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By sagi58
#434708
 wrote:">Raikkonen: "Positive feeling"

Melbourne, 12 March – Shortly after his team-mate Sebastian Vettel had taken part in the inaugural FIA press conference, Kimi Raikkonen also met the media, at the back of the Scuderia Ferrari garage in Melbourne’s Albert Park paddock.

“It’s a new season, a new year and we start from zero,” was the Finn’s opening remark. “We will see how it goes. Over the winter the team has done a very good job to improve the package. The new car is better in all areas. As a team, everyone is working well together and it’s been a good winter. We feel better overall and I’m sure we are much better prepared for this year. But will we always get what we want? Only time will tell. We still have a lot of work to do to be where we really want to be, but we have to be happy with where we are after testing, compared to where we finished last year.”

Kimi would not be drawn on just how competitive he might be this year. “We must wait and see on Sunday,” he insisted. “I have no interest in starting guessing and in a couple of days we will at least get an idea where we are here. Then we can wait and see how we go in different races at different circuits.”

As for this first weekend, Kimi stressed that Albert Park is not representative of the majority of tracks. “It’s not like a normal, traditional circuit, it’s the first race of the season, so usually quite a lot happens in the race. The weather can also be a bit funny here, but hopefully everything will go smoothly for us and we can do our maximum in the race and then see where we end up. Tomorrow, we will see what the car feels like and then we can go from there. I hope we have a similar feeling here to what we had in testing and have no issues. That way we should get an okay result, but exactly where we will be is hard to say.”

Finally, he was asked for a thought on the fact that his former team-mate, Fernando Alonso, is having to miss this race, after his testing accident. “It’s not ideal for him and you never like to see anyone get hurt and I hope he will be back soon,” concluded Kimi. “But that’s part of the game; you can get hurt or have problems and miss a race.”
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By sagi58
#435661
That's it, Kimi!! There's no "I" in Team!! :clap:

 wrote:">Raikkonen: “Working as one team”

Kimi Raikkonen didn’t have much to say in the press conference that marked the official start of the weekend in Sepang, home to the second Grand Prix of the season. But what he did say was packed with confidence.

“We are in a much better position than we were, say even at the end of last season, so in that way it’s a nice place to be but obviously we still have to improve quite a bit,” said the Finn when asked to assess the situation after the opening race. “We want to be in front and we still don’t have the speed exactly, at least in qualifying, to be there. However, in the race I think we are a bit stronger when compared to Mercedes. I think it will be a fun year, obviously not an ideal start of the year for me in Melbourne, after we got some damage from the start and had those issues in the pit stops, but these things can happen sometimes but at least we had pretty good speed. I’m sure we’re going to have strong races and good battles, but like I said we still have some work to do to be absolutely where we want to be but we have done a good job so far.”

Even if Kimi’s Melbourne race didn’t live up to expectations, the Finn felt very comfortable with the SF15-T and he explained this was down to a combination of two factors: the new car suits his driving style better and it is a big step forward in general compared to last year’s car. “It’s the whole package,” he maintained. “We improved the engine a lot but we improved the chassis itself a lot as well. You cannot just point to one area that has been improved from last year. Everybody is working as one team and things are going in the right direction and people are pushing and doing a good job. Like I said, it’s still early days. We still have to work hard and improve things but, from where we started, so far we have done a good job.”
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By sagi58
#436012
 wrote:">Raikkonen very close to Vettel's performance - manager

Kimi Raikkonen's manager has defended the Finn following suggestions he is already slipping into a 'number 2' role for 2015. After struggling alongside former teammate Fernando Alonso, 35-year-old Raikkonen has been joined in red for this year by his friend Sebastian Vettel.

But Raikkonen is already 28 points behind his German teammate, while quadruple world champion Vettel has a win to his name and is nipping at the heels of Lewis Hamilton's early title lead. The situation moved former Ferrari team boss Cesare Fiorio this week to observe on Italian radio: "After two races, the hierarchy of the team is already established. If Vettel fights for the world championship, Raikkonen will only support him," said Fiorio.

Raikkonen's long-time manager Steve Robertson, however, hit back at those sorts of claims, insisting the 2007 world champion got caught up in troubles in Australia and Malaysia that had nothing to do with the Finn's pace. "I strongly believe that Kimi and Sebastian are very close to having the same level of performance," he told the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat.

"The most important thing is that Kimi is very happy with the car. The whole package is much stronger than it was last season," said Robertson. "Kimi was able to show that potential on Friday, which many competitors paid a lot of attention to," he added.
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By sagi58
#436013
It makes me wonder if people actually enjoy putting drivers down, before the season has started;
or if they simply guess, making such statements this early, so IF they are right, they look brilliant?
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By sagi58
#436193
, Staff wrote:">Chinese GP - Kimi: “Not quite like last year”

On Thursday before the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, Kimi Raikkonen addressed questions from the media. Many of them focused on his predictions for the week end. “Obviously we have to put in a clean weekend with no issues, then I’ m sure we could be pretty happy with the result. This is a different track but so far the car has been working well in all kind of conditions on every place and I don’t see reasons why it should be different here. Here it can be a little bit different because it’s cold and the track is challenging, but of course if you have a good car it helps. Tomorrow we’ll go out and see but I don’t expect big surprises.”

Can you say you can challenge Mercedes even if, unlike Sepang, the weather here is not so hot and this one is not a rear tyre limited track? “All track are different and every condition too, and one car can behave better in a place that in another one. Maybe we are not where we would like to be, but compared to last year things have changed a lot even if we still have a lot to do.”

The win in Malaysia is a very good result for the team and for Sebastian. “We knew from testing we have a good package but the two first races for me have been pretty difficult , although I could take some good points in Malaysia. We keep pushing as hard as we can trying to do things right knowing that every race can be different, but generally I think we can be quite strong everywhere. In general we know we have the speed but we have to get rid of all the issues even if they are not our fault like the puncture”.

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By sagi58
#436420
Ben Anderson and Matt Beer wrote:">Kimi Raikkonen says Ferrari F1 environment feels better than ever

Kimi Raikkonen says the current Ferrari team environment is the best he has experienced in Formula 1.

Raikkonen is in his second stint with Ferrari, which he joined from McLaren in 2007 for an initial three-year stint, before returning in 2014 after spells in the World Rally Championship and back in F1 with Lotus.

Ferrari has recently undergone a major restructuring headlined by the arrival of Maurizio Arrivabene, a change that Raikkonen feels is working extremely well.

"I must say, in the past when I was here at Ferrari they were good times and it was a good atmosphere," he said.

"But this year is the best that I have had in any team; how the team works together, how people work together, how the atmosphere is and how things are being run.

"That tells you a lot. I'm very happy."

Raikkonen indicated last summer that he would probably retire from F1 after his current contract expires at the end of this year.

Asked if his improved form this year and his happiness with the current Ferrari regime might make him stay longer, Raikkonen said that choice was not up to him.

"The team has to decide that," he said. "You will have to talk to them.

"Time will tell what will happen. I'm happy with how things are running."

VETTEL: RAIKKONEN CAN CONTROL HIS FUTURE

Raikkonen's team-mate Sebastian Vettel reckons the Finn would have plenty of alternatives if he wanted to change teams.

"I think he's doing a very, very good job," said Vettel of Raikkonen.

"He was in the past. Probably last year it wasn't noticed so much, but inside the team it definitely was.

"I don't know the details of his contract. I think it's in his hands if he wants to carry on in Formula 1.

"There would be plenty of interest in a fast driver like him, with the experience that he has, if he wants to carry on in Formula 1.

"If he doesn't want to then he will quit."
User avatar
By sagi58
#436549
It looks like I'm in good company!! This guy just loves Kimi, too!!

 wrote:">BAHRAIN GP 15 – THE CHARGE OF A CHAMPION

Finally. Finally we got to see what a beast Kimi is on race day when he has a reasonable qualifying and no midfield f***s to ruin his day. Let me modify the previous statement. We got to see what kind of result he can bring the Ferrari to, when all goes well. Because he sure was a monster in Malaysia with that fightback. He had some serious speed in Australia before the wheel issue. And so on. Just that his speed and pace have been a bit camouflaged by the end result.

QUALIFYING

Kimi has shown better pace than Vettel in pretty much every weekend. Now, I am not going to turn this into some kind of teammate battle. The truth is that both Ferrari drivers are insanely quick. But looking at the races and practice sessions, it emerges that Mr. Raikkonen has had the edge when it comes to speed on race day. Just like Sebastian has the edge on Saturday. Looking at the end result, we see how important Saturday is. And that is a bit of a worry. Because that means that Kimi has to either fight his way past Sebastian at the start or rely on an alternative strategy to get the maximum out of his race pace.

That being said, Saturday in Bahrain was Kimis best so far in 2015. A couple of tenths behind Vettel who did an amazing lap to get in between the Mercs. The Finn said that he could have pushed more as he found there was more grip available than expected. Pretty understandable, since he had previously said that he had pushed too much and lost time due to that. Not wanting a repeat, he went a tad to the cautious side.

I am expecting Vettel to get the better time on nearly all Saturdays to be honest. But the Finn has said he is working on his one-lap performance. So who knows. The scales might even out a little. Anyway, P4 is pretty good when his main rivals are two monster Mercedes cars and his teammate might be the best qualifier on the grid. Oh, and the other star qualifier is in one of the Mercs. Could be worse.

THE RACE

Boom – out go the lights!

Rosberg is so caught up in getting past Vettel that he forgets all about The Iceman who has the entire outside of the track to himself and nudges himself past the German/Finn/ Monaco resident or whatever he is. Nicely done! But the silver car is the class of the field and just 4 laps later Rosberg wrestles past Kimi in the same place he was overtaken. Nico is desperate to not let Hamilton get away for yet another race and just 5 laps later he passes Vettel in turn 1. A lap earlier, Vettel had made his first mistake of the day that allowed Nico to close right up.

This commotion allows Hamilton to scamper away at the front, building a nice buffer to his competitors. Raikkonen is getting right up to Vettels exhaust. Clearly faster. He hints on the radio that he can go faster but no response was heard and no change of positions. A shame because that would most likely have given Ferrari the victory the way things played out. But Vettel had track position, so fair enough. Once the pitstops begin, we see a repeat of China where Kimi is left out two laps longer – but this time puts on the mediums where the other front runners took on softs.

Raikkonen emerges from the pits and lights up his tires as he tries to stay ahead of his Finnish compatriot in the Williams. He is 14 seconds away from the other Ferrari and 18 seconds adrift from the lead car. The pace Kimi sports on the mediums blows my mind. He is not only quicker than his teammate but is gaining heavily on Rosberg as well. Even Hamilton here and there. I immediately drop my usual activity on social media because I know I am witnessing “The Raikkonen hustle” as dubbed by Martin Brundle in Hungary 2009. And like Steven Tyler, I don’t wanna miss a thing.

12 laps later and the gap to Vettel has shrunk to 5 seconds and 13 seconds to Hamilton. A couple of laps on the gap to Vettel is 4 seconds when the German dives into the pits for his final stint on mediums. What follows is another blown chance at the victory from the Ferrari strategists. I know hindsight is 20/20, but when the Finnish lad is losing 3 seconds a lap, pitting him one or 2 laps earlier will not be a stupid decision. In fact had they pitted Kimi just two laps before, his softs would still had been fairly fresh at the end and he would in theory have been 6 seconds closer to Hamilton. Taking Hamiltons braking problem into account and softs that were 2 laps older on Kimis car, he should be ahead of Hamilton. And passing a Merc with brake problems is do-able.

Anyways, I am getting ahead of myself. At the end of the day, these are still just speculations. I will say this though. When they saw Alonso wanting to get past Kimi to unlap himself, it should have been enough of a hint to bring him in on lap 39 instead of 41. Or at least lap 40! Alright. Letting it go..

Vettel did his biggest cockup on lap 35 when he completely misjudged and went wide in the final turn. Not only did it make things easy for Rosberg behind but he paid a steep price as his front wing somehow got badly enough damaged to need a replacement. In he went again and dropped to 5th behind Bottas. Those two would battle it out to the very end. A great dice where Vettel could find no way past the Williams.

CLOSING IN

Alright, Kimi. It’s less than a 100 clicks to the finish line, you got a third tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes hidden away from Minttu, it’s dark… and you are not wearing sunglasses. Hit it!

The gap to Rosberg is 20 seconds and 25 seconds to Hamilton. It’s a tall order. But Kimi has initiated Operation Scorched Earth and sets the fastest lap of the race to prove it. Which puts him 2nd and tied with Prost on the all-time high with 41 fastest laps to his name.

He is taking 2 seconds from the leaders per lap right off the bat. We hear on the radio that Rosberg is being told what the gap is to the chasing Iceman. Nico screams in reply: “Don’t tell me the gap anymore!” 13 laps later on lap 54, the gaps have been reduced to 2 seconds and 7 seconds. The boy likes to chase. Lap 56, Kimi gets the job done. It’s payback time as Kimi passes Rosberg after he runs wide in turn 1. The Mercs have been pushing their brakes too hard in a desperate attempt to keep the charging Finn at bay. And Hamiltons brake-by-wire system is not at its best anymore. But he crosses the line with a few seconds to spare. Just one more lap, or an earlier stop for Kimis final stint…

Oh well, it is what it is. And it’s something to celebrate. I did NOT expect Ferrari or Kimi for that matter to be so competitive in the cool evening desert air. But he was, and it bodes well. The only thing we have to fear now is fear itself. Or.. no. It’s still qualifying. I am not even enjoying Saturdays anymore. It all revolves around that final lap in Q3. Or the worry that something happens before that. Sometimes I miss 2010 and 2011… Oh, be quiet you spoilt child. We have this year and maybe only 2016 left before Kimi moves on to other things. So be grateful! Alright, alright. I will. Jeez..

Until Barcelona, take care.

Love,
Soren
User avatar
By sagi58
#436585
 wrote:">Allison 'signature' helping Raikkonen at Ferrari - manager

Designer James Allison was a key to Kimi Raikkonen's 2014 resurgence, the Finnish driver's manager admits. Raikkonen struggled notably to match former teammate Fernando Alonso last year, bringing into serious question his future at the Maranello team.

But the 35-year-old is returning to form this year, and on Sunday he ended a long podium drought in Bahrain and almost challenged Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes for victory. It revived memories of 2012 and 2013, when Raikkonen shone at the wheel of a James Allison-inked Lotus after his rallying and Nascar sojourn.

Now, Allison is leading a resurgent Ferrari's technical team. "Yes, this Ferrari and the Lotuses in Kimi's time have obvious similarities," Raikkonen's manager Steve Robertson smiled as he told the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat. "Both are good with the tyres. This Ferrari has the same signature as the Lotuses," he acknowledged. "Kimi drives at his best when he can feel the front of the car very well," Robertson added.

User avatar
By sagi58
#436590
Laurence Edmondson wrote:">Maurizio Arrivabene pushed Ferrari to produce a car to suit Kimi Raikkonen

Maurizio Arrivabene has revealed he sat down with Ferrari's designers in December and demanded they build a car that would better suit Kimi Raikkonen this year.

Raikkonen struggled throughout 2014, pointing to a lack of grip and feedback from the car's front end as the main reason. Arrivabene arrived at the team following the final race of 2014 and said he quickly set about asking for a car that would suit Raikkonen's driving style.

"I remember it was the 10th or 12th of December and I was asking [chief designer] Simone Resta, and Rory [Byrne, Ferrari consultant], we were watching a picture of the car and I said what can you do to transfer the weight of the car a bit more in front?" Arrivabene explained. "Because I said Kimi likes to feel the car in this way and Sebastian [Vettel] is more or less the same.

"They said we need six months. I said what can you do in three? They said we have to work day and night. I said ok, I'll work together with you guys, come on."

Arrivabene said the concession Ferrari managed to achieve over the use of engine tokens throughout the year was key to the development of the power unit, which is now one of the car's main strengths.

"Initially it was the engine and now it's still the engine because I want to say clearly that without the tokens that our president was able to cut into the strategy meeting in December it was not possible for us to develop the engine. But afterwards, when you have a good engine, you need to have a good chassis, a good aero and so on. And I have to thank all the guys at Maranello, every single guy at Maranello, that they were able in three months not only to work on engine development but to work in every single part."

Raikkonen praised the way in which the team is working together this year under its new management.

"Obviously a big chunk of it [the performance] is the engine itself," Raikkonen said. "It's a big improvement on horsepower plus reliability but you cannot just give all the credit to them. The car has improved a lot: much more downforce, the car is handling much better because of that, and obviously how the whole package has been done and put together.

"I think the big key is that all areas have improved quite a bit plus the people have been working more closely, as one team putting it together more nicely, so obviously the end result is what we have now and I'm very happy how things are going, very happy with the team and I think not many people expected after last year that we can be in this kind of position this early and now we are going in the right direction.

"So I'm sure we will get there but we want to start winning races more often and we just have to have some patience and do the work that we've done so far and we will get there."

User avatar
By sagi58
#436593
James Allen wrote:">Could Raikkonen have won Bahrain...

.........Could Raikkonen have won the race with different decisions?

Many fans and commentators have asked whether Raikkonen had a chance to win the race, given that he caught Hamilton at the end. Clearly no-one could have known Hamilton would have a brake issue on the last lap, which might have made anything possible had there been a couple more laps.

But based on the race we had, if Raikkonen had pitted a couple of laps earlier in his second stint, for example, when he was losing time on worn tyres, could he have had a chance to overtake Hamilton at the end?

This is an interesting question; Raikkonen was probably the fastest car in the race on Sunday, but he had two problems: he had qualified fourth out of the top four cars so he had the most ground to make up.

And he lost time in the opening stint as he could not pass his team mate. For the rest of the race, after the first stops, Raikkonen had better pace than anyone else.

He’d jumped Rosberg for third at the start, but lost the place back three laps later. This was the first of three occasions in the race when Rosberg passed a Ferrari; the other two were on Vettel.

Once the pattern was established in the opening stint, Raikkonen knew he could go faster if he was ahead of Vettel and he suggested as much on the radio but they held position until Vettel made an aggressive first stop to undercut Rosberg.

Raikkonen stayed out. Ferrari’s strategy with him was the opposite of Vettel’s; to offset him against the other cars, which they exaggerated further by putting him onto the medium tyre in the second stint. This strategy was all about having him on the soft tyre for a short final stint where he would be able to attack the Mercedes in the last couple of laps.

It went better than expected as Raikkonen had excellent pace on the medium tyre, faster in that middle stint than Vettel and Rosberg and equal to Hamilton, all of whom were on the supposedly faster soft tyre.

The key question is; did he stay out too long at the end of that stint, when he was losing up to two seconds per lap? The answer is probably a lap too long, but no more than that.

And it would not have made much difference to the outcome if he had pitted earlier as the point of that strategy is to have as large an offset as possible in tyre pace in the final laps. Raikkonen did 17 laps on the softs at the end, to do 19 laps would have been suboptimal and he would have simply come across Rosberg two laps earlier, but would not have had the pace differential necessary to pass him. It needs to all come together at the end when there’s still plenty of life in the softs and the other car is losing performance on mediums.

As it was Raikkonen caught him quickly, but spent three laps behind him, before he finally managed to pass when Rosberg suffered a brake problem.

Although it looks painful at the end of the second stint when losing a second or two per lap it’s about balancing that out against the performance difference at the end, which is what will give you the chance to overtake.

The stop was probably a lap later than ideal because Raikkonen wasn’t convinced that the soft was the right tyre to go with for the final stint and they were probably giving the driver peace of mind.

So it wasn’t that delayed final stop that cost him the shot at winning. Arguably two other factors played a bigger part; First his grid slot. If Raikkonen had qualified in Vettel’s second place grid slot, with the race pace he had, then it would have been a different race. Also if Ferrari had let him pass Vettel around Lap 8 in the opening stint he would have reached second position sooner and could have mounted a challenge from there..........

Also, Image...did Mercedes leave Rosberg at Vettel’s mercy?

User avatar
By sagi58
#436772
Staff wrote:">Raikkonen - A fair battle

Montmelò, 7 May –

It was nice to have a good result in Bahrain and now we keep working always with the same approach, always trying to improve. It is also nice to come back to European races: here we have some upgrades but we don’t know what the others are doing, so let’s wait and see what’s happening in the next races. The car package is quite good this year and the we’re all working very well together:

The team gives me and Sebastian the same chances and obviously we try to beat each other for the Drivers’ championship, but in a good and fair way, in the interest of the team. It is clear that we also want to win the manufacturers’ title and for this purpose, having two cars always there in the points is crucial. Compared to Mercedes there have been improvements, but we know we’re still behind. We need to work to further improve the whole package.

#436785
Kimi bon mot in FP2 of GP Barcelona:
"Do you really want to keep going and doing laps and laps because this is, uh, I get absolutely nothing out of this, this is wasting laps on the engine life..."
:rofl::rofl::rofl:
User avatar
By sagi58
#437235
Kimi seems pretty positive, ahead of Montreal!! :thumbup:

Staff wrote:">A good car for every section

Montreal, 4 June – “In every race we try to improve, it’s part of our program, bringing upgrades to make things better and do the maximum we can. For this race we have some ‘normal’ stuff, but obviously we have to wait and see how they work. Tomorrow, when we start, we’ll see where we are.Here it’s important to have a good car in every part of the track, the layout is very different from the last one or the others we’raced on so far this year, so it’s difficult to say where you are going to be.

The tire compound is the same we had in Monaco but the circuit is much different so it should be fine for us, a lot will depend on the weather. We know what we are lacking, we have to improve qualifying, our aim is to improve certain areas, because this will make our life easier on Sunday. We’ll do our best to build up the weekend and we’ll see what happens.”


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