Räikkönen: Sorry I don’t stop

Corriere dello Sport, 23.7.2016

“I am fast, motivated and the team still wants me. Ferrari will win and the fans will return loving us.”

You just extended your contract for 2017 with Ferrari, your manager said you would be ready to stay even longer.

"I signed because I feel fast and motivated. I explained to Ferrari to be willing to continue, and from them it has been the same."

Then it seems that your career could continue in the medium term.

"I sure don’t worry for 2018, also that’s why I even don't for 2017: I have so much work already now! Right now my mind is taken by this race weekend."

Your confirmation doesn’t convince everyone.

"I realize that we let people down more than once. But when we come back to winning the fans will be back on our side, in Formula 1 it works that way.”

You are taciturn but in Italy there is a hard core of your fans: What makes you lovable?

"Uh, I don’t know, because my priority is to please myself and not really to do anything to please others. Of course the fans have not forgotten the World title of 2007: who wins the title with Ferrari becomes an idol. Let's say that some love me as I am, others do not appreciate me because they would want me different. But I'm me, not anyone else."

With 36 years you are the oldest among the active drivers: There is an age to leave Formula 1?

"There is but it’s in the head of each of us, there doesn’t exist a scheme. You have to leave when you feel that you aren’t anymore at the best and for me this moment has not arrived: you could race at forty as Verstappen has started at seventeen."

Sebastian has welcomed your confirmation. But is it really good for a team to have two drivers who are friends? Or do you not get more when the two detest each other, such as Hamilton and Rosberg?

"Well, friends: me and Seb don’t meet off track, in private, and things work. When two drivers share the information, they have the same goal, discuss face to face, when the game is fair as in our case, all is easier for everyone. Maybe in other contexts it is better when you hate, I don’t know. In Formula 1 it is useless."

It seems that you have suffered a lot in 2014, when Alonso criticized you at every race.

"No, I didn’t suffer. But a team doesn’t work when inside it contains two teams."

Okay, it works better that way but Mercedes wins and wins. Is there at least a technical area in which Ferrari is superior?

"No, I don’t think there is. Ferrari has made great steps forward, what has fooled us is that others (Mercedes, ed) have progressed even more."

You are one of the last historical memories of the team: what are the differences between the current one and the one with whom you won the World Championship in 2007?

"I come to think more about the similarities: there is a great atmosphere among all those who work there, the new arrivals and those who were already there."

Well, there are differences between the two presidents: Montezemolo and Marchionne are as distant as the North Pole and the South Pole.

(Laughs, spreads his arms) "No, about this I will not say anything."

Does it seem normal to race without any problems in Baku and there are a thousand discussions with Ecclestone to renew the contract with Monza?

"No, we're going to run where is a lot of money and few spectators but this is not the right path, if the historical circuits pay for it. What are we going to do, take away the home race of Ferrari? In Monza there is history, it is a place that belongs to Formula 1 like Monte Carlo. Forgetting history is never a good thing "

Next week is the Rally Finland: Nostalgia?

"Well it's my home race that in Formula 1 I don’t have (although here in Hungary came down many of his fans from Finland, ed) and it’s beautiful, it seems like Formula 1 in the woods. The rally I miss a bit but I have a car, a Fiat Abarth Grande Punto S2000, with which every now and then I satisfy the whim of countersteer. But I often think: for sure when I stop with Formula 1 I will return to rally, a difficult sport but a lot of fun."

The tattoos on your arms make you feel better looking or stronger?

"They don't make me feel anything, I like them and behind each of them there's something. I didn't get them to feel like a gangster like in case of Maurizio (indicates Arrivabene and the two joke about it)"

What games do you like to play with Robin?

"When we are together he holds each game for five seconds and wants to go immediately to another, it drives me crazy. Now I think he begins to understand that his father is a driver: every time he sees me appearing on TV, he opens his eyes wide and points his finger at me. He will be free to race, I'm hoping that he never will."