Seb and Kimi confident ahead of Hungarian Grand Prix: “We’re the most improved team this year”
Hungaroring – The skies over Budapest cleared after the morning rain and the outlook for the Hungarian Grand Prix weather is that it will stay hot and dry. Scuderia Ferrari drivers Seb Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen are ready for the challenge, after not having got what they deserved in terms of results at the last event in Silverstone.
Seb is well aware of this: “So far this year, we’ve had excellent races and others that were more difficult. If you ask which team has improved most this year, the answer is Ferrari. The last race was not ideal, but it is normal sometimes to have some races that go better than others. Overall, I think we are on the right path. This year has been very good so far, but we are not completely happy because we want to win. That’s the reason why we have been competitive this year, because we have worked very hard. We have to keep going down this way. I think the worst race was the last one in the UK. The races in Australia, Bahrain and Monaco were great. However, we could have won in Austria, in China and so on. Maybe this year the safety car hasn’t worked out well for us, but that’s how it goes. There are many races ahead and we have to stay positive, because we have been good so far. We are not yet where we want to be, but we want to make sure there won’t be many chances left to the others”. Another ‘hot topic’ of discussion in Hungary is, of course, the introduction of the Halo protection system in 2018: “It’s not that nice looking” Sebastian says “but its purpose is what counts: it was made for driver safety so if it can save lives, then we will use it”.
Kimi has a slightly different view on his season: “If you look purely at the results, this has not been a very good year so far for me. We have been quite happy in some places and not so happy in others and that shows in the results. If we consider the last race, for sure it was not the best: we were not on the pace, but I think it had a lot to do with the layout of the circuit. Lately and especially towards the end of the weekend, I had felt pretty good in the car and driving was fun. I hope we have the same feeling here. This circuit should be better for us, I might be wrong but hopefully not. I think that here we can be a lot stronger against our competitors. We are going to give our best as always and hopefully we’ll be fighting at the front”.
quoteHungarian GP: Raikkonen not worried by results because he 'has the speed’ 27 July 2017 Kimi Raikkonen insists he 'has the speed' to win in F1 despite having not done so since returning to Ferrari in 2014.
Kimi Raikkonen has conceded he is far from satisfied with the results he has been achieving during the 2017 F1 season but insists he isn't 'worried' because he 'has the speed'.
With the conclusion of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix signalling the start of the summer break, Raikkonen is reflecting on an indifferent first half of 2017 at the wheel of the Ferrari SF70H, which leads the standings in the hands of Sebastian Vettel.
Though Raikkonen has shown flashes of form, most notably his first pole position in nine years at the Monaco Grand Prix, he arrives in Budapest fifth in the standings and 79 points shy of his team-mate.
With three podiums to his name, Raikkonen – who hasn't won a race with Ferrari since he returned to the Scuderia in 2014 - admits he accepts the results haven't been up to standard. Nevertheless, he insists he isn't worried because he knows he 'has the speed'.
“If you look purely at the end results, it's not very good. But put that aside and i think we have been quite happy some places, not so happy in some others. That shows in the results. Lately, especially last weekend, we have felt pretty good. The end result was not what we wanted but there are other reasons for that.
“Hopefully we have the same feeling here, the same feeling with the car and I'm sure driving-wise there is no issue. We have to get all the details right and get the most out of the package. This circuit should be better for us, I might be wrong but hopefully not. We will give our best as always.
“Personally, I'm not happy with the results - that's for sure. I want to win races, I want to be up there all the time. that hasn't been the case this year too often. I know when things are correct and there are quite a few things that happened and you pay the price for it. Driving-wise, I have the speed, so I'm not worried about that. it's about putting things in the correct places.”
POS DRIVER TEAM CAR TIME GAP LAPS 1 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing Red Bull/Renault 1m18.455s - 32 2 Sebastian Vettel Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 1m18.638s 0.183s 28 3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes 1m18.656s 0.201s 33 4 Kimi Raikkonen Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 1m18.755s 0.300s 28 5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes 1m18.779s 0.324s 31 6 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Red Bull/Renault 1m18.951s 0.496s 25 7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault Sport F1 Team Renault 1m19.714s 1.259s 33 8 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda McLaren/Honda 1m19.815s 1.360s 31 9 Carlos Sainz Scuderia Toro Rosso Toro Rosso/Renault 1m19.834s 1.379s 35 10 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Honda McLaren/Honda 1m19.909s 1.454s 18 11 Esteban Ocon Sahara Force India F1 Team Force India/Mercedes 1m20.126s 1.671s 34 12 Sergio Perez Sahara Force India F1 Team Force India/Mercedes 1m20.266s 1.811s 33 13 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso Toro Rosso/Renault 1m20.577s 2.122s 37 14 Lance Stroll Williams Martini Racing Williams/Mercedes 1m20.791s 2.336s 31 15 Felipe Massa Williams Martini Racing Williams/Mercedes 1m20.869s 2.414s 22 16 Jolyon Palmer Renault Sport F1 Team Renault 1m21.175s 2.720s 12 17 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team Haas/Ferrari 1m21.345s 2.890s 11 18 Romain Grosjean Haas F1 Team Haas/Ferrari 1m21.504s 3.049s 25 19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber F1 Team Sauber/Ferrari 1m21.559s 3.104s 31 20 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber F1 Team Sauber/Ferrari 1m21.722s 3.267s 16
Kimi Räikkönen feels that he "threw away" his chances of taking pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix with an error on his final Q3 lap.
Räikkönen held only fifth after the initial runs in the final segment of qualifying, but set rapid pace during the closing stages, as he challenged Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel for pole position.
Vettel did not improve on his final lap while Räikkönen surged up to second place, completing a Ferrari 1-2, for its third front-row lock-out of the campaign.
However, Räikkönen was left to lament a mistake in the middle sector of his last effort, reckoning he could have usurped Vettel for top spot.
"Actually it was not too good," said Räikkönen of his quickest lap.
"The start was good, the end was not too bad, but in the chicane I braked on the outside kerb and got loose.
"I really threw it away there; it was decent enough for second place, but I'm a bit disappointed, I felt I had it quite comfortably, but I couldn't really finish."
Räikkönen, though, talked up Ferrari's gains compared to its form on Friday.
"If you go from yesterday, it wasn't the easiest of days, and today I'm pretty happy with things," he said.
"I managed to improve my car for the qualifying and we are happy with how it's handling now... tomorrow will be a long race, so we have to keep it going."
quoteHungarian Grand Prix - “Today has been a great day”
Seb, Kimi lock the first row of the grid for Scuderia Ferrari
Mogyorod – It’s another one-two in qualifying for Scuderia Ferrari as Seb Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen lock out the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s race. Remarkably, in all of the three weekends in which a Ferrari driver has qualified on pole position (Russia, Monaco and Hungary), his team-mate has started the race alongside him. This shows the quality and intensity of team work and that was especially the case over the past two days , when all the guys in the garage and at Maranello did their best to improve the handling and performance of the two SF70H cars. “Today has been a great day” said a radiant Sebastian Vettel, after scoring his second pole this year. “The car and the whole session were fantastic! I am really happy. We brought some new parts here and we tested them yesterday. Then obviously, we talked about it a lot and I think we got the car in better shape this morning. We are working very hard to get everything right. The guys have worked so hard and they love what they do. So, it is good to get back into the car and do our job. We love racing and this weekend has been very good so far. We know we have a strong car, no matter where we go, and that’s the great thing about this year. Now we have to move forward and focus. Qualifying is done, so we now concentrate on the race. There’s a lot of hard work to do and we need to take it one step at a time. Now, we’ll see what happens tomorrow. Thank you all!” “First and second position is a very good result for team”, Kimi added. “We kind of expected that this circuit would fit us better for certain reasons, but of course you cannot ever take it for granted. Today I really felt I had the speed, but I made a rather stupid mistake at the chicane, I put the left wheels on the kerb under braking, got sideways and lost time. I’m a bit disappointed with what I did, because I had the chance to be one place up, but I ‘m happy because I still managed to take second place. It’s been quite close between three teams so far, so tomorrow it all will depend on what happens in the first ten laps; it’s not going to be an easy race for anyone. There’s no way to plan things for the first two corners. The one who makes the best start has the better chances. Tomorrow we’ll have a long way to go to replicate today’s result!”
Sorry for Kimi he should have taken his chance when Seb had troubles with his steering wheel, and not stay behind and protecting him of Ham attack or is he then a perfect number 2
Quote: jpp47 wrote in post #11Sorry for Kimi he should have taken his chance when Seb had troubles with his steering wheel, and not stay behind and protecting him of Ham attack or is he then a perfect number 2
He would never do it- only when the team tell him he can do it. Teamplayer as always
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Thu Jul 27, 2017 7:13 pm
Come on Kimi! We need another good race 
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