Even when under pressure, Kimi Raikkonen rarely modifies his monosyllabic, monotone style of rhetoric. Yes there have been some moments on car to pit radio when the ‘Iceman’ has been less ice and more ‘attitude’ – as they say in Murica-land.
Yet at today’s F1 driver press conference in Silverstone, Kimi revealed he has been learning the art of the repeated metaphor.
Q: The team is telling us that retaining your seat for next season is in your hands, do you feel you are on the right track to meet their targets.
KR: I don’t know. Obviously they’ll make the decision. We try to do good races. Obviously the last race was a bit difficult but that’s part of the game, sometimes you have that. Who knows: I don’t know anything more than you guys, so I will know hopefully at some point what will happen. There are always speculations to start off the year and it’s always the same stories. It doesn’t really surprise me a lot so let’s see what happens.
Yes, part of the game is mastering the controls of the racing car you are driving, though this is beginning to sound more like the promotion for a racing video game than F1.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, accident here last year, accident in last race in Austria, how difficult is it for you to come to this weekend?
KR: It’s a new race, different weekend. It doesn’t matter if you have an accident. It was obviously bad for our race but that’s part of the game. It doesn’t change this weekend at all. I’ve had accidents before and probably will in the future, you pay the price when things do wrong.
Yes. There’s a definite theme emerging here.
Q: (Daan de Geus – NU.NL) Kimi, you let it be known earlier in the season that you were quite happy about the 2015 Ferrari and the way it handles and it fits your driving style. Ferrari have obviously been updating the car and made some changes to it. Do you still like the way it handles and the way it suits your way of driving?
KR: I don’t see why I wouldn’t suddenly like it; because I’ve had an accident doesn’t change anything. I’ve had accidents sometimes, like I said, it’s part of the game. We improved the car and it’s still a great car, obviously probably not fast enough to challenge Mercedes all the time but it’s a very good car and it’s a massive improvement from last year. Things go wrong sometimes but it doesn’t mean that you suddenly hate the car or you don’t like things. It’s just a part of the game. Like I said, it’s a good package and obviously we want to improve it and make it faster. Things could always be better. Even if you’re in a winning car you’re always wanting more out of it. Like I said, we’ve come such a long way from last year which people always forget. We’re still a work in progress to improve things.
If Kimi is concerned he may lose his drive at Ferrari and his F1 career be finished at the end of 2015, a small modification to his new favourite saying – along with some vocal inflexion, modulation techniques and his new found ‘attitude’ could see him launch a whole new career.
Lesson 1 below Mr. Raikkonen…
Nitpicking. English isn’t Kimi’s first language. He might have been using English for almost 20 years, but that doesn’t mean he finds it easy or feels it’s that important outside of race weekends.
Sense of humour failure ALERT!
Raikkonen, Alonso and especially Hamilton, are threee drivers, who’s fans just can’t take a funny jibe or anything remotely negative said about their idol. This attitude is over someone who is not a relative, nor even a friend to them. They must all have led a very sheltered life, to get so upset about such trivialities. Besides, do they think these drivers really give a stuff what anyone says about them.
Kimi, Lewis & Fred – the only drivers who receive constant criticism, whatever they do. I does get tedious hearing the same crap recycled time after time.
give it a rest, please. very disrespectful towards a world champion
No one is immune from a bit of piss taking on TJ13. Haven’t you worked that out ye?
The Judge has a cracking sense of humour, I’ve been enjoying it since late 2012.
It’s all just tongue in cheek stuff really, no disrespect, just some good old fashioned ribbing.
And how did you read mr Akbar’s comment?
Kimi is Kimi just like Niki Lauda is Niki Lauda. They are who they are and they don’t change the way that they are based on the situation’s circumstances. If you get more than a couple of syllables out of Kimi at one time, know that you’re about to get a tongue lashing. If this is Kimi’s last year in Formula 1, he could always go join Mark Webber in WEC. I’m sure he’s been approached about other opportunities once his career in Formula 1 is done.
Yes, for sure, it’s part of the game.
Do you also count the times other drivers say “all in all”, “for sure”, “obviously” and so on?
…”at the end of the day…”
We sometimes have a drinking game based around ‘for sure’ and other F1 staples. Makes the preamble and post-race garbage more exciting than most of the ‘races’.
I keep wondering if the press conferences for the drivers and team principals really serve any real purpose anymore. When you read the transcripts, the drivers really don’t end up saying much and it’s the same for the team principals because they all want to keep things as close to the vest as possible.
Fur Sure
No they don’t, it’s like a boring routine and nothing really comes out there. When there’s real news there will be a press release or if you want to hear something from the drivers a real 1:1 interview usually can add some perspective. But it’s our unfortunate era of reality TV. I’d be more than happy if the cameras from the waiting room after race and before podium were removed. I mean give the guys a break; now they are all too bothered and don’t wanna show any feelings or reaction. Or worse when wondering how to deal with the random dictators popping in for a chat.
I’d prefer less reality TV; I wouldn’t mind if the team radio was only for teams and FIA in case of investigations.
More just racing and better data from fia about times; which tyres used for the laps etc. in an easy consumable way.
Horner:
“YesNo”
E A SPORTS: Now that was a tutorial! And an amusement.
I’m not sure why everyone focuses on Kimi’s phrasing here. As an American it sounds completely normal … “that’s part of the game” just means “that’s normal” … for example “my project at work went poorly but that’s just part of the game, you win some and you lose some” = “my project at work went poorly but that’s normal, sometimes things go your way and other times they don’t”
Kimi is absolutely right, having crashing is just part of the game of F1, just like having to do media events is part of the game, and so is fighting to beat your teammate. Anything in life can be “part of the game”!
Sure, yet when you repeat it every other time you open your mouth, you sound like a broken record. Hence the fun: it’s part of the game… 🙂