Kimi ready to 'try again this year'
Monday 12th January 2009
http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954, ... 25,00.htmlKimi Raikkonen is keen to put his disappointing 2008 campaign behind him and focus his attention on winning this year's F1 World title.
The Finn suffered a dismal time last season when he claimed just two victories, only narrowly beating Robert Kubica to third place in the Drivers' standings.
As a result the 2007 World Champion earned much condemnation with many accusing him of not trying.
Raikkonen, though, is eager to prove his detractors wrong by winning this year's World title.
"Last year was not exactly what I wanted but that is in the past now and we will try again this year," he said at Monday's launch of the new Ferrari F60.
"Of course it is a big question mark how good the car will be because the rules have changed a lot.
"But we are very confident that the car should be very good and we will see in the next few weeks how good it is against the others.
"But for sure we'll try to win the world championships, but we'll see how it is and we'll go from there."
As for the new-look car, which features a long, low front wing and a short, high rear wing in keeping with the 2009 specs, Raikkonen concedes it's going to take some time getting used to the look.
"It looks different because of the new regulations, but after looking at it for a little while you get used to it," he said.
"It looks different but it looks very good. I'm looking forward to see it run and see how it goes."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Massa predicts another fight with McLaren
http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954, ... 73,00.htmlMonday 12th January 2009
Felipe Massa is predicting that Ferrari will face another season of battling it out with McLaren while BMW and Renault could join the mix.
Last year's Championship saw Massa finish second to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton with the title fight going down to the wire at the season-ending Brazilian GP.
And this year Massa is predicting much of the same although he reckons that both BMW and Renault could also play a role in the title outcome.
"It's difficult to say what the most difficult car to beat will be," Massa said during the launch of Ferrari's F60 at Maranello on Monday.
"We expect McLaren to be very competitive, maybe BMW, who are working really hard and growing a lot year by year.
"Maybe Renault and maybe we can have some other team who can show great performance as well. So it's quite difficult to say but for sure we are working really hard and hopefully it will be us."
Massa, though, is hoping that this time he is the one who comes out on top, claiming that he feels stronger than ever before.
"Every year I feel stronger," the Brazilian said. "I think after so much experience in these six years I feel stronger, I feel more experienced, especially after last year, with how difficult the Championship was.
"That makes me ready and even more experienced for next season."
Massa is set to shake down the new F60 at Mugello later this afternoon
________________________________________________________________
(I wouldn't be counting out Renault or BMW just yet Felipe... they'll not fade away if they deliver a car
)
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point. 
