quoteKimi and Seb: “One race at a time, let’s just try and do well”
Shanghai – A new challenge awaits Scuderia Ferrari drivers in China, where teams were welcomed by heavy rain on Thursday . “This circuit is completely different from the one in Melbourne, more of a ‘normal’ track”, says Kimi. “It’s way too early to know how things will go, we haven’t run a single lap yet and the conditions may change very quickly. At the last race in Melbourne the car was feeling good when we were running. The team was very happy for Seb’s win , it was a great result also for all those working at home. We have a good team, but we have only done one race, the season is long, and the tracks are all different. We have to keep doing a good job , improve things and minimize mistakes”.
As for Seb, winning in Melbourne hasn’t changed his feet-on-the-ground attitude: “The real expectations we have is to try and do well. Good conditions and good luck will be important, as well as the set-up of the car. If we can be close to Mercedes that means we can be close to the top: we will just try to do well and then we will see what it will be. We are working better as a team and have improved from last year. We did very well in Australia, but that was only one race. Still, we have potential and can do better”.
Oh, no post from friday- because nothing happened at friday. Only a few minutes driving in FP1 and no driving in FP2 because the helicopter could not bring someone to hospital. Better be safe than sorry.... Poor Kimi was forced to take a nap in the car
quote"Disappointed" Raikkonen still plagued by understeer
Kimi Raikkonen has admitted he continues to struggle with understeer in his Ferrari SF70H, as he placed fourth again in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Raikkonen had been a distant fourth in qualifying for the season opener in Melbourne, lapping 0.845s off the pace and going on to finish 22 seconds behind race-winning teammate Sebastian Vettel.
He conceded then that he "suffered a bit with understeer" throughout the Australian GP weekend - and it was an issue that has not been sorted fully in time for qualifying in China.
The Finn led the way in Q2 with a late run, but made only a marginal improvement on his best time in the final segment and ended up almost three tenths down on teammate Vettel.
"I don't know, really, the first run in last qualifying was just pretty poor overall, and then we struggled a bit with Turn 3 the whole qualifying - just a little bit still understeering," Raikkonen explained.
"We gave up way too much laptime there, never really got it back. Disappointed, but feeling-wise it was a lot better."
After topping Q2, Raikkonen was noticeably out of his element early on in the final segment, as he radioed in: "Very bad grip, and the rear is not good - are the settings different?"
He clarified after the session that his second run was "very similar" to Q2, but that having to push harder exacerbated the existing problems.
The Boss is not happy ! Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne wants his Formula 1 team to sit down for talks with Kimi Raikkonen after the Finn's second consecutive difficult race in the Chinese Grand Prix.
While Ferrari's car proved a match for main rival Mercedes this season, Raikkonen has yet to finish on the podium - although he pointed out that his strategy compromised his race in China.
Marchionne expressed some frustration with the failure of Raikkonen to get past Daniel Ricciardo in the early stages of the race, at a time when Vettel was also behind him.
As well as this costing both Ferrari drivers time, Vettel was able to overtake Ricciardo shortly after passing Raikkonen.
"I talked about this with Maurizio," said Marchionne.
"Maybe they should sit around a table and he should talk to him.
"Today he seemed to be busy with other stuff. Vettel was more aggressive."
When asked if it was fair to suggest that the 2017 Ferrari F1 car is more comfortable for Vettel than it is for Raikkonen, Marchionne said: "Absolutely no."
Marchionne added that the safety car, which was brought out after Antonio Giovinazzi crashed on the start-finish straight, probably cost Vettel victory.
"Without the safety car the story of the race should be different," said Marchionne.
"I can confirm that our choice to change the tyres of Vettel was correct.
"It was a nice race, we [finished] second, we are second in the constructors' championship by one point and Seb has the same points as Hamilton. That's not bad after two races."
They gave such a shitty strategy to Kimi and he had problems with the car. They don´t need to sit on a table and talk, some people from the team need a kick in their ass!
quoteKimi Raikkonen comments on the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix Kimi struggled with several problems during the race
Kimi Raikkonen finished fifth in the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix, which took place this morning at the Shanghai International Circuit, behind both Red Bull drivers, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, despite the fact that he managed to out-qualified them on Saturday and the Maranello team seemed to have a better race pace.
“What the hell is happening on the exit of 12? I have no power if I don’t switch to K1” – Kimi complained over the radio to those on the pit wall. The Finnish driver also had to deal with other problems during th 56-lap race in Shanghai, adding that on one point he had “zero torque.” Engine power wasn’t, however, Kimi Raikkonen’s only problem on the day as the Finn struggled with his tyres and yet, was the last of the frontrunners to pit for fresh tyres.
According to the online version of the italian newspaper Tuttosport, Ferrari told Raikkonen that if he stayed out he would finish on the podium. The Finn felt otherwise and was pitted for a fresh set of soft tyres. At the end of the Chinese Grand Prix, Kimi was asked about his troubles on Sunday: “We didn’t have one specific problem. The car was good when the tyres were fresh but we seemed to lose the front tyres. At a place like this it was giving a lot of lap time away. I think we could have got a bit better result but this is what we got.”
As for whether Ferrari should have brought him in for a second stop earlier than they did, Kimi did not want to make any predictions on what could have been the final result: “We have to look at what happened. It’s always easy to say after the race but this is how it goes.”
quoteFerrari's strategy for Kimi Raikkonen in China 'didn't make any sense'
Red Bull boss Christian Horner says third and fourth was the maximum for his team in China, though he thinks the team was helped by Ferrari leaving Kimi Raikkonen in "no man's land" late in the race.
Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo finished between the two Ferrari drivers, with the former scoring a podium which had looked unlikely ahead of the weekend. The damp start brought Red Bull into contention but it seemed likely they would drop behind Ferrari as the track tried out.
Verstappen and Ricciardo's third stops, where they took another set of super-softs each, forced leading pair Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel for a final stop of their own. But while that was happening, Ferrari kept Raikkonen out on his old soft tyres -- hoping to get him to the end -- despite the Finn growing increasingly frustrated over the radio at the handling of his car and the fact he was losing time in traffic while his rivals were in clear air and on fresh rubber.
When he finally did pit, he emerged in sixth behind Carlos Sainz's Toro Rosso. Though he quickly got by and caught up to the Red Bulls with super-soft tyres of his own, he ran out of laps and had to settle for fifth.
Explaining Red Bull's strategy in the dry, Horner said: "The reason we went for the super-softs, we felt in these damp conditions, for us with our car as it is at the moment, to turn that soft tyre on would be maybe a bit too much. We felt the more competitive tyre would be to go onto the super-soft and then have a second stop.
"At this stage in the race Ferrari and Mercedes were talking about going to the end and then obviously Sebastian triggered it with his stop, Lewis covered it. What didn't appear to make any sense was why they left Kimi [Raikkonen] that long [on the first set of softs], because he sort of ended up in no-man's land. To get our car ahead of a Ferrari and a Mercedes is a good day's work. Solid pit work, good strategy, good racing from the drivers. I think that was the maximum we could get from it."
After the race Raikkonen voiced his frustration with his strategy and made it clear "much more" would have been possible if he had been allowed to pit when he wanted to. The Finn has failed to finish on the podium in both races this season despite Ferrari clearly having a car to match Mercedes at the front of the grid.
Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has called on F1 team boss Maurizio Arrivabene to sit down with Raikkonen and discuss his form.
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Thu Apr 06, 2017 9:40 pm (Last edited: Thu Apr 06, 2017 9:42 pm)
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when I read this!!!
