Ferrari preview the Canadian GP

Kimi Raikkonen will mark his 200th grand prix start in Montreal with both the Finn and Fernando Alonso hoping for an improved showing…

Kimi Raikkonen: “I’ve been told this weekend’s Canadian GP will be my 200th Grand Prix, which shows how time flies. I’ll still be racing flat out and the numbers don’t really change anything, but I’m sure it’s a milestone I will look back on with pride in years to come.

“Apart from this being my 200th race, I’m not here just to make up the numbers and getting a good result in Montreal would give us a better reason to celebrate.

“The Canadian race is one of the most challenging of the season and a track where you have to get everything just right in terms of the car set-up. We have some upgrades for this weekend, but of course the other teams have not been standing still, so the order should not have changed much. Hopefully we can close the gap a bit and get the best result of the season so far for my 200th race, which would be great for the whole team.

“The Montreal track is easy only in appearance. I believe the preparation for Sunday’s results will start on Friday and I hope the evolutions we have brought will confirm they work on the track. Obviously our target for the race is a good result after a start to the season that has been hard, especially for me. But we will have to see how our improvements compare to those of our opponents who certainly haven’t stopped work over the last few days. From Friday we will know more.”

Fernando Alonso: “After Monaco I felt a good atmosphere in the factory. Everyone is very motivated and hungry for good results. We are realistic and well aware of where we are at the moment, but from now on, we want to be in a position to get better results and enjoy our race weekends a bit more and everyone is working in one direction to improve the car.

“We have been improving the car on the aero side, while in the simulator, we have done a lot of work on the set-up with the aim of arriving in Canada with a better car,” revealed the Ferrari man. “We can’t make any predictions because our improvement has to be seen in relation to what our competitors come up with. We need to match them and then find a plus.

“It has only six or seven corners, but each one has something special. They have an element of danger and getting them right brings you a lot of lap time. There is definitely no room for error, as all the walls are very very close. You can feel the city of Montreal has a lot of passion for the race and everyone gets involved in some way. I won here which definitely provides good memories and I also remember that big storm a couple of years back which meant the race was stopped for hours and we were waiting on the grid. There have been ups and downs in terms of results and hopefully this year will be a good one.”