Federer record in back of Noles mind

Not a major motivation for world No. 1

MIAMI, April 4, (AFP): Winning four of the past five Grand Slam titles has Novak Djokovic thinking about surpassing Roger Federer’s record 17 Slam titles, but it’s not a major motivation for the world number one just yet.

The 28-year-old Serbian star, who captured his 11th Grand Slam crown in January at the Australian Open, won his fourth title of the year on Sunday, beating Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-3 in the Miami Open final. umph in June’s French Open final.

“Hopefully it ends with a win in Paris,” Djokovic said. “That’s one of the big goals every year.”

A trophy hoisting at Roland Garros, where he has lost in the final each of the past two years, would bring Djokovic his fourth Grand Slam crown in a row, giving him possession of all four major titles at once, a “Novak Slam.”

“I don’t think I’ll have any difficulty to make transition to the clay courts quickly and swiftly enough,” Djokovic said.

Djokovic will play at Monte Carlo and plans to play in Madrid and Rome, but more runs to finals might have him reconsider his French Open tuneup plans.

“Let’s see what happens,” he said. “Clay courts are physically most demanding surface, also looking at the big picture, knowing the French Open is the biggest goal I have on clay.”

But another huge goal this year is to win at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

“That’s one of the dreams I have and one of the biggest inspirations right now in my career is to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games,” Djokovic said.

“To be alongside the top athletes from all the different sports around the world and to dine with them, talk with them, see them perform live, is a unique experience I think every athlete looks forward to every four years.” great to start the season like that, but I am not looking too far ahead, I am living for the moment.”

He said he was well aware that Kimi Raikkonen who split the two ‘silver arrows’ cars and finished second behind him for Ferrari had demonstrated threatening speed on a day when his team-mate Sebastian Vettel had failed to start a race for the first time following an engine failure.

“I was in control,” he said. “We were just managing the race, trying to reduce risks strategy-wise, pit-stop wise, and bring the race home.

“But at the same time, Kimi showed good pace in the race and we know that Ferrari are super close. So, we need to keep pushing.

“They haven’t shown what they are able to do yet. That’s clear. They have had so many mishaps, which have cost them dearly, so we haven’t seen the real Ferrari yet.

“We have to be careful. They are coming on at us and they are strong.”

Ferrari’s potential has been masked this year by difficulties - a strategy call that failed in Australia where Raikkonen retired with turbo troubles, Vettel’s reliability problems and Raikkonen’s poor start in Bahrain.

Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team’s German driver Nico Rosberg celebrates on the podium after winning the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix at the Sakhir circuit in Manama on

April 3. (AFP)

Meanwhile, Formula One’s failure to resolve problems surrounding the future shape and structure of qualifying has been described as “madness” by Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff.

The Austrian, who has called for the sport to ditch the failed fiasco of ‘progressive elimination’ qualifying, said he was suspicious that political agendas were now at play that were preventing a switch back to the successful former system.

Discussing the outcome of Sunday’s talks at the Bahrain International Circuit which failed to resolve the problems, he said: “All the teams had the same opinion -- that we probably need to go back to 2015. “But there are various agendas and this proved that it is not an easy one, so I cannot tell you what happens next. Last time I told you, I was totally wrong...’

Asked if he could explain how such a simple decision-making process had ended up in such chaos, he said: “A simple explanation? Madness.”

Wolff was one of the team bosses who met the president of the sport’s ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA), Jean Todt and the veteran commercial ring-master Bernie Ecclestone on Sunday.

The teams have expressed a unanimous view that the new qualifying format should be dumped and replaced by its predecessor, a wish shared by virtually all neutrals and paddock observers.