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ESPNF1; Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen believes Mercedes will "surprise a few people" at the Australian Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg set the fastest times on the final two days of testing at Barcelona.
Rosberg set the fastest time of the test on Sunday with Fernando Alonso the only other driver capable of beating Hamilton's Saturday benchmark. Raikkonen, whose Lotus has been tipped as a front runner at the first few races, said he thinks he could have got close on a low-fuel run, but his final two days were limited by food poisoning on Saturday and a gearbox issue on Sunday.
"For sure at least we would have made it close, but it doesn't really matter if we made the time here or not," he said. "Hopefully we can be fast at the first races.
"Mercedes might surprise quite a few people, but we've seen before last winter they were strong here and then it was a bit of a surprise they were not strong in the races. We will have to see."
After finishing third in last year's drivers' championship, Raikkonen said the key to a successful assault on the 2013 title would be adding race-winning pace to the consistency he showed in 2012.
"We have to have more overall speed than last year," he said. "If we can keep the consistency and add a bit more speed and a better result at the beginning of the year it will hopefully give us a better chance."
Kimi Better be wrong because I don't have an iota of Mercedes in my fantasy pool picks.
you forgot about the yeah I know what I'm doing race.In the UK there's this game show called Pointless where you win by knowing obscure stuff, and should i ever end up going on it i wanna win the bloody money if F1 comes up as a topic
You would win that easy, I watched the one when they did Monaco GP winners the other week and none of the 100 knew Gilles Villenuve won it. I guessed Patrese as it was obscure but was shocked to see Villenuve was pointless!
F1; Roberts joins Caterham as new aero chief 04 Mar 2013
Hari Roberts, Caterham head of aerodynamics Charles Pic (FRA) Caterham CT03. Formula One Testing, Day 4, Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, 3 March 2013 Giedo van der Garde (NDL) Caterham CT03. Formula One Testing, Day 3, Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, 2 March 2013
Caterham have announced that Hari Roberts has joined the team as their new head of aerodynamics. Roberts, who has previous F1 experience with Jordan, Renault and, most recently, Lotus, will work closely with technical director Mark Smith and performance director John Iley.
“I am excited about the challenge that lies ahead with Caterham F1 Team and I am delighted to have renewed my working partnership with Mark, and started a new partnership with the whole team,” said Roberts. “Caterham F1 Team has the potential to grow into a serious force in Formula One and I am looking forward to playing an integral role in helping the team fulfil its potential.”
Smith added: “I am delighted that Hari has joined our team, particularly as his appointment extends an excellent working relationship that I have had with him over many years with teams including Jordan and Renault F1 Team. He gives us more senior leadership in a critical area of the team’s development and it is another sign of our shareholders’ on-going commitment to our team’s growth that we have appointed someone of Hari’s calibre to the role of head of aerodynamics.”
A lot of that was due to Schumacher's sheer inability to finish a race last year. I'm not sure if the car will be any better, but I'm willing to bet Lewis will at least bring the car home more than Schumacher did, and in higher positions too.
And anyway, last year Lewis was saying the same thing about Lotus, and they weren't even able to win one GP, where Williams and Mercedes both did.
In the UK there's this game show called Pointless where you win by knowing obscure stuff, and should i ever end up going on it i wanna win the bloody money if F1 comes up as a topic
You would win that easy, I watched the one when they did Monaco GP winners the other week and none of the 100 knew Gilles Villenuve won it. I guessed Patrese as it was obscure but was shocked to see Villenuve was pointless!
I would've guessed Panis, or Trulli perhaps? Pretty recent though. There was one where you had to name WDC runners up and i picked the trick answer Frentzen, that would have done it too! And i think out of the three pointless answers for that one of em was Mika Hakkinen.
If Kimi fails it won't be for performance enhancing
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