quoteGerman GP – Kimi Raikkonen: “Exploiting any opportunity”
Kimi Raikkonen: “This weekend, a few technical problems meant I spent more time in the garage than usual, but already, as from yesterday afternoon, my feeling with the car had improved. Today, in Q1 things went reasonably well, but then in Q2, when I fitted the second set of new Supersofts, my car was sliding all over the place and I lost the back end in turn 2. After that, it was impossible to put a good lap together.
I’m not happy with my grid position, but I hope things can go better in tomorrow’s race. It’s likely the weather could be different tomorrow and the temperatures will be lower. We will try and make the most of any opportunity because we want to have a nice race and bring home a good number of points.” - See more at: http://formula1.ferrari.com/news/german-...h.qt3HkZyl.dpuf
quoteF1 German Grand Prix: Raikkonen rues Q2 errors
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was left to ponder a couple of excursions that cost him a place in the F1 pole position shoot-out at the German Grand Prix.
Kimi Raikkonen admits that a couple of minor mistakes prevented him from progressing into the pole positions shoot-out at the German Grand Prix.
The Finn has struggled to get a handle on this year's Ferrari, and admits that his qualifying performances have fallen short of his own expectations, but appeared to be in for a good qualifying session after impressing in free practice at Hockenheim. However, after losing the end of FP3 to a fuel pump problem, he twice ran wide on his final run in second qualifying when needing an improvement to break back into the top ten.
“On the second run, for some reason I lost the rear in corner two, lost a lot of time and it was difficult to gain back the time after that,” he conceded, “I also lost time in the last sector, so I couldn't put the lap together.
“It had felt pretty okay up to that point. We had a problem yesterday morning and a problem this morning, which doesn't help, but the car was feeling pretty good yesterday morning and this morning, so it was an unfortunate thing. But it happens.”
It has happened perhaps more than most to Raikkonen since his return to Maranello, but the Finn is refusing to let things get him down.
“It's just different things [affecting qualifying],” he admitted, “In the races, it hasn't been that good either, so it's just things going wrong or I'm making mistakes and haven't been able to put a proper lap together for a long time. But it's been feeling much better here, more like it should. It's not exactly as I want, as it feels good for one run then, on the next, you lose the rear for no reason, but I'm not trying anything stupid. It's so on edge that it's difficult to predict what it's going to do and one slip, like I had on corner two, and you lose all the speed on the straight. When it happens in moments like that, it makes a big difference.”
Shrugging off the lost of FRICS – 'I don't feel any difference' – and the brake failure suffered by fellow Brembo user Lewis Hamilton – 'they have happened to me and I know, out of 100 or 200 discs, there can be some odd issues' – Raikkonen also played down the potential significance of having an extra set of tyres for qualifying outside the top ten.
“I'd much rather be more up in the front [rather than having an extra set of tyres], but I'll have to see how the weather is tomorrow,” he reasoned, “It's supposed to be a bit cooler, but who knows… I'd just like to make a good race and score good points.”
He says: "I was hit two times by other cars, I was blocked between them, I didn't know where to go, the first time there were some parts flying out from the car and the second time the front wing has broken. The car was good with the tyres but the front wing was broken so it gave me some problems on the front. And all these problems damaged us, but this apart, the car gave me some good feelings." Q: "We heard you complaining at the radio for the strategy. Would you have made something different?" A: "Well, I don't think there's anything to speak about, we lost the front wing, we couldn't do anything much different. I was blocked among cars, there were some contacts and I think this damaged us, there was nothing wrong with the strategy, having a "complete" car would have helped me."
I've translated what I have heard from the speaker, not sure he has translated well Kimi's words although.
The journalist asked him: "So, could not Kimi do anything more than this or this will be his rest of the season?" Villeneuve answers: "Yes, he could do more, he could do what Alonso did. We cannot say 'poor little Kimi, etc', he's far behind, he didn't make a great race, he has not even arrived in the points. He had some contacts with other cars but it's not just for those his pace, he must find a way to be faster because now he's not."
I agree too, he needs to be quicker, ok u can have a car which doesnt suit u, but like this its really bad... To be honoust he is like a rookie towards alonso. I know what he can do n support him but this takes just too long
quoteContrasting fortunes for the two Ferrari drivers While Fernando Alonso reckoned he’d just had his own race of the year, questions were asked about Kimi Raikkonen’s future Sunday, July 20, 2014
HOCKENHEIM, 20th July 2014 (F1Plus / Graham Keilloh) - After his run to finish fifth for Ferrari in today’s German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Fernando Alonso reckoned it was his best drive of the season.
“Fifth place is absolutely the maximum today,” said Alonso afterwards, “and very pleased, very happy probably as Austria was the best race so far in the season for me, and now probably this one.
“Because it was quite complex to manage the start, the fuel, the tyres, the change of strategy, the battles, so it was a very complex race to understand and to execute.”
Alonso confirmed that the original intention had been to stop twice today but the tyre wear experienced necessitated a three-stopper.
“We planned to do two stops in the beginning but in the middle of the race I was asking ‘how are the tyres for everyone else?’ as I really felt we’d be struggling a lot if we go for two, so we switched to three.”
The Spaniard also enjoyed his late-race battle for fifth with Daniel Ricciardo.
“Daniel fought very good, a lot of respect, always very clean, and I enjoy”.
He did however believe that the length of the battle cost him a chance of fourth place.
“We lost five or six laps behind Ricciardo, who I think was doing a good job to help Red Bull because if I don’t lose that time I probably can attack Vettel at the end.”
Kimi Raikkonen meanwhile reflected on a tough race, wherein he was occasionally in the wars on the way to P11.
“I got twice hit, ended up between two cars and damaged my front wing” Raikkonen said, “the endplate came off, so that didn’t help, I grained the front left…I couldn’t run as long as we wanted on the supersoft.”
Ferrari boss Marco Mattiacci also afterwards had to fend off questions about Raikkonen’s future.
Upon being told that the race head-to-head between the two Ferrari drivers in 2014 is 10-0 to Alonso Mattiacci said: “10-0 is soccer but not Formula One.
“He (Raikkonen) is the driver that we need” Mattiacci went on. “I think he knows what he can do better, it’s not up to me, he is a professional driver and a world champion with Ferrari. He’s motivated, he knows there is areas of improvement…we are all together on this.
“He has the utmost confidence and support from Ferrari.”
Mattiacci confirmed that Raikkonen has a Ferrari contract for 2015 and that Alonso’s runs to 2016.
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Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:05 pm
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