Interview: underdog Raikkonen keeps cool

The Ferrari driver, who trails title leader Lewis Hamilton by seven points - and reigning champion Fernando Alonso by three, seems happy at the Italian team.

There are no complaints about his treatment, not even over the fact that were it not for mechanical failures, Raikkonen would surely have had the title wrapped up by now.

And he isn't even overly concerned about whether or not his teammate Felipe Massa will help him in Sunday's race to improve his chances of winning the championship.

Autosport.com caught up with Raikkonen at the Shell-arranged media meeting at the Transamerica to hear his thoughts on the final round of the year - and beyond.

Q: Would you say you are adopting a cautious approach to this weekend?

Kimi Raikkonen: "I don't know. We don't have much to lose and I think we will treat it more like a normal race. Maybe we will need to do something during the race, but we won't do anything crazy because it probably won't work out.

"But it is difficult to say before the race. We need to look at how it goes tomorrow and then try to make the best plan that we can think of."

Q: If you win the championship, will it be a big surprise for you?

Raikkonen: "I don't know about a surprise. But for sure we have not been in the best position at some points this year, we had some problems and we dropped out of the points. So we were quite far away.

"We caught up again a little bit, but for sure we need a bit of good luck also on Sunday to try to win it. To win it would not be a surprise, but it would be very nice."

Q: How did you celebrate your birthday yesterday?

Raikkonen: "Nothing really. It was just a normal day, we just went to eat. That was all."

Q: Was there any present from the team?

Raikkonen: "I haven't seen them yet, I am staying in a different hotel to them. Maybe I get something, maybe not. It is not such an important thing when you are getting older. More or less when you are ten years old, you are more excited."

Q: Felipe Massa has just extended his deal at Ferrari. What is your reaction to that, and what about your own future at Ferrari?

Raikkonen: "Actually it is nothing really to do with me. He made a new contract and that is fine for me. I have a contract for two years too, I am happy with that and I need to decide after that what I want to do. If I want to race, or not. I am not worried about my future at all."

Q: What is your assessment of the season?

Raikkonen: "My season has been okay. When you come to a new team it can be a bit difficult sometimes, and it is not so easy as if you have been at a team for many years - then you know exactly what is going on, what is going to happen. So I am pretty happy of course, but we could have had a better season.

"But I think the problems we had as a team, we had a little bit difficulty sometimes with reliability and that has been hurting us more than anything else.

"Otherwise I am very happy with the team, very happy to work with the people, they are nice people to work with and we have a very good relationship. So that is the main thing and I am sure it is much easier to go for next year and be even stronger as a team."

Q: What has your relationship with Felipe been like? And what do you think about the possibility of him helping you this weekend?

Raikkonen: "I think we have a good relationship together. We always push each other. That is normal between teammates. We have a very fair and clean relationship between the two of us.

"I don't know what is going to happen in the race this weekend, it depends on so many different things, but the main thing is that as a team we are going to try and do the best result we can and try to be one and two."

Q: This has been your first year at Ferrari and you have mentioned the reliability problems. But coming here you have the best chance you have ever had to win the championship, so how does that feel?

Raikkonen: "Like I said, we had a few problems but it is part of the racing. I know everybody is pushing hard to get rid of the problems. No one wants to see those things but unfortunately that is part of the racing for all the teams. We found out the problems, we fixed them and we haven't had any more.

"We learn always from the mistakes and this year is I think, okay. We are still in the championship but we are not in as strong a position as we would be without the problems, but we can still hopefully do it. We are going to try at least, and it has been a good first year like I said.

"We are still in the championship. I am pretty happy, even with the difficulties we had. We showed we can come back and fight for wins at every race."

Q: Your main rivals have all had difficulties and incidents this year. Why do you think you have stayed away from problems this season?

Raikkonen: "I don't know really. Okay, they had some accidents and other things happened. I have only two times technical problems, it is nothing I can really change. Nobody liked that those things happened. It is part of the racing and unfortunately it happened.

"Like I said before, without those we would be in a better position but at least something went wrong to the other cars also. They have had a very good car this year but they have also had their problems which helped a little bit for us. I don't think it is anything to do with my driving style, I have just been unlucky."

Q: If Fernando Alonso leaves McLaren at the end of the year, will it make next year's battle easier?

Raikkonen: "I don't think it is going to change anything for next year, if he goes or not. Nobody knows, maybe he knows himself. But I am not really interested and it doesn't change anything for me.

"For me it doesn't make any difference if he stays there or goes somewhere else. I think the championship will be difficult anyhow, every year there is always good guys in different teams. Different teams can make better cars for next year and you never know.

"Next year will be completely different without the traction control, without the engine braking and all those things, so I think it will be nice to see. It can be a completely different story.

"We need to just finish this season and work hard for next year, see who goes where, and then decide what happens."