Coluna do Campeão

Não tinha parado para pensar, mas esta pode ser a última coluna de Kimi Räikkönen como o atual campeão do mundo de F-1. Nossa!!! Como o tempo voa!!!!Enfim...
Sempre espero muito para "ler" Kimi. Gosto dos detalhes das explicações técnicas, da forma como ele faz suas analogias, gosto de como ele encara as coisas.
Neste texto ele não fez diferente. Analisou todo o seu final de semana, o rendimento do carro, o seu resultado final, citou a boa disputa com Robert Kubica, e criticou os pilotos da McLaren. Sim, ele os criticou, não citou nomes, mas todos sabem que foi isso. Traduzo aqui: "A largada foi boa. Conseguimos a liderança, como havíamos planejado e quando você vira a primeira curva, você deveria estar liderando depois disso. Eu não posso entender o que eles estavam pensando atrás de mim. Eles vieram tão rápido ao ponto de frenagem e causaram um problema para muitas pessoas. Você já tem que saber encontrar os pontos de frenagem desde quando tem seis anos de idade e corre de kart. Obviamente, você deveria saber disso a esta altura. Eu não sei com relação aos outros, pelo menos, meu pai Matti colocava adesivos nos lugares certos para mim e para meu irmão para sabermos onde freiar. É assim que você aprende a lição da melhor forma e lembra que sempre estará lá toda vez que correr. Em Fuji, a luta pela vitória acabou para mim já na primeira curva."
Esta parte é um bom pedaço da coluna, e demonstra como o Iceman ficou chateado com o comportamento dos pilotos da sua ex-equipe. Nem vou comentar, principalmente sobre o senhor Kovalainen....quero evitar estresse para mim...
A outra passagem que quero comentar são os três parágrafos finais: "Este foi o adeus ao campeonato de pilotos. Na verdade eu não penso no título depois de Spa. Eu deveria ter vencido na Bélgica, porque esta seria a única chance de controlar esta situação dos pontos. Agora é só uma questão de tempo até tudo estar acabado. Eu tenho ditodesde Janeiro, que faríamos o nosso melhor para vencer o campeonato novamente e caso não desse, tentaríamos no ano seguinte. Esta semana vamos para China. Vamos esperar e ver o que seremos capazes de fazer. Ano passado vencemos a corrida. Shanghai é um circuito desafiador e eu gosto muito de lá. Agora nós pretendemos conseguir dobradinhas para Ferrari e trazer os melhores pontos para a equipe."
Bom, é isso, talvez esta seja a última coluna do campeão do mundo como tal, vou sentir saudades desta referência, mas assim é a vida, todos são substituídos, não seria diferente com Kimi...

"Sayonara to the championship" by Kimi Räikkönen

We have really dug so deep, that the results we achieved at Fuji felt quite nice. Finally we finished the race, we started from the front row and got back to the podium. Obviously, the team was happy to get good points and climb back to the leading position in the constructor’s championship.

But I have to say, that the second place in qualifying and the third place in the race are not exactly what we wanted. It was annoying to know that we had so good chance for the pole and, most of all, for the win on Sunday.

The team has been working day and night to improve the car. But, for me, it was that same old story all over again. Setting up the car the way I like it to be depends too much on the weather and on the circuit. We know the speed is there in our car. We just have to find the right set-up to maximise it every time.

And we will!

The start was good. We got the lead, like we planned and when you turn first to the first corner, you should be leading after that. I cannot understand what they were thinking there behind me. They came much too fast to that breaking point and caused a big problem for many people.

You have to learn how to find the breaking points already when you six years old while starting with GO Karts. Obviously, you should know how it goes at this level.

I don’t know about the others, but, at least, my father Matti put sticks on the right places for me and for my brother to know where to brake. That’s how you learn that lesson the best and you remember it always where ever you race.

At Fuji the fight for the victory was over for me already in the first corner. Both McLarens came too quickly and I could not turn to the first corner. The worst thing was losing so many places. If I just could have took the lead, like I should have after that start, probably we would have won it easily. But now we got stuck behind the others, we did our best, but we never got back to the positions where you have the advantage of using the clean air in front of you.

I managed to overtake Trulli and we should have been able to overtake Kubica in the second pitstop. Unfortunately there was one car in front of me in my inlap and we lost a fracture of the time also at the pitstop. That was enough to miss the chance to get back to the circuit in front of Kubica.

At Fuji you have a couple of places to overtake people. I was trying to fight and once I got beside Robert and little bit ahead of him, too, coming to the third corner. It was a good fight, neither of us did lift, so I had to go wide. After that all we could do was to bring the car home third.

That was Sayonara to the drivers’ championship. Really I didn’t think of the title after Spa. I should have won in Belgium, because that would have been the only way to control the point situation. Now it was just a matter of time, when it was over.

I have been telling since January, that we do our best to win the championship again and if that’s not working out, we will try again next year. That’s what we are going to do now. I know what it takes to win the championship back.

This week we go to China. Let’s wait and see what we are able to do there. Last year we won the race. Shanghai is a challenging circuit and I like it very much. Now we aim at getting 1-2 result for Ferrari and bringing the best points for the team.

Beijinhos, Ludy