Todt wouldn't have bet on Raikkonen's win
| By Biranit Goren |
Sunday, October 28th 2007, 16:58 GMT |
Ferrari boss Jean Todt says he would never have bet on Kimi Raikkonen becoming world champion when the Italian team were struggling with reliability earlier in the season.
Finn Raikkonen took the drivers' title by one point from McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso after winning the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix last Sunday.
"To tell the truth, I would not have bet on Kimi Raikkonen winning the drivers' championship in his first season as a driver for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro," Todt told reporters on Sunday at the team's season-end celebrations at Mugello.
"This means that this is a demonstration of our mentality, to never give up and to believe for as long as you can believe.
"The last race was incredible: We knew that we had to finish first and second and Kimi had to finish before Felipe in order to keep Alonso back and Hamilton had to be in the best hypothesis sixth. And this is what happened.
"All these factors had to come together and this is what happened in the end; our capacity to reach an extraordinary double-win."
"We lost the 2006 championships at the last race because of problems with reliability. This year we had more or less the same problems, but we dedicated some thought to that and we analysed everything.
"We changed the organization of the racing division after men like Ross Brawn and Paolo Martinelli went to look for a different philosophy of life.
"2007 was a year of transition, so it is even nicer that we can celebrate both championship wins today."
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