Raikkonen now happy with 'English' engineer

Kimi Raikkonen is now happy with his relationship with his race engineer.

Last year, as the Finn struggled with the 2014 Ferrari, Raikkonen was also at odds in the garage as he struggled to adapt to working with Italian Antonio Spagnolo.

The 35-year-old had reportedly wanted to take with him to Ferrari his trusted engineer Mark Slade, with whom he won races at McLaren and again at Lotus.

Slade, however, opted against relocating to Italy.

Instead, Raikkonen is now working with another Briton, Dave Greenwood, who left the troubled Marussia team.

"Dave is really clever," the 2007 world champion told Turun Sanomat newspaper, "and does things exactly as they should be done.

"It's easier to work with an Englishman," Raikkonen added. "Yes, Dave reminds me of Mark. They both know what I want."

And Slade, who now works with Pastor Maldonado at Lotus, confirmed that Raikkonen now seems happier alongside Greenwood.

"I don't know Dave Greenwood," he admitted, "but I think Kimi is happier when he's working with an English race engineer.

"Kimi speaks good English so he likes to get his info in brief, genuine English. I am sure that the cooperation was not as smooth with someone for whom English is not his home language.

"I will always be a Kimi fan," Slade added, "so of course I'm happy to see Kimi able now to drive a lot better than he could last year."

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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