NEWS // RAIKKONEN PREPARES FOR A NEW CHALLENGE

Speaking officially for the first time since his switch to the WRC was announced Kimi Raikkonen has outlined his hopes for his debut season along with reflecting on what he has left behind.

Earlier this week the 30 year old spoke to Red Bull's Red Bulletin magazine on his move to the Citroen Junior WRC team and sees it as the biggest challenge of his career so far... [read more]

The Finn commented that he had previously wanted to pursue the challenge of Rallying saying " I Have always wanted to give rallying a shot, but I did get into F1 very quickly so it became difficult to move sideways into the sport, which meant I just had to lump it. I didn’t get the chance until very late – I was almost 30. He added "Now it’s the right time to go for it with the right people and the right car for however long. I did negotiate with another F1 team for next season, but we couldn’t agree 100 per cent. Then Red Bull came and made me an offer to drive in the WRC for a season. It felt like the right thing to do straight away."

When asked why Citroen? Raikkonen explained "If you’re going to do something, do it with the best team. My car’s been prepared by Tommi Mäkinen’s team; these guys are super professional. Of course it’s a smaller operation than an F1 team, but they’re professionals. Even though the driver plays a bigger overall role in rallying than in F1, the best driver won’t win in a bad car. That’s why I wanted an experienced co-driver so at least one of us would know what he was doing. I met Kai Lindström through Tommi and we were ice spies for Chris Atkinson during the 2006 Monte Carlo rally. Kai is outstanding; he and Tommi were World Champions together. Kai was also the one to make first contact with Citroën Sport."

With Raikkonen having to test himself on a multitude of different surfaces throughout the season the ex F1 champion explained "We’ve been amazingly fast on gravel, but tarmac will probably be more my thing. Snow will be the hardest. Your lines have got to be spot-on in the snow, whereas on tarmac it’s no big deal if you brake a metre too late and have to turn more sharply. You have to be able to read the gravel. On some types of gravel you’ve got incredible grip with rally tyres and on others you haven’t.

Always confident of his natural ability in F1 the Finn was more circumspect over initial expectations when the WRC kicks off in Sweden in February and said "The first few rallies are bound to be tough. Until I know how fast the other drivers are, I’m holding back on any personal expectations. I’m sure I won’t manage to keep up with the top four (Loeb, Dani Sordo, Hirvonen, Latvala)."

Looking back on his nine years in Formula One with some candour and when asked if their was one "Stand Out" moment he said "In F1, every lap is more or less the same. It’s more difficult if it rains, but otherwise it soon becomes routine. In rallying, every corner or hill might be different from what you expected. The most fun I’ve had in recent years was fooling around with friends on snow-scooters, for example. I’d find it difficult to pick a single moment from the last nine years.

"A WRC title would mean more to me than my F1 World Championship title. But I’m just starting out and I can sense what a long journey it would be to get to that point. No one’s done it before. That’s another thing that makes it interesting."

Certainly with the high profile names of both Raikkonen and Ken Block signing up for 2010, WRC organisers are enjoying much fresh media interest from previously untapped areas which can only be a bonus for this years championship and the ultimate future of the sport.

The 2010 WRC season begins with the snow of Rally Sweden on February 12th.

Images and Info: Red Bulletin
Editorial: Neil Tozer