Kimi Raikkonen has issued a warning to his rivals, stating he will be considerably faster in the Spanish Grand Prix than he has been in the first three races of the 2007 season. Raikkonen currently shares top spot with Hamilton and Alonso with one win and two podiums under his belt already, however he has not been 100% happy with his F2007’s setup so far.
After a dominant performance at testing last week in Barcelona, Raikkonen is feeling confident with the car’s setup and is finding it significantly faster.
“We were able to improve the F2007 considerably because the new components work really well and the car is now closer to my style of driving,” Raikkonen explained. “I’m much more optimisitc now – we can attack the best way possible, as my friend Markku Alen usually says.
“It is true that you never know how competitive you really are compared to the other teams during the test sessions – obviously for that, we have to wait for the qualifying and the race, but the lap times give us some hints.”
In particular, Raikkonen is looking to up his qualifying times, where he has been beaten categorically by his team-mate.
“As I already said,” he continued, “over the last weeks, we have to improve the performance in qualifying. It was not really easy for me to get all the potential out of the car on a single lap because we never managed to prepare it at the best. Now, I’m really happy about the steps forward.
“Although it is really difficult to overtake another car, even when it is slower, it makes things a lot easier when you want to win, when you can start from the front. Last February we had a good test session and we managed to make the setup even better now, also thanks to the new components, which give me a very positive feeling. All in all, the car is much better to drive now.”
