Entrevista com Kaj Lindström, o navegador de Kimi

Desculpem gente, esta eu não tive tempo de traduzir.

Kaj Lindström, what is Kimi going to do next year?

- Kimi will drive rally next year.

In which team?

- Citroën.

How did the contract negotiations proceed so that you got to this point?

- Well, the matter has been active for a longer time, of course it isn't a short process when a guy like him makes a contract. The managers have worked on it and now we have reached the point where all the facts are on paper and the paper is signed.

Have you been intensively involved in this process all the time?

- In that way I have been involved that when we started talking about Citroen I was the person who was first in contact with them and then they started to take the matter further and then it was taken by bigger hands.

There has been enormous rumours around Kimi, probably more than around any other guy in the history of motorsport. What kind of options did Kimi have when thinking of next season? Do you know anything about them?

- Hmm, of course I know something about them but we have talked about this for long, ever since he got the information that his contract with Ferrari will be terminated and ever since that we started working on the rally-project and then in a quite early stage after that Kimi decided that he won't continue in F1.

- I haven't seen the contract and all the details in it but I'm sure that I will know more when we go to Paris in the beginning of January to try out the seats (benches).

Does Kimi get paid twice as much as Loeb?

- There seems to be all kinds of rumours but if the information I was given is correct then it really isn't true.

How long is the contract?

- One year at the time. Kimi's scenes can change, we don't know if he will go back to F1 or if rally is his future but those are things that for sure will be cleared out during season 2010 when we see how the rally goes, how much it interests him and then of course what his managers can accomplish on the F1-side.

- For Kimi this will bring yet new challenges, we have to remember that he is inexperienced when it comes to rally, he has a lot of work and challenges since people seem to be really thirsty to see him succeed and of course there is potential for that too but it also depends on of how quickly we get them chased out of the guy.

What can we realistically wait from Kimi?

- If we keep in mind that he has raced in four rallies, in other words an amount that a normal driver drives doubled in his first year and still it doesn't lead anywhere. He is a talented, a very talented driver in F1 and those skills can be used on this side too but you shouldn't wait for any victories in any rallies, that's for sure, but we will try at least to gradually lift the position up to the points and see how far they take during the first year.

Have you agreed upon any testing program?

- Of course we drive tests before the first rally and the first test is when we take part in the Arctic rally.

Yes, snow, tarmac and gravel, you will drive on all those. Kimi is most familiar with the tarmac and has some experience of snow too but he will still have a lot of work?

- I'm waiting with a huge interest for the tarmac rallies because he is quite a lot talented on tarmac. Last year we went to Italy but unfortunately the race didn't go anywhere because the car had technical problems but the test before the race on tarmac promised quite a lot.

Is Kimi Räikkönen the first WDC in both F1 and WRC?

- It's possible but not during this first year, that you have to remember!

How does it feel for you to go back to work?

- Very good because my blood is in rally and I'm very pleased.

Did you have other options?

- During the autumn I had other rides in WRC offered but when we started to negotiate with Kimi we also decided that I would be in his ride and informed the others that I'm not available.

There has been other rumours too all the time, Petter Sohlberg said that Kimi will come to his team and there was even talks about Marcus Grönholm driving there.

- Petter of course, when this rumour mill is going on, Petter is an ex team mate to Tommi and me so apparently it goes so that when we go to chat with Petter somebody puts 2 and 2 together thinking that we will drive there for sure. It's quite a rumour mill that has been piled up.

How have you reacted to these rumours when you have seen Toyota, McLaren, RedBull and Mercedes GP and Sohlberg's team, Citroen and double the salary that Loeb gets and even Ford offered a test - has it amused you when you have known all along what the deal is?

- It has boiled over, the whole thing. Ford's tests meant that Malcolm said to the Finnish media that Kimi is welcomed to test if he wants to and that was his offer, nothing more. Then there's been these helmet-paintings and double salaries - who comes up with them and where do they come from? But it seems to be like this whenever Kimi is concerned.

What does it mean for the WRC-serie that Kimi Räikkönen will drive there?

- It will have a bigger impact than we can even guess at this point.

They have also said that Kimi is more suited for the rally-atmosphere than he is for the F1-atmosphere?

- Let's hope that it's correct. He was in the previous rallies in a good mood and enjoyed it there and then there is the challenge that is the most important thing.

Agradecimento/Tradução para o Inglês: Nicole (Kimi Raikkonen Fan Club - Facebook)

Fico muito feliz que Kaj vai continuar como navegador de Kimi. Gostei dele desde o primeiro dia.

Beijinhos, Ice-Ludy