Kimi Raikkonen has said he will learn Italian in preparation for his time at Ferrari. At the launch of the F2007 car at Fiorano over the weekend, Raikkonen said, “I will definitely learn Italian because it is very important to adapt as much as possible to the environment.”

Lessons appear to be going well with Raikkonen’s first words in his new Ferrari uniform being “Buongiorno a tutti”, whilst addressing a specially selected press pack.

Raikkonen is following on Schumacher’s tradition - towards the end of his eleven years at Ferrari, Michael Schumacher often gave interviews in fluent Italian.

However, Raikkonen knows that learning the language fluently will take time. “Little by little I will also arrive there, but anyway there won’t be any problems because everyone in the team speaks English,” he said.

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