Entrevistando um repórter

Simplesmente maravilhosa a entrevista abaixo, feita com o jornalista Heikki Kulta, do periódico finlandês Turun Sanomat.

Heikki escreveu um livro sobre o campeonato de Räikkönen intitulado "Kimi, Ferrari and an Incredible Championship" e é correspondente de F-1 há 25 anos acompanhando as carreiras dos pilotos nórdicos de perto.

Esta entrevista é muito boa, especialmente para os fãs de Kimi, pois Heikki fala sobre o jeito de ser do Iceman. Além disto, ele fala sobre outros finlandeses na categoria, e tirou uma dúvida que eu tinha, o preparador físico de Vettel é finlandês. Eu sabia!!!! hehehehe... Já estava desconfiando disto há alguns meses!!!

1983 Imola was my first GP and I've been collecting almost 250 GP's during 20 years.

It's a world of it's own. I went there when Icehockey WC was on and Finland did poorly against Germany and a couple of reporters from Helsinki said they were going to Imola to watch the GP and asked me to go with them. At that time you could get the permission just like that and when I got to see what it's like there, so different from the television, I was sold to the sport.

The speed and the sound is something unbelievable. I've driven like 200 km/h and then in Monza the speed was something like 344 km/h and some people said that oh, that's slow because they have been driving up to 370 km/h earlier. Even when seeing 300 km/h you wonder how a driver can even react and control the situation - my appreciation for the drivers is top class.

The F1-world was quite different back in 1983 when you saw laundry hanging outside the smaller teams. These days the sponsors are pampered as much as possible so it would be difficult to imagine laundry hanging in front of Force India like in those days. Today everything is so precise that every truck has to be parked up to the millimeter on the place arranged for it.

But the times before 1983, those were legendary times. Reporters took the laptimes and told the teams what their laptimes were - that was something else.

Drivers these days, no matter how friendly and co-operative they are their time is strictly limited to a minute-schedule. Thursdays are the only days when they have a little time to chat and drink a cup of coffee with you but after that you're lucky if you even see them. The official press conferences are another story of course, there you see them.

Q: You always see when Kimi for instance says something in Finnish that there's someone recording it even if they don't understand Finnish?

Yes, that's true and it's because there has been times when something has been misunderstood and been almost taken to court in order to decide who accused who of what etc. That's why they record everything. It feels silly, in Ferrari I know two people in the whole Maranello-gang who can somehow understand Finnish but when it's always taped it's quite funny.

The rumour mill

The rumour mill has always been in F1, it's kind of a rule that keeps everything constantly floating. After following it myself for a long time I can say that if I would like to put out a rumour I would know exactly the few persons I would tell it and after that it would spread into the press room and that's how it works. You have to be really careful with the things you hear. I know immediately that 80-90 % of the rumours are someone's invention. But then the rest 10-15 %, with them you can go further to see how much truth there is in them and then there are some rumours that are completely accurate. But I predict that there's no person who can walk the golden midway there.

Driver's market

Fact is that Kimi has a contract for the next season and Heikki hasn't. The boys are not standing on the same line but on the other hand Ferrari made a 5-year deal with Santander who has very close links to Alonso so I believe that they are doing as much work as possible behind the scenes so that Santander will get the driver they want into Ferrari. I believe that Alonso has a signed contract with Ferrari for 2011 but I don't know if he has a signed contract for 2010. It might happen which would leave them with one extra driver but knowing Ferrari's appreciation for Kimi I don't think it's Kimi who leaves Ferrari. Massa could be on a sickleave for some time but then there's still the upcoming FIA hearing with Renault and who knows which people get stained. If Alonso won the race through a dirty game then the driver gets quite a lot of stain too. In those proportions even one stain is never good for a driver. That could also change things in these final games.

They need complete evidence if they are going to give a sentence. First it looked like a vendetta but the more facts are revealed it really starts to look as if they really had some plans before the race.

Heikki should give more performances but the longer Alonso's situation is prolonged the more it helps Heikki's situation to continue at McLaren. The team like Heikki very much, for Lewis Hamilton Heikki would by far be the best option so I don't think that you have to fear so much about it but on the other hand I know that there's a couple of teams where Heikki could go if McLaren decides to hire another driver.

Q: Is it better to be a second driver in McLaren than to be the first driver in a smaller team?

Well, Heikki's situation is quite similar to Coulthard's situation with Mika. Coulthard had a couple of seasons when he could have won the championship when Mika was doing worse. At this point Heikki knows that if everything goes well he will be fighting for the championship and it's good to have a driver like Heikki if for example Hamilton has bad luck in the beginning of the season. So I think that Heikki doesn't complain about his status.

Q: With all the scandals, what are they really up to behind the scenes?

It's such a big business when teams budgets are nearly 400 million euros and the WCC is more valuable to the teams because all the incomes are divided and given based on the WCC and even one position higher or lower is about 5 million euros so of course they are sometimes using all means so that they would get the money, especially in the top where it can mean 3-4 positions so the temptation can be big and they are all just and just within the regulations, dots and commas, and I think it has always been that way in F1. Many teams are fighting for their life, the sponsor-world is tough so where do you get the money so that you can continue?

It's interesting to see that Force India who was a really weak team is now all of a sudden up in the top - the F1-world is so hard that now they are suspecting that Force India has done some frauds when they are all of a sudden on pole and driving the fastest lap. So as soon as you succeed there will be doubts about what you have been doing.

Development of cars

The copying is so fast and someone always does it better. During the same season, 3-4 months, one's idea can work better for another one leaving the father of the original idea half a second behind. And it has nothing to do with fraud, it's just that some engineer refines the idea further. Take the diffusers, after Spain everybody had it in use and it evened the situation remarkably.

Q: How well do you know Kimi and Heikki?

I know them very well, their families too and we have always had good relations which on the paddock is vital. If the relations are bad and everybody would be running away from you then you could as well follow it on television and make your articles based on that but since we have good relations it's a pleasure to be there and share both joys and sorrows. It's always difficult to share the sorrows because motorsport is so cruel. 'It's motorsport' as the boys say when things are bad.

Heikki is very open and gets along with everyone, Heikki is what you see. Everybody likes him and it's really easy to get along with him. He is a joking and a fun guy.

Kimi is in principle a restrained version of Heikki but when you get to know him better, not from the official events, you have lots of fun with him, he has an extremely good sense of humour and he is a clever guy. During these 9 years a certain role has developed around him and he plays the role precisely: He is cool, answers unemotionally saying 'I don't know, let's see, I'll do my best, let's see how far it takes' - these typical answers. But then occasionally when everything falls in place, like in Monza, it was surprising to see how the feeling comes out even on the podium, you saw that the man was as happy as a man can be, that's Kimi's real nature.

Kimi's strenght is his inner being since no matter what result he gets he doesn't change like a rollercoaster. Kimi can control himself. Of course a bad result hurts but Kimi is the only sportsman I know who can get really fast over a disappointment. It takes about 15-30 minutes, after that the thoughts are completely in what is ahead. Kimi has a good philosophy 'Why worry about it when it doesn't change the result' - that's a philosophy that would suit any sportsman.

Q: What about Kimi's rigid being and the Italian temperament, how well do those two go together?

It has affected the Italian media so that they are basically hunting Kimi down telling that Alonso has to take Kimi's place and because everybody gets along with Massa. Massa is a really pleasant person. I wish him all the best. But Kimi's rigidity is so far from the Italian temperament that I think that's the biggest reason for them even having a discussion like this, that Kimi shouldn't get to drive according to his contract and should be sacked.

Q: Why is Kimi performing so well now?

The Ferrari was developed up to Silverstone. After that they started concentrating on developing next year's car. I guess the car just became so good that Kimi has been able to take everything out of it, it fits in his hand very well and for once he has even had some luck on his side. There are clearly faster cars than Ferrari but they succeed in different weekends and if Kimi gets on a track that he loves like Spa he can even win with a slower car. It will be interesting to see what happens in Singapore since it's a slow street circuit where Ferrari could have some chances, who knows how high Kimi will get there?

Finns in F1

Ossi Oikarinen is working for Ferrari but he is working in the Maranello-factory. It should also be mentioned that Ossi Oikarinen is a top engineer. He was a race engineer at Toyota and BMW and then he was the head of BMW's testing group which is the highest position a Finn has ever had.

It's really great that there's Tommi Pärmäkoski who is Sebastian Vettel's trainer. He is just like Vettel, young and smart. They are a great pair because always when I meet Vettel he speaks Finnish. His talks are naughty, things we would say with an evil grin but he says them with a big smile.

Heikki Kovalainen has his own Finnish trainer from Aki Hintsa's group and McLaren has a Finnish guy who changes tyres.

Q: What was Michael Schumacher like?

He had his own role too. He is a German guy who sometimes seems cold and calculating. But then a while ago I interviewed Jean Todt who said that in reality Michael was shy and sensitive and that was the reason why they sometimes had to help him in Ferrari. My own image was completely different.

Kimi's strenght is that he doesn't get hurt from anything but Schumacher's strenght again was that he could build the whole team around him, basically he was the leader of the team. His charisma and mental strenght helped so that they worked with his interests in mind.

The future of F1

Now things have changed, the big teams are leaving and the private teams are coming in. Honda, BMW, possibly Toyota which will be decided November 15th but it's a smart thing to bring in these small teams back although they will have hard times ahead of them when building up the budget. Lotus is coming and I believe that the US team will also come, Manor comes because they get Virgin-group behind them but who knows, Campos is a team that might come. They talk that Force India is running out of money, Toro Rosso is unneccessary for Red Bull, that can be shot down at anytime so the situation is living all the time.

The private teams are completely depending upon where they will get the engine from and all other parts, gear boxes, things like these so it takes much more to build up a private team.

But remembering the times when Frank Williams and McLaren came to F1 I'm sure that these small teams will come in with a holy passion and a love for motorsport - the teams who have these qualities will do their everything to get into F1.

Q: Finally, can you tell me when Kimi gets rid of his hidious mullet?

I just asked Jenni, his wife, about it and she told me to ask Kimi so I don't know, it's quite a circle from where we try to find a solution. I don't know.

Q: You'll have to take the scissors with you when you go to Singapore, Heikki. Who will win the WDC?

I think Button is a better driver than Barrichello so I say Button.

Fonte: Flanet F1 Forum (dica de SheWolf)

Beijinhos, Ice-Ludy