(Lotus Renault) Lotus Renault GP’s new Finnish star driver Kimi Räikkönen set foot in Enstone for the first time to meet his new team mates.

A throng of LRGP-ites made Kimi feel welcome as he arrived at the factory ahead of the team’s Christmas party tonight.

After being welcomed by Eric Boullier, Kimi was given a factory tour and met with Chairman Gérard Lopez.

“It is my first time in Enstone,” Kimi said, “so it is very nice to see the factory - it feels good. It is a very warm feeling and I’m very relaxed. I haven’t really read the newspapers about all the excitement but it is quite normal, isn’t it? It doesn’t put any more pressure on me. I always try to do my best, so I don’t put myself under pressure. It will be exciting, yes, but no pressure really and we will see how it goes.”

On having Kimi at Enstone, Gérard feels it is like the right thing to happen. “I think we decided that we had to look forward in terms of performance and the key way to see how good a car is, is to have a good driver. Kimi has proven in the past that he is among the fastest and in terms of age he’s still in his prime. In terms of motivation from what I have seen and spoken to him, he is probably as motivated as ever. And the more people question the better it is because it is going to increase his motivation even more to prove that they are wrong. I’m excited that he is here because I think it’s one of the very important steps in getting the team to where we want it to be – which is one of the top teams in Formula 1.”

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