Kimi Räikkönen believes that Alfa Romeo Racing should be “confident” heading into the Chinese Grand Prix, Formula 1‘s landmark 1000th race.
Alfa Romeo struggled in Bahrain a fortnight ago, with its Friday running disrupted by cooling issues for both Räikkönen and team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi in Free Practice 2.
Räikkönen managed to take seventh place in the race at the Bahrain International Circuit, and took advantage of a late double failure for the Renault F1 Team, to collect his second consecutive points finish to start 2019 and move himself into the top six of the Drivers’ Championship.
The Finn said that Alfa Romeo holds confidence in its potential to score another good result and aid its battle to move to the front of the tight midfield battle.
“We have been working on making progress over the past two race weekends and feel confident of our potential,” said Räikkönen.
“I look forward to seeing what we will achieve at this next one in Shanghai.”
A veteran of 293 grands prix starts, Räikkönen said that he is privileged to have experienced some of F1’s most iconic moments – some that he played a central role in.
“The next race will be a special one,” he added.
“I have had the chance to experience some of the great moments in Formula 1 history and am happy to continue making history with Alfa Romeo Racing.”
2007 champion Räikkönen joked in the Thursday Press Conference at the Shanghai International Circuit that he wanted to sport an archaic open-face helmet for the 1000th race, swiftly adding that the regulations dented his bid.
“No [there isn’t a special design],” deadpanned Räikkönen.
“I wanted to have [an] open-face helmet but there were some…regulation issues!”
