‘Unfortunately those things happen in racing’
Kimi Raikkonen admitted that he and his McLaren team were to blame for losing the world title and called for the team to cut down on errors next season.
Raikkonen finally saw rival Fernando Alonso secure the title at the Brazilian Grand Prix here Sunday when the Renault driver continued his metronomic reliability to come home third and put the championship out of reach.
Alonso, who has won six races so far this year, built up an early championship lead and stayed ahead by picking up podiums while Raikkonen raced either to victory or into retirement in recent Grands Prix.
The Finn has suffered numerous crucial car and engine failures this season and he admitted: "We lost it this year but there`s no point in worrying about the problems we had because it`s not going to change anything. It wasn`t perfect for me or for the team but unfortunately those things happen in racing. We will try to minimise them for the future and now we try to win it next year.
"For him and for Renault it was a good year, he definitely deserves it. Whoever has the most points at the end of the season or before the end of the season deserves it and I don`t have anything bad about it."
McLaren have clearly been the fastest team on the grid since around the San Marino Grand Prix at the end of April but their lack of reliability on several occasions has cost Raikkonen in the end.
He has retired three times this season when in contention for victory and has also suffered dramas that have caused him to start low on the grid three times due to penalties for changing an engine in practice. He has been fighting an uphill battle for several races and a disastrous race in Italy, where he started down the grid, spun and had a tyre failure, was one of the key moments when the title started to become to tough to secure.
He added: "Of course it is disappointing not to be fighting for the championship any more but we realised there were not that many races to go and we needed to have really good luck to win it.
"It is not really so disappointing. This is never nice but congratulations to Fernando to win it and he definitely deserved it. Yeah, we will do everything we can do to win that and hopefully next year we will fight for both."
Raikkonen remains positive, however, despite missing out on the world title twice in three years, and he is determined to continue winning races right to the end of the season. He took second best to team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya here Sunday as the Colombian recorded his third win of the year but after winning six races he is keen to beat Alonso to the most number of wins this year.
McLaren are also chasing the constructors` championship having moved two points ahead this weekend with two races left in Japan and China and Raikkonen added: "We try to win the last two races for the team and try to win the team championship."


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