Ferrari's drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa attend a press conference
and talk about the new season.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (MARCH 13, 2008) (REUTERS) - Kimi Raikkonen will start his first Grand Prix as Formula One world
champion on Sunday, determined to pick up in Australia where he left off in
Brazil last season. 
    Ferrari's Finn won in Melbourne from pole position last March and
rounded off an amazing year with two victories to beat McLaren's Lewis
Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to the title by a single point.
    Raikkonen said on Thursday (March 13) that he was happy to start the
season in Melbourne despite the long-haul flight from Europe.
    The Melbourne Grand Prix may be lost next the season, as Formula One
boss Bernie Ecclestone eyes night races in Australia for European day time
audiences.
    Melbourne has already pushed the start time of the race back an hour,
still short of day time in Europe, and state officials aren't keen on a night
race.
    "You never know what is going to happen, there is lots of talks,
many different things in Formula One always and I guess we've got to wait as
long as we see if it is going to happen or not. It is a nice place to come,
nice race, nice people, the world will be sad, only it is quiet far away for
us to come from Europe so I hope that is going to stay, it's a good place to
start the season."
    Apart from Hamilton, Raikkonen's main rival will probably be his team
mate Felipe Massa,
    The Brazilian said he is happy with the way that pre-season testing had
gone.
   "Every detail in the car makes difference at the end of the day, we
worked a lot on the aero-dynamic, we worked a lot on the chasis wide, we
worked a lot on the engine, and for sure we worked massively with shell to
develope the oil, engine oil, now we have also new engine oil which is the
Helix which is we make a big step forward this year comapred to last
year," said Massa.