Here are bits and pieces of yesterday's analysis in Italy, thanks to TaniaS: (Excure my poor translations)
quoteAntonini, Corriere dello Sport: "On the track, Ferrari is the quietest, almost "electric", and Kimi showcases a great deal of control, almost like a rally driver, in a time when everyone is struggling to stay on track for a reduction of 20 per cent of downforce. Reduction that McLaren resolves in its own way, with the "butterfly" suspension, suspension with triangles and split reels in order to form a true airfoil. http://autosprint.corrieredellosport.it/...della-rb/13006/
And in an interview to Turrini, wich by the way, we didn't like that much:
Another reinforcement is the return of Raikkonen at Ferrari ... "I am a great admirer of Raikkonen and in a very small way, I have also worked hard to bring him back to Ferrari. I met Kimi ten days ago in Maranello and I must say that at the psychological level is in a state of extraordinary grace. The dream of his career was to be back at Ferrari, to close his career as a driver with the team with which he won his world title. Kimi is happy, it seems ecstatic. Upon presentation of F14T is caught in the eye of the man, the joy to be back in Maranello."
Raikkonen asset to the team or to Alonso ? "Raikkonen will make a great contribution to Ferrari. As a driver, needs no discussion, is very strong. The Prancing Horse has lost two world Championships wanting to run with a single top driver. In 2010 and 2012 if instead of Massa, there was a more consistent driver, Alonso would have won two world championships. I do not know if Raikkonen will be stronger than Alonso, But the Raikkonen we've seen on the Lotus over the past two seasons, if he was next to Alonso at Ferrari, it certainly would have come in front of the opponents of the Spaniard and Fernando today would have two titles more".
quoteRaikkonen asset to the team or to Alonso ? "Raikkonen will make a great contribution to Ferrari. As a driver, needs no discussion, is very strong. The Prancing Horse has lost two world Championships wanting to run with a single top driver. In 2010 and 2012 if instead of Massa, there was a more consistent driver, Alonso would have won two world championships. I do not know if Raikkonen will be stronger than Alonso, But the Raikkonen we've seen on the Lotus over the past two seasons, if he was next to Alonso at Ferrari, it certainly would have come in front of the opponents of the Spaniard and Fernando today would have two titles more".
( Or like Tania said: maybe Kimi would have two more World Titles )
As much as we might not like it, this properly sums up why Kimi was hired again.
My guess is Ferrari thinks Kimi is slower or less cable then Alonso. They think he is good driver driver but he would naturally be behind Alonso and he wouldn't put up to much of a fuss about it. They see it as a win-win situation, Alonso can still come out on top but the whole team is improved and this partnership is very good for publicity well. And Montezemolo has already said as much.
From Kimi's point view he didn't exactly have much of choice. Red Bull were looking for second driver, and they wanted a driver from their young drivers program. Mclaren already has Button and they properly didn't want two aging drivers. Lotus's money troubles have gone to far for a driver like Kimi. Basically Ferrari was the only viable option. I dont think Kimi returned there out of sentimentality like Turrini and the rest of Italy are implying, it is plainly about practicality. There might also be other considerations like salary for example. A racing driver's career is short and he will earn most of his money, for the rest of his life during his F1 career, Kimi doesn't have that many years left. Earning a decent salary for his last couple of years might be something to consider, especially after getting divorced and taking a pay cut at Lotus. It is not a romantic or the racing way to think about the situation like that, but it is realistic.
Realistically it could all easily work out like Ferrari are planning it to work out. But I do hope Kimi ends up making it a bit more difficult for Alonso. People are already writing Kimi off, when talking about who will be fighting for the WDC people are already mentioning Rosberg, Lewis, Alonso and Button. When I think about it winning the WDC is almost practically a minor for Kimi. For Kimi doing well against Alonso could mean just as much and perhaps even more then winning a WDC. So Kimi will have his work cut out for him, that is certain. I guess the one good thing about this situation is that Kimi is the underdog, people expect Alonso to beat Kimi, that might be a good situation. Just look at Rosberg last year, everyone expected Lewis to beat Rosberg and he did at the end. But Rosberg's reputation has really gone up because he was able to challenge Lewis more then what people expected. A lot of people even rated Rosberg's season as better then Lewis's season. Trying to be realistic about the situation something similar might happen between Alonso and Kimi. Kimi doesn't necessarily need to beat Alonso in the points, but if he can atleast run Alonso close during the season then I think it would help his reputation a lot.
Kimi's reputation has improved somewhat in these last two years, but the whole Massa and Ferrari question still pops up every now and again. I guess this is a good time for Kimi to actually rebuild what was lost. It is just a shame that he has to do it all over over again at Ferrari of all places, but nothing worth the effort was ever made to be easy.
It will be an interesting competition between Alonso and Kimi, they basically have some of the same strengths as drivers. Both are consistent and better in the races then in qualifying and both have good race craft. I do think this will be a tougher competition then many people seem to expect. When it comes to Alosno he always has a lot myth and hype around him at times. Of course he is a great driver, but sometimes the myth seems to be a bit exaggerated. Just as an simple example; after driving the car for the first time Alonso said that there isn't much of difference compared to last year, if you read people's comments about that statement, they are immediately saying that Alonso is such a great driver that he can handle anything and that any difference would mean little to him because of his skills. Nevermind the fact that Kimi said exactly the same thing, of course no one took much notice when Kimi said the same thing. Anyways my point is Alonso is great, he might even be the best on the grid, but no one is completely unbeatable.
The situation within Ferrari as always will be important, they are a team made up out of politics and that is not going to change. If Ferrari is a championship winning team at the front, then I think they would be more naturally inclined to support Alonso. However, if the team is around the same place as it has been these past four years, and Alonso start giving out comments about the car again, then they could be more inclined to support Kimi. Anyways I also think that Kimi has changed a bit in his second career. I think he is more outspoken and expressive, so he might not just stay quiet if Ferrari tried the same tricks as in his first career. But we'll see. One thing is certain if Ferrari doesn't do well this season then there will be hell to pay at Maranello.
And then again saying all of this, when I saw Kimi in red again it looked kind of right, which is something I didn't expect, it seem as if belongs to a certian degree and it does seem as if there is some members within the team who really likes him. But who knows perhaps I was just being silly.
i think Kimi is as good as Alonso in terms of driving, but perhaps not as dedicated and of course not political or the character who will step on corpses in order to get his way....So, i think its almost up to Kimi to do well or not. When you fight for the top, you must work on everything and serve all aspects. I hope Kimi will do his best in terms of dedication, because the other things of course he cant be and he shouldnt! On the other hand, i think Kimi is stronger mentally than Alonso, so Alonso may yield mentally in case Kimi does well and the team embraces him!
I do agree that ferrari was a one way street and of course i dont believe the emotional bs...but i think it was a huge thing they got Kimi back!
agree with you both. That's probably what Ferrari was thinking in getting Kimi back but Kimi can show them and all others. I believe he is able to beat Alonso but he has to work hard, it won't be easy. And for now I want to believe Ferrari will play fair. Also this season luck as in reliability might play important part so the one who is faster could still have less points.
Quote: Jalumi wrote in post #124Means what? He is studying Kimi?
no, just normal:
quoteI have on my laptop the data of each lap which Kimi drove here and he has access to all my laps today. That's how it works at Ferrari since I'm here. I don't know anything else. And of course we talk about all aspects that affect the driving - the brakes, the steering, how you sit in the car. Only if we share all aspects we can really bring Ferrari forward. I couldn't imagine a more open exchange of data.
back to testing, Mercedes is quite impressing, no big problems and doing lap after lap. Rosberg just completed his race simulation now. Renault teams on the other hand seem to be in deep shit. apparantly Renault already told before test the maximum running of power unit is 250 km. and..
quoteSimply put, there are components in the Renault engine which will fail should it be pushed beyond around 75%. On top of this, the RB10 has cooling issues for the energy recovery systems, the engine and various other associated components.
quoteWhilst each of the Renault customer teams have worries of their own which do not relate to the engine, TJ13 has discovered that the French F1 engine manufacturer now requires around 20 weeks to rectify the problems they are currently experiencing. This takes us up to the British Grand Prix.
don't know if we can believe thejudge there but that doesn't sound good for RB and others..
I also agree with Olga and Miezi that Kimi can beat Alonso if he wants to. We will see how things unfold.
We really can't be certain about anything or anybody at this point. Well, we can count of Kimi being himself. But Kimi being Kimi means he will surprise us, as he always does. Let's just hope is a good surprise...
About the tests. Wow! I really hope that 20 weeks is not true, it will be awful for the Renault powered teams. As for the rest, Mercedes looks very reliable. About who's fastest, I think is to early to know that. And as some one else already said, this year it may not be the most important aspect of it all.
quoteJerez in numbers - who went fastest, and furthest31 Jan 2014
One should never read too much into testing times - especially when that test was effectively an extended shake-down, as this week’s Jerez session was for most - but that doesn’t mean they don't make for interesting reading, and Kevin Magnussen will no doubt be more than happy to leave Spain with the quickest overall time after his debut as a McLaren race driver.
Even more interesting, however, in the context of the 2014 regulation changes is which teams completed the most mileage - and with which power unit…
This week’s official aggregate test times from Jerez: 1. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1m 23.276s, 162 laps 2. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 23.700s, 133 laps 3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 23.952s, 121 laps 4. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 24.165s, 83 laps 5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 24.812s, 78 laps 6. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 25.344s, 42 laps 7. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1m 25.495s, 173 laps 8. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 25.588s, 188 laps 9. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 26.096s, 17 laps 10. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 28.376s, 48 laps 11. Daniel Juncadella, Force India, 1m 29.457s, 81 laps 12. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1m 29.915s, 45 laps 13. Adrian Sutil, Sauber, 1m 30.161s, 103 laps 14. Jules Bianchi, Marussia, 1m 32.222s, 25 laps 15. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, 1m 33.270s, 60 laps 16. Marcus Ericsson, Caterham, 1m 37.975s, 12 laps 17. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1m 38.320s, 11 laps 18. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham, 1m 43.193s, 54 laps 19. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1m 44.016s, 9 laps 20. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 45.374s, 10 laps 21. Robin Frijns, Caterham, No time, 10 laps 22. Max Chilton, Marussia, No time, 5 laps
Total laps run - by team (power unit, where different): 1. Mercedes, 309 2. Ferrari, 251 3. McLaren (Mercedes), 245 4. Williams (Mercedes), 175 5. Sauber (Ferrari), 163 6. Force India (Mercedes), 146 7. Caterham (Renault), 76 8. Toro Rosso (Renault), 54 9. Marussia (Ferrari), 30 10. Red Bull (Renault), 21
Total laps run - by power unit: 1. Mercedes, 875 (4 teams) 2. Ferrari, 444 (3 teams) 3. Renault, 151 (3 teams)
The important part of test #1 was to run through all of the checks and hope the team didn't discover too many problems. It's exceptional that Ferrari was able to run so many laps as a team. I'm not concerned who ran more. This is a complete team effort at this point of the season. Make sure the car works, is reliable.. and then concentrate on making it as fast as possible!
Luigi PERNA @pernagazzetta Similar driving stiles and impressions on the car from @alo_oficial and #Raikkonen, it was not always the same with @Felipe1Massa #F1
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Thu Jan 30, 2014 5:53 pm (Last edited: Thu Jan 30, 2014 5:58 pm)
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Very fair 
