This is an Extract of the press conference held on 4th sept 2008 at belgium,drivers who were present in the conference include-Kimi Raikkonen,Nick Heidfeld,Kazuki Nakajima and Sebestain Vettel,The answers given by the drivers are quite good and the questions asked by the reporters are also entertaining...making me post it on my blog-
Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you have a variety of weather here; what would you prefer for this weekend?
KR: Either it's dry or raining all the time. It's much easier for everybody. When it gets between those two weathers you have more luck involved. It's more if you get it right or wrong when it starts raining and it gets drier, so hopefully it's… for me, anything is good but maybe dry would nice.
Q: (Juha Päätalo - Financial Times Deutschland) Kimi, last year you had similar problems in qualifying but you were able to solve that. How much can the work of last year help you to find a solution because it hasn't yet been that way. Is the car very different from last year on that point?
KR: No, but we haven't solved the issues yet. We had similar issues last year at some point of the season. We were pretty OK at the beginning of this season and then it seems to have turned a bit worse. Hopefully we will get back to where we were earlier on but we will see now if we have made improvements or not, then we will go from there.
Q: (Mike Doodson) This is a question for all four of you about pit stops. David Coulthard recently said that he thought the racing would be more interesting if there were no pit stops. He thinks that pit stops distort the results of the races. We've also had incidents with fires in Hungary and a mechanic who was hurt in Valencia. I'm interested to know if you drivers would be interested or would like to see the end of pit stops, which, incidentally, came in 15 years ago.
NH: Well, hopefully we will see more overtaking next year with the new regulations but until we've had a couple of races we don't know. And as we all know, overtaking is so difficult that I think it would be a good idea to keep the pit stops to at least see some (overtaking).
KR: We see now most of the overtaking taking place at the pit stops, so without them, we probably will be running behind each other more, nothing really happening. Sometimes people get hurt in the pit stops unfortunately but that's part of racing, so it hasn't been too bad.
SV: I think when we are about to retire, we are looking for more interesting races as well because we will be in a position to watch the races. Honestly, in the car the races are pretty interesting and you are pretty busy. As Nick said, next year there should be more overtaking, so hopefully that by the time we are retiring the racing is more interesting.
KN: In my opinion it's better to keep the pit stops because at the moment that's the thing which makes the difference between other drivers, so we have a bit of choice for strategy. Sometimes it makes the racing more interesting.
Q: (Thierry Wilmotte - Le Soir) Kimi, everybody knows that team orders are not allowed, but can you imagine that at the end of the season you can decide on your own to help Felipe to fight for the title?
KR: It can happen. It all depends on how the next races go and where we are at the end of the year but we race as a team. We will see. Hopefully we don't end up in this situation, hopefully I will be in the championship up to the last race. But you never know what happens.
Q: To all of you: what is on your i-Pod?
KN: Any kind of music but most of it is Japanese pop. Since I came to Europe, I especially tend to listen more to Japanese songs, maybe to remind me of home.
SV: Any kind really, German folk songs are my favourite. Anything really, a bit of everything.
KR: Mostly Finnish music, all sorts. You wouldn't know, so it doesn't matter what I say.
NH: Yeah, similar to the others, a lot of different stuff, not a lot of classic stuff. No German folk music, more in the direction of R&B, hip-hop, not so much techno, more chill-out but various stuff.
SV: Why don't you like folk songs?
NH: Why do you like it, that's more difficult to answer, I think?
SV: I like the lyrics.
NH: I like the smile on the singers' faces, just like yours.
Q: Is Eau Rouge your favourite corner, and if so why?
NH: Ah, that's pretty easy to answer for me. It's not my favourite corner. In the past it was very exciting but nowadays with V8s and so much grip, it is not a big challenge any more.
KR: Yeah, from a driving point of view, at least, it's not really a corner. It's more straight for us. In the wet it's quite exciting but as Nick said, before it was much more challenging and the cars are better and we don't go so fast, so it's not a big deal any more.
SV: I still think it's a very nice corner and everybody would miss it if it wasn't part of the calendar but it's true, it's not that challenging, at least in dry conditions. I crashed here in wet conditions and it's more challenging definitely.
KN: For me it was good in GP2 but I will probably find it's going to be easier to go flat-out (in F1), so maybe less fun.
Q: If you were not an F1 driver, what would you be doing?
KN: That's a very difficult question. I have no idea but I think I would probably be doing something related to racing because that's the only thing that I'm interested in, even not as a driver, maybe doing something in racing.
SV: If I wouldn't have made it, I think I would look for the best possible education to get in the highest position to tell the drivers that made it in motorsport how they should do it the right way.
KR: It would probably be something to do with motorsport. It's always been part of my life, so I wouldn't think it would be much different in some other category or motocross or something like that.
NH: Yeah, pretty similar, actually. I enjoy sports a lot and most likely with an engine involved, probably motorbikes would have been interesting, rallying or whatever, just competing, travelling the world and doing sport.
Q: (Mike Doodson) So which is your favourite corner?
NH: My favourite corner is the Esses at Suzuka which have not been there (on the calendar this year), so I'm looking forward to next year.
KR: I don't really know. There are a lot of nice corners, so it's hard to pick one.
SV: Yeah, I would say there are too many. Probably the one in Montreal when you go to the personal parking, the right hander is quite nice! No, there are so many corners. I enjoy all of the tracks, so I like a lot of corners.
KN: Yeah, I agree with Nick, I think the Esses or the first and second corners at Suzuka would be nice, which I've never done in an F1 car but I'm sure it will be good.
courtsey-formula1.com and FIA
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