Kimi: “Thanks to the whole team”

“There’s a good feeling but it’s too early for predictions”. A thought for John Surtees: “He had racing in his blood”

Montmelò, 10 March – “There’s a good feeling with this car and that’s the most important thing. We have been reliable for almost all of these days of testing and that is another good sign of the great work the team has done over the winter. We are starting from a stronger base than last year: but it’s really too early to say how fast the car is compared to the others. Perhaps even Melbourne won’t give a 100 per cent precise picture of the situation, because the first race is always a bit unusual. We might have to wait until China. Either way I’d like to thank everyone in the team, because they have always managed to step in and sort out all the small problems that testing is supposed to resolve.”
These are the words of Kimi Raikkonen, at the end of his second day’s work which wraps up this year’s winter testing at the Montmelò circuit. He put in 111 laps in his SF70H today, during a programme that included a race simulation. The attempt was interrupted at about 4pm by an electrical problem, when he was still about 15 laps from the “chequered flag”. Having been brought back to the pits, the Ferrari went out again with just under 20 minutes left of the day.
Having learned the news of the death of John Surtees, who won the 1964 Formula 1 world championship at the wheel of a Ferrari, Kimi wanted to remember him like this: “I met him a few times, he was very easy-going and it was very easy to get on with him. And you could tell that he had passion for racing in his blood. So this is sad news and my thoughts are with his family.”
Over the four days of testing this week, the SF70H has completed a total of 488 laps in the hands of both Kimi and Seb, equal to 2271.64km.