Kimi Raikkonen and his Ferrari boss Jean Todt have all but written off Ferrari’s hopes of securing the drivers’ title.
Because of McLaren’s exclusion due to the espionage saga, Maranello based Ferrari in Belgium wrapped up the constructors’ crown with a dominant one-two triumph.
But an ill-starred showing two weeks later in Japan means that Felipe Massa is now mathematically out of the hunt, while Raikkonen lags championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 17 points with two races to go.
“We went to Japan in quite a difficult points situation. For sure, now it looks much worse,” the Finn wrote on his website this week.
“It is up to the others how we finish in the championship. It looks like Hamilton has wrapped it up, but at least we will try to make it more difficult for them by winning these last two races,” Raikkonen added.
Team boss Todt agreed on Tuesday that it will take a “miracle” in Shanghai and the finale in Brazil later this month for 27-year-old Raikkonen to win the title.
The Frenchman insists that if a McLaren driver ultimately does secure the championship, “it is because we didn’t have enough reliability”.
Todt added: “This will always remain a positive season, although there were some moments when we really suffered and which did no good to formula one.”
Massa also thinks the title is basically over for Raikkonen.
“I think so,” said the Brazilian. “For me it’s finished, for Kimi it’s almost (finished).”
