – he has failed to finish on five occasions to the one of Vettel – as one of the reasons he has been off the pace.
“You maybe didn’t like Magny Cours, I liked it, not many people, quiet, easy”.
“We have found some solutions, which we unfortunately can’t race here yet because we don’t want to risk anything, it’s quite a sensitive part of the vehicle, but I’m confident we can fix those things for next year”. You don’t expect to be very high up and fighting for a lot.
Three wins for Ferrari in 2015 has seen talk of a title challenge next year gather momentum, but Raikkonen was keen to downplay expectations.
“Next year the aim is always to be at the front and Mercedes have been very strong for the last few years and everyone else is trying to beat them. Is it going to happen next year, are we going to be in a position next year?” he pondered. “We had a fantastic year – just phenomenal”, Vettel said on Thursday at a media conference.
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“But we have to wait until we put the cars on the circuit in the test and the first few races and then we will know where we are”. Obviously there’s a lot of work being done at the factory, number and stuff but it’s never the same until we’re really on the circuit.
