Raikkonen ready to race

Kimi Raikkonen is ready “to get serious” after a few months away from the Formula One spotlight in which he lived life to the full.

The Finn is ready to reclaim the world title he won in 2007 after a season that left many people wondering whether he still cared about the sport.

But with a radically different Ferrari beneath him, one he concedes is “fun to drive”, the 29-year-old appears content again.

“I enjoyed the winter break more than usual,” reflected Raikkonen.

“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 demanding season.

“Amongst other things I took part in two rallies in Finland, and I really had a lot of fun, but it was also good training for the year ahead.

“Now it’s time to get serious, and like always it feels great to start a new season.

“To put my helmet on and to start racing is something worth living for, and I am really looking forward to this season.

“The amount of testing has been restricted, but it has been fun as always to work with a brand new car.

“With all the new development on the cars and all the changes, it’s going to be very interesting.

“I can honestly say I like our new car more than the one last year. This one is more fun to drive. It’s more like a racing car used to be some years ago.”

With revamped front and rear wings and the return to slick tyres, Raikkonen could not be happier, but it also means this year’s title race could be more wide open than ever.

“This is a very difficult year to start making predictions because of the massive changes in the rules,” added Raikkonen ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday.

“We have been competitive in testing, but the real test for the new car will be this weekend when we are all on the track at the same time with the same fuel load – only then will we find out how competitive we are.

“Although Albert Park is a special circuit and a special place, it will probably take another couple of races, until Malaysia to find out which teams are really ahead of the others at the beginning of this campaign.”

Last year’s race was a disaster for Ferrari as Raikkonen and team- mate Felipe Massa both suffered engine problems, with the former managing to take a single point.

Given his win the previous year that propelled him onto the world title, Raikkonen knows how vital it is to build the ideal platform.

“It’s such a challenge to go to the first race and start the season properly, so hopefully everything will be as we expect it to be,” said Raikkonen.

“For a driver and team it’s always good to start well, especially if you look at how close the drivers’ championship has been in the last two years, so every point counts.

“After winning in Melbourne in 2007, we had too many problems last year, so the target is to again score good points from race one.”

However, there is more that could go wrong on the car this season, especially as Ferrari will be one of the teams utilising the new kinetic energy recovery system.

Raikkonen, though, is a big fan, adding: “It is very interesting, and very easy for drivers to use.

“The whole team has been positively surprised that the system has worked so well from the first test.

“Hopefully it will help with overtaking, and everybody expects to see more overtaking, but it’s too early to say if the aerodynamic changes will help.

“We will have to wait and see what happens when we’re in the slipstream.”