{"id":22103,"date":"2014-05-29T06:35:29","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T10:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=22103"},"modified":"2014-05-29T06:35:29","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T10:35:29","slug":"raikkonen-admits-2014-title-chance-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/raikkonen-admits-2014-title-chance-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Raikkonen admits 2014 title chance &#8216;over&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kimi Raikkonen has ruled out winning the 2014 title.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-left alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/gallery\/f1-2014-rif-images\/f1-2014-drivers\/Kimi-Raikkonen-4.jpg\" alt=\"Kimi-Raikkonen-4\" width=\"472\" height=\"314\" \/>Detailing a meeting with journalists this week, Ferrari officially quoted the Finnish driver as saying it will be &#8220;very difficult&#8221; to beat Mercedes this year, &#8220;but you never know&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Raikkonen, in fact, was on a sponsor visit to Norway, and what he told the major Aftenposten newspaper was slightly less optimistic.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about the 2014 title, the 34-year-old answered: &#8220;It seems to be over.\u00a0 The Mercedes cars are too fast.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We (Ferrari) want to be ahead, but my challenge on the championship seems to be over for the season,&#8221; added Raikkonen.<\/p>\n<p>He declined to talk about the high-profile spat between Mercedes&#8217; duelling title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not interested in that,&#8221; said Raikkonen.\u00a0 &#8220;I&#8217;m only interested in our own success and getting back to the top.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But he did comment on the new direction F1 has moved in, having switched from loud V8 engines to turbo and hybrid-powered V6s.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From the driver&#8217;s point of view, we want better grip and faster cars,&#8221; said Raikkonen.\u00a0 &#8220;More horse power.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Increasing the speed is difficult, but I think it would make the races more interesting and exciting.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But we don&#8217;t make up the rules ourselves, so we need to do the best we can with these cars,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Ferrari website quoted Raikkonen as saying that although he would &#8220;like&#8221; to do some more rallying, &#8220;for now I&#8217;m completely focused on formula one&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters in Monaco last weekend, he had said: &#8220;The problem is obviously people are more scared that you get hurt so they try to limit everything that you do.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a shame because I think it would be more fun for everybody and all sports would also benefit from it, and F1.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kimi Raikkonen has ruled out winning the 2014 title. Detailing a meeting with journalists this week, Ferrari officially quoted the Finnish driver as saying it will be &#8220;very difficult&#8221; to beat Mercedes this year, &#8220;but you never know&#8221;. Raikkonen, in fact, was on a sponsor visit to Norway, and what he told the major Aftenposten &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[5262,93,5340,152],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22104,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22103\/revisions\/22104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}