Kimi Raikkonen insists that he has to start winning races if he wants to stand any chance of beating Sebastian Vettel to the F1 title.
The Lotus man goes into the Belgian Grand Prix next weekend sitting second in the standings to defending champion Sebastian Vettel, but is 38 points down on the Red Bull man ahead of the Spa race.
So far, Raikkonen has taken just as single win this season in Australia, and he insisted he would have to start adding to that tally if he wanted to take the title for a second time.
“I am now back in second which was a good way to enter the summer break,” he said. “I finished ahead of Seb [Vettel] in Hungary so obviously scored more points than him there. To beat him, we need to be winning races and if we keep finishing second like we've done many times this year it's probably not going to be enough for the championship, but you never know what might happen.”
The Finn added that he was aware of where he needed to improve in an effort to try and beat Vettel on a regular basis.
“Obviously I keep making my life difficult on Saturdays in qualifying so then we pay a price, but we still have a good car in the race,” he said. “Now we have tyres that are a little bit different we have to understand exactly how to use them. We made progress in Budapest so it should be easier in Spa, but that will be the same for everyone. To win, it's always better to be starting near the front.”
Raikkonen's first chance to add to his win tally will come at a circuit where he has enjoyed plenty of success in the past, with four wins to his name in years gone by.
However, the 2007 title winner refused to get too carried away about what to expect this time around but expressed confidence that Lotus will be more competitive than twelve months ago.
“Usually I've achieved a good result at the Belgian Grand Prix, but what has happened there before doesn't help me right now,” he said. “Of course, it doesn't cause any harm either and it would be great to win at Spa for a fifth time. Extra points are always good and if you win the race no-one scores more points than you.
“So much depends on the qualifying result, so we need to find a decent set-up on Friday and Saturday and have a solid qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. I don't know how it will suit our car this year. Last year we were not very strong there. I think we know the reasons and for sure our car is better this year, but is it good enough to be fighting for a win? We will see on Sunday.”
http://www.crash.net/f1/news/194537/1/raik...rt_winning.html
