Raikkonen not thinking of title yet
World champion Kimi Raikkonen says he not planning to change his approach despite his championship lead, the Finn claiming he will go for victory in every race
"I'm very happy how things have gone so far, but the situation can change in a second: we need to push 100% to stay ahead of our competitors," said Raikkonen ahead of this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix.
"I won't change my approach. It's too early to think about anything else than a victory. I want to bring home as many points as possible; I like to race with this aim in mind.
"We're leading the championship, but that is not important at the moment; what counts is that we're leading at the end of the season. If we want to stay ahead the easiest thing is that we keep the others behind in the races," he added.
Raikkonen, winner of the Spanish Grand Prix 10 days ago, is currently leading the championship by nine points after the first four races of the season.
The Finn and his Ferrari team will arrive in Turkey as hot favourites for victory, the Italian squad having won the last two races in Istanbul.
The world champion is very confident Ferrari will be very strong again.
"We didn't have any tests after the race at Barcelona, but I bet that our competitors have worked hard to be prepared as good as possible to beat us at Istanbul," Raikkonen said on Ferrari's website.
"But I'm not worried at all: we worked and I'm convinced that Ferrari can be really strong there.
"And when you have a look at this year's tracks so far, the one at Istanbul is very similar to the one at Sepang and Sakhir, where we could win. That makes us think that we'll be competitive over the weekend."
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Mooted F1 points system like "putting a plaster on a big cut" - Ocon
Haas disputes Magnussen's Chinese GP F1 penalty was "justifiable"
The story of the 2011 Italian Grand Prix
King eyes surprise BTCC switch after Ford test
The Mercedes F1 side-project making waves in the America’s Cup
The potential pitfalls Mercedes is working to counter in 2021
Brake issues hindered Rosenqvist’s chances of IndyCar victory in Long Beach
Ayrton Senna's famous Honda NSX up for sale
Yamaha to test completely new MotoGP bike at Jerez
Krack: Aston Martin frustrated by inconsistent F1 penalty decisions
How Stroll and Magnussen revealed the scale of F1’s racing and rules problems
Did F1's new sprint format work?
Chinese Grand Prix Driver Ratings 2024
Why Verstappen's China F1 win was a sideshow to the real battle
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments