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Interview: Dyer ready to guide Raikkonen

Chris Dyer felt a twinge of guilt when his mobile rang during Kimi Raikkonen's first Formula One test for Ferrari

The distant voice was that of Michael Schumacher, the recently-retired seven times world champion calling his former race engineer to check out how his Finnish replacement was settling in.

"It felt like an old girlfriend ringing me up and asking me how my new girlfriend was," the Australian recalled before this weekend's season-opening Grand Prix in Melbourne.

"I kind of felt guilty: 'Oh yeah, he's going really well'. I felt like I was supposed to say 'He's okay, but he's not as good as you'."

There are those in the Formula One paddock who are convinced that Raikkonen, the 'Iceman' who has joined the Italian glamour team from McLaren, is a headstrong and taciturn type who listens to nobody.

Dyer, the bespectacled boffin from Bendigo who has only once in his life been inside a Ferrari road car - a short passenger ride from the factory to the Fiorano test track while sharing a front seat with designer Rory Byrne's golf clubs - knows already that is not the case.

As Schumacher's race engineer, he helped the great German to some memorable victories and now he hopes to do the same for Raikkonen.

The two have been working together since January and the relationship is a crucial one. Every race driver has to have complete trust in his engineer, the calm and methodical voice talking to him regularly on the radio during races.

"I think he's fairly comfortable with the team and we're fairly comfortable with him," Dyer said.

"But this weekend is really where we start to see the answers. It's a new experience for everybody.

"It's going to take a couple of races to work things out and I'm sure there are going to be moments in the next few races where we assume that he's going to do something, because that's what Michael would have done, and he's going to assume that we would because that's what his old team would have done.

"We've got to try and minimise the misunderstandings."

Schumacher and Raikkonen are poles apart as personalities, both blisteringly quick but the latter more likely to head for the bar while the former settles for a night in with his family.

Dyer said the team saw a different side however.

"For us, we want a driver who is honest and drives the car as hard as they can and gives you good feedback as to what the car's doing and gives you a good understanding of what you have to do to make them faster," he said.

"So in those ways, Kimi's not so different. He speaks less on the radio than Michael. But we're still getting what we want out of him.

"We'll see over the next couple of races how he works at a race weekend, but so far there's no sign that it's not going to be a good relationship."

Dyer had no doubt that Schumacher, now 38, had retired at the right time even if the race engineer was also convinced that the German could still have gone on to ever greater achievements.

"I never saw any sign of Michael stopping improving. I think he was still on the way up," he said. "I think if he was back this year and he was as motivated as he always has been, he probably would have improved."

The motivation was the problem and the race engineer summoned up another conversation he had with Schumacher at the launch of the new Ferrari in late January.

Brazilian Felipe Massa was carrying out the first shakedown test, a role that traditionally would have fallen to Schumacher in the past, and the former champion turned up to watch him put the car through its paces.

"Afterwards everybody left and it was just myself and Michael remaining," he recalled.

"I said to him 'How did it feel, it must have felt strange seeing that car that is traditionally yours. Did you feel like shoving Felipe out of the way and getting in the car?'

"And he said in almost an apologetic tone, 'you know, I had no desire to get in the car... I wanted to be involved but I didn't feel I had to drive the car.' His tone was almost apologetic, like he was letting us down.

"My reaction was that it was great. He made the right decision."

Raikkonen, championship runner-up to Schumacher in 2003, is totally committed. After taking just nine wins from his five seasons at McLaren, he is hungry for success.

Dyer's job is to manage that hunger and turn it to advantage.

"One thing I see with Kimi at the moment when he gets in the car, is he gives 110 percent. Every lap is flat out," the Australian said.

"I don't know yet in the races how much we will have to pace Kimi. I don't think there will be any problem turning him up, but I'm not sure how much we will have to turn him down and how much he'll manage that himself."

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