Zoom Raikkonen eager to rejoin the podium

Kimi Raikkonen has admitted that, in the absence of a dramatic turnaround in his current form, he is not going to defend his World Championship title.

Monza last Sunday was his fifth failure to score points at a Grand Prix this season, meaning the Finn has dropped a full 21 points off Lewis Hamilton's title lead.

"Obviously you don't have to be Einstein to realise that this is not the way to fight for the championship," the Ferrari driver admitted on Wednesday.

Raikkonen is, however, refusing to either give up or pledge his full support for the much more realistic championship challenge of his teammate, Felipe Massa, who is only one point behind Hamilton.

"It's not over, I'll never give up," he said. "I would like to win a couple more races before the end of the season."

Raikkonen said the crux of his problem is getting the tyres to work for him, especially on a wet track, "and it seems to rain almost in every race nowadays," he lamented.

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh agrees that his team has a definite advantage when the skies turn dark.

"While Singapore is something of an unknown quantity," the Briton said, "I think we've all experienced wet races in Japan, China and Brazil so we feel well prepared."

Ferrari is testing away from the other teams at Mugello this week, hoping to get to the bottom of the F2008's problems.

"We wouldn't mind if it would rain the whole week," Raikkonen said.

D.B. © CAPSIS International
Source: GMM