Kimi Raikkonen once again appeared to make the same rookie mistake by spinning his car and losing what should have been a guaranteed podium finish.
The Finn had similar problems with his Ferrari in 2014, usually on the out lap following a pit stop.
After the race Kimi shared his thoughts on the mater – in his usual staccato style.
“The spin is exactly the same story as last year… no problems in practice. For some reason [on] both out laps there’s something odd happening… and it just gives a massive amount of throttle… or whatever it is… and you cannot control it so…its not ideal… you know… but it is what it is”.
When pressed as to why this issue has not been resolved, Raikkonen replied: “I’m sure we fixed it last year… and I don’t know why… it’s a very odd thing… because obviously we do practices and we try to do similar stuff… and so far this year no issues in other places… and here… I dunno the answer”.
The question must be posed, is this a case of an old dog and new tricks?
Of course new tyres are never up to temperature for a lap or so, but this is the same for all the drivers and Kimi is no new kid on the block.
Paul Di Resta explained to Simon Lazenby: “When you come out of the pits, you have to activated the start mode… [the mode you use] for the start of the race now that restricts the throttle movement.
“When you go into the start mode, the throttle becomes different, because they need to change it for the ‘wait phase’… which is what they call the high revs.
And when you go out the pit lane, that is then set for about a minute, a minute and a half, and that’s probably what caught him out. Its not the normal throttle pedal because it’s all electronic these days”.
Raikkonen was the last driver this year to out qualify his team-mate. He was 6-0 down in the Saturday one lap shoot outs coming into the 2015 Canadian GP. Yet even his success this weekend over Vettel in qualifying was because the German driver’s Ferrari failed in Q1 on Saturday, which left him P16.
After a further penalty Vettel started the race in P18 but his performance in the race was mesmerising. During his first stint he climbed to P13 before a botched Ferrari pit stop left him plumb last.
Vettel was one of just five drivers brave enough to attempt a two stop strategy and this saw him blaze through the field from P20 to P5, finishing just 4.278 seconds behind his team mate Kimi Raikkonen.
Kimi has had an illustrious career in Formula One and is much loved for his minimalistic manner with the media. Yet his inability to come close to the kind of performances Vettel is putting in this year now appears to make it almost impossible for him to retain his seat in 2016 with Ferrari.
After 7 races
Sebastian Vettel 108 points Kimi Raikkonen 72 pointsAnd maybe, Mark Webber is smiling this evening too.
I think he’s been done a while; still capable of a decent race as all racing drivers are, but the things we saw in the 200*s have never really come back. Even his Lotus stint to me was over played; Grosjean got all the parts last and had to bow to Kimi, and when they let him was up there and past him, and whilst decent ai don’t think Romains a WC in the making. Lets give Bottas or someone new a pop in a decent car for once.
@Adam Parsons
“but the things we saw in the 200*s have never really come back”
Kimi’s experience will put off for a while all other drivers considering dropping the F1 ball for a couple of years for a truckload of ice-cream, and coming back later on…
“whilst decent ai don’t think Romains a WC in the making”
I’d say Romain is doing rather impressively in the Lotus. While Pastor will of course bin it more quickly than it takes to say… PDVSA, Pastor is a quick driver, just sh^tty consistency. And Romain has eclipsed him in quali trim in both their seasons together. In races too, before Pastor bins it, Romain will be dicing with him for stint performances.
According to the F1Metrics model, Grosjean’s performances were better than that of Hulkenberg in 2014. I suspect Grosjean still has a thing or two to say…
If I came across as having a pop at Romain, then I misrepresented myself. My point there was that Romain was better than Lotus made him look, and had the mesaure of Raikonnen. If you go back to comments in 2012 and you’ll see me sticking up for Romain as I am a fan of his, both because he is a smashing guy, and I believe he is hugely talented. In a straight fight between Alonso, Vettel, Lewis, I think he is as fast and talented enough to do it, plenty are, Rosberg for example, but there is something else the champions do, and I am yet to be sold that Romain has it… but that is not a shut door.
Few more ardent Kimi fans than I. I’m afraid it’s over.
He just lost podium to his replacement in front of the big boss.
Unless he puts in a stellar, commanding performance the next three races, he’s out. Even I’d make that call. Damn.
Agree. I still want to see Hulkenberg in red overalls, if Ferrari would consider two Germans!
I agree. although hulk won’t be so happy to see vettel after yesterday I geuss
He actually said after the race that he would have done the same as Vettel if the roles were reversed and that it was a normal racing incident.
Didn’t see that. Belgium played against France during the gp so after the flag dropped I switched channels.
Yeah, what I love about Hulk is that both after the Vettel incident, and the Alonso one in Monoco, he was so balanced and fair, just; ‘well yeah its shit for me, but it was just racing’. You get so used to Seb, Lewis, Alonso, hell the whole lot of them moaning and whinging, about he’s doing this or that, or moved across, that Hulks attitide is such a breath of fresh air. I hadn’t realised that I actually mentally brace myself after the interviewers questions until that one from Hulk, and then I realised I had braced for a load of BS for no reason!
dude, Hulk deserved a Ferrari ride about 4 years ago. Sadly it is gone.
Team principals still rate him top dog after Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso. Those are people ‘in the know’.
Are they watching different races for the rest of us ?
I just don’t know……..what people are thinking?
Kimi’s qualifying pace has to improve this season as it has really impaired his races compared to Vettel. But his races up until Bahrain were great, like the same race pace as Vettel. This was his worst race by a mile, followed by Spain. In Monaco he got stuck in traffic because of said weak qualy performances, but apart of that people are blowing it out of proportion once again.
And in the end, I expect a 4 times world champion to thoroughly beat his teammate.