Former teammate and new Red Bull reserve driver David Coulthard urged the Finnish driver to get his stuff together ahead of the new season, in order to prove the critics he still is a world class driver. In Coulthard's opinion, Massa easily falls into that category, while Raikkonen's only chance of joining him is to recover his lost form.
“Massa has proved himself a world-class driver and Raikkonen should be there, but we saw a chubby, lazy driver, slightly lethargic-looking, last year. I think it could go either way with him. Has he still got the hunger? He's a supreme talent, but he's not putting the effort in,” said the F1 veteran.
Talking about the new season, Raikkonen admitted he used most of his spare time this winter with his family and friends. He insisted the fun time spent away from the F1 track – was he also rallied a couple of times, back in Finland – has made him more excited ahead of the new season. Also, with the new changes, Kimi argued racing will be more fun than in the previous years.
“I enjoyed this winter break more than usual. I spent most of the time with my family and friends in Switzerland and Finland, but I mainly trained very hard and in a different way to be ready for a very demanding season. I can confirm that I like the F60 more than last year's car. It's much more fun to drive and it reminds me more of the cars I was used to some year ago,” said the Finnish driver.
He added that it's very important for Ferrari to start the season strong, considering the breathtaking finales that happened during the last couple of seasons.
“It's always a good thing for a driver and a team to have a good start into the season, especially when we remember how the last two seasons ended as far as the Drivers' Championship is concerned: I won with one point in 2007 and my teammate was one point short in 2008. That means that every point counts. Two years ago I won in Australia, while we had several problems last year. Our goal is to immediately gain some good points,” concluded Raikkonen.
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