Kimi Raikkonen has claimed that he will not be daunted by the thought of a second successive wet
Formula One race this weekend, despite seeing his hopes of winning the British Grand Prix scuppered by the weather.
The world champion had been closing in on
Lewis Hamilton ahead of the first round of pit-stops at Silverstone, but the ever-changing conditions caught his
Ferrari team on the hop, leading to a strategic error that saw the Finn trying to chase the leader on worn intermediates. The decision proved his undoing, with Raikkonen joining Ferrari team-mate
Felipe Massa on the list of spinners as he limped to fourth place at the end.
"Unfortunately, a mistake with the tyre choice cost us badly, which was a shame as we had very good speed before that happened," the Finn reflected on the eve of the German round, "We never really considered running the full wet tyres when the rain came, but we did eventually change to new intermediates - albeit a bit late as we did not expect the rain to last as long as it did.
"Once we had decided to stay out, it was logical to stay out until such a time as I could take on enough fuel to get to the end of the race. Of course, the next day, it was easy to think we should have done things differently but, in the end, we picked up some useful points and the result was not a disaster."
With further unsettled forecasts for Hockenheim this weekend, Raikkonen could be forgiven for dreading a repeat performance but, like team-mate Massa, he is confident that the Scuderia has addressed its errors after
Silverstone.
"I don't mind if it rains here," he said, "As usual, the weather conditions are the same for everyone and, if it rains, we have learned some useful lessons to deal with those conditions.
"We have also learnt from our mistakes. We can be fast in the wet and, in fact, we have everything we need to be quick in
all conditions. We always try to make less mistakes when you are pushing hard, so me and the team just have to work harder to make sure we succeed.
