After their opening race disaster in Australia, Ferrari hit back to win in both Malaysia and Bahrain. They were also at the top of their game during last week’s four-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Raikkonen believes things are looking good for the Maranello-based team ahead of this weekend’s race in Spain.
“I’ve raced many times in Barcelona and I have to say it is always a very challenging circuit. But this time it will be special. I’ll come to Spain as the leader of the classification. If I can manage to keep all the others behind me in the race that would mean that I keep them also behind in the championship. My approach is the usual one: giving 100 per cent, just like the whole team.”
“But I am sure we will be very competitive and we will get a very good result. I won here in 2005, but that was the only time I had been on the podium at this race.
“So I am very keen to do it again. I hope to on Sunday and to be on top. But it will not mean we are going to win the championship. There is too far to go for us to talk like that.
“The situation can change very quickly in Formula One,” he added. “That’s why it’s very important to collect as many points as possible in every single race. It’s hard to say how things are at the top after last week’s tests here, because the teams’ test programs and the fuel loads usually are very different.
“It’s going to be very close: all the teams have introduced updates ahead of the first European race, which makes it even more interesting. We have won the last two races and that might make our competitors even hungrier to win. We had our ups and downs over the first races, but now I expect Ferrari to stay where we were in Bahrain and Malaysia.”
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