Raikkonen gets di Montezemolo's vote of confidence
24/06/2007  At a time when Ferrari lies 35 points behind McLaren in the Constructors' Championship, and its star signing is being linked with a shock move to Toyota, Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo has given Kimi Raikkonen his official thumbs up, while claiming that the championship is not yet decided.
The Italian remains confident that the Finn can and will challenge for the title, though, like many F1 fans, he admits that the Kimi Raikkonen we are witnessing in 2007 is not the fighter we saw in 2005. "We are waiting for the real Raikkonen," di Montezemolo told reporters at Maranello, at an event marking the 60th anniversary of the legendary Italian marque, the one that everyone fears. "Kimi's always been in the fight," he continued, "now we're waiting for him to go back to being the one everyone fears." Referring to the previous incumbent of the Ferrari seat, a man that some believe di Montezemolo ousted in order to have the Finn on board, he said: "Michael has said Kimi and Fernando were his toughest rivals, and Alonso has said the same about Raikkonen and Schumacher. "Clearly the two McLaren drivers are formidable," he added, referring to the current championship position. "We got distracted for a moment and I don't like this situation. We have to regain our competitiveness. We have all the means to fight back and we must work out how to recover the two or three tenths (of a second) that separate us from McLaren." |
