Comments on: Raikkonen feels that F1 is on the wrong track

By: Erik

Erik — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:29:05 +0000

Alonso is great with politics. Kimi stinks that way, he cannot defend himself. Alonso is not a better developer at all but he will bring the team to do it his way and they will back him. Did Alonso invent the massdamper who brought him 2 WDCs?

Did he loose his capabilities after that when Renault went straight down the drain until Kubica showed up?

Alonso is a great driver and champion but when it comes to development he is bad. Kimi was miles ahead. Unfortunately Ferrari choose to develop around Massa 2008. Schumacher saw to that and he had much to say. Kimi did not stand a chance in qualifying. Massas car was best in qualy and it vaned on lower fuel loads. Kimis style started to work in low fuel mode and hence the 10-11 fastest laps and MAssa 0. 2007 Todt saw that the car developed to his liking and 2008 when he left he was toast since noone was on his side after that(except Stella). Domenicali tried to save his face and blame something when results went down the drain. Kimi was the target. Alonso wont take that and Domenicali is sweating now.

Domenicali doesnt know anything about racing, he is a politician and leader and pr guy that knows about economy. He does that very well but he hire the wrong people and take wrong decisions with his lack of knowledge. You cannot afford to many bad decisions during a season. Too many bad directions to go in etc.

Ferrari will always challenge due to drivers and money but until they sort out their management and engineering plan they wont consistently create good fundamental F1 cars.

By: Join us Over The White Line in 2010 | Brits on Pole

Join us Over The White Line in 2010 | Brits on Pole — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:56:25 +0000

[...] boring as well. It was just straight and really, really boring.” Meanwhile Raikkonen – pictured on James Allen’s blog in his largest hat yet – has problems with pitlane politics and with the dull predictability of driving endless laps [...]

By: Rick J

Rick J — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:35:07 +0000

I do not see the statistics that support your argument but honestly, I think they walked away primarily because they were sick of the whole scene. That had undoubtedly been affecting their commitment (hence performance) for a while before they left. Both are still great drivers – not merely good.

By: Beka

Beka — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:37:41 +0000

Toyota were offering him quite a lot of money. I think he could have gone there if was interested in some cash but he declined the offer because of Toyota’s non competitiveness

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:29:04 +0000

Kimi would have eaten Hamilton in a McLaren as did with Montoya.

By: murray

murray — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:29:23 +0000

True that, Maria. Championships happen when engineers build a fast car that a particular driver is in sync with. Driver development is the driver understanding how to extract it.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:23:29 +0000

Do you know the one thing that Montoya and Kimi have in common? Well there is two things, actually. One, they both excelled when they had a good combination with the car and team, which coincidentally were winning cars. In these teams they made a name for themselves, drove very well and got alot of fans. The second thing, is that when they joined new teams, they failed to live up to expectations, desptite being winning cars especially Montoya. And those teams didn’t want them anymore. Look at Heiki. The only way to go from a top team that doesn’t want you anymore is backwards. Both these drivers chose against that, because they’d already tasted success and didn’t want to work they way back up the pecking order. They are good drivers but if they were as good as you imply, they’d still be in top F1 teams. The thing with F1 is there is at least 10 top drivers, the main thing that seperates them is the car.

By: jose arellano

jose arellano — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:51:36 +0000

the only one hamilton was really scared of having as team mate is raikkonen..

on his day raikkonen would make hamilton look so baad.

By: Amritraj

Amritraj — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:52:42 +0000

The driver is not the aerodynamicist and the aerodynamicist is the not the driver. Their jobs are different and everybody understands that. The boffins design the cars and the drivers tell them how the car actually behaves on the race tracks.

I am not saying that Kimi didn’t do the driver-car development aspect well. All I am saying is that the contribution of the driver to the development process is very important.

Renault did improve markedly towards the second half of 2008, and they improved their positions in spite of an under-powered engine. So one has to assume that the feedback loop of the driver-engineer development work actually improved the car.

No comments on 2009. They came out with a midfield challenger and then stopped the development post July, 2009.

By: The Limit

The Limit — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:09:26 +0000

@Maria.

I don’t think I am out of line in my comments concerning Kimi, and I am a fan of his. I wanted him to succeed at Ferrari as much as anyone else, but here is a guy who has made a huge sum of money doing this job over the years. Without F1, where would he be? Where would any of these drivers be?
Also, if you bothered to read the rest of my post, I agreed with nearly everything Kimi said, and no, I am not a fan of Ferrari!