- 28 Aug 08, 10:23#62030
From http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/70103
Raikkonen to support Massa if needed
By Michele Lostia and Pablo Elizalde Thursday, August 28th 2008, 09:29 GMT
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says world champion Kimi Raikkonen will play a supporting role to teammate Felipe Massa if needed to secure the title.
"If needed, Kimi will help Felipe," Domenicali was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport.
"We spoke about it at the beginning of the year.
"Before then, however, let's see how things evolve."
Raikkonen has struggled to match Massa's pace in recent races and the Finn has not won since the Spanish Grand Prix in April.
Massa, currently in second place in the standings seven points ahead of Raikkonen, has won four times to the Finn's two.
Domenicali is convinced, however, that Raikkonen will return to form.
"For me it doesn't represent a problem. He'll react, he'll soon be strong again, he knows how to keep away from criticisms and polemics," he added.
The team boss said it was up to the team to give Raikkonen a car he feels comfortable with.
"He isn't happy with the way the car enters corners. He would like it more aggressive, and this influences him. It's up to us to carry on giving him a hand."
Domenicali is also adamant that Massa is strong enough to win the championship.
"Certainly. We will have to give him an always competitive car. He's mature to manage it and we'll help him."
The Italian conceded the team cannot afford losing any more points through reliability problems, and revealed Ferrari have strengthen their quality control process.
"We can't anymore afford the luxury of losing important results because of reliability problems," he said. "However, it's also true that McLaren last year had 35 points more than today, and we had 16 more.
"It's been decided to strengthen controls over the whole component production of the cars. We have 40 people between metallurgy and quality department.
"What is about to start in two weeks' time in Belgium will be a sprint championship over six races, so we can't give away anything anymore."
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