Kimi Raikkonen News: spanish

7/15/2013 07:03:00 p.m. No comments

7/14/2013 07:02:00 p.m. No comments

Kimi Räikkönen will start from fourth on the grid after qualifying for the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix. On a warm and dry day at the Circuit de Catalunya the E21 proved pacey and reliable, with both drivers proceeding through Q1 using only the hard compound tyres.

Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03. Q: P4, 1:21.177. FP3: P2, 1:21.907
"Our race pace has been pretty good all year so let’s try and get on the podium"
“That was more or less all we could do today. I didn’t make any mistakes on my fastest lap so that was pretty much all there was to come from the car. I wouldn’t say it was a perfect lap, but I don’t think we would have been much higher up the order if it had been. The Mercedes, as we’ve seen before, seems to be pretty fast in qualifying but hopefully in the race we can turn it around. Our race pace has been pretty good all year so let’s try and get on the podium. I’ll have to make a good start, then let’s see what happens.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
"There’s certainly the potential to have a very good race tomorrow"
How was qualifying for the team?
We’re pretty happy with today’s performance. We made some changes from yesterday then had a productive morning validating them on track. It was a reasonably straight-forward qualifying session with both cars saving two sets of the medium tyres for Q3 and no real dramas to speak of. Unfortunately Romain had a lock-up on his last lap, otherwise he would have been right on Kimi’s pace, but to have the slower of our two cars starting from P6 certainly isn’t a cause for concern.

Looking at race strategy, does the new hard compound or allocation of the hard and medium present any issues?
It doesn’t cause us any problems. The new hard compound seems better suited to this track than the previous version, certainly with the temperatures we’ve experienced here. It works well for us. The allocation of the hard and medium compounds is not a life changing scenario either.

What’s possible in the race?
P4 and P6 starting positions are pretty decent for us when you consider the race pace and tyre management we’ve been able to show so far this season. There’s certainly the potential to have a very good race tomorrow.

7/13/2013 07:01:00 p.m. No comments

Kimi Räikkönen went fourth fastest at the Circuit de Catalunya on the opening day of action for the Spanish Grand Prix. Kimi set a 1min 23.030secs lap on medium compound tyres in the dry afternoon session.

Technical programme notes:
- Both drivers ran with new front and rear wing specifications today. Romain also ran with the older specification front wing for evaluation purposes
- Kimi evaluated new rear suspension components
- Pirelli’s intermediate wet tyre (green) and hard compound dry tyre (orange) were used in the morning session, the hard and medium dry tyres (white) in the afternoon

What we learned today:
- The latest front and rear wings work well
- We are analysing the data from the new rear suspension components
- The E21 looks good on both dry tyre compounds
- Changes to improve the E21’s wet weather performance look to be beneficial

Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03
Free Practice 1: P8, 1:26.614, 21 laps
Free Practice 2: P4, 1:23.030, 32 laps
"For sure there are some things we have to improve with the car which is normal after the first day’s running"
Kimi: "It was a pretty normal Friday. We tried some things on the car, ran with some different tyres and we’ll have a look at all the data to see where we think we are. We finished the day not too far off the fastest time, so we can say that the day wasn’t a disaster, but for sure there are some things we have to improve with the car which is normal after the first day’s running."

"The morning rain was actually beneficial for us"
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We’re pretty happy with today’s performance. Romain’s position in the afternoon session is not representative of his potential as a cracked exhaust cost him performance for his run on the softer tyre, but other than that he’s comfortable with how his car is performing. Kimi was happy with the handling and balance of his car and that’s reflected in his pace. The morning rain was actually beneficial for us as it afforded an opportunity to run our latest developments aimed at addressing a relative lack of wet weather pace, and we’re happy with the progress made in this area.”

7/12/2013 07:00:00 p.m. No comments

You can’t always get what you want!

It’s always good to finish the Grand Prix weekend in the podium. Up there you see how much people have enjoyed the race, you see your team having fun – and you sum up for yourself, how good was your own race.

As a team, for the first time, we got more points than anybody else. Obviously, it cannot be much better than that! But as a team, we also felt, that there could have been even more points to get from this race, as well.

Everybody knew before coming to Barcelona, it was going to be very tight again between so many teams, and it would end up being down to tyre strategy to gain a bit of advantage, if possible. Our car has been good and strong everywhere, but the hotter is the track temperature, the better it is for E20.

For the starters, obviously, it was ideal weather for us. The sun made it feel like summer – and the track temperature was exactly, what ’our doctor ordered’ it to be!

We did our usual Friday programme, the long runs were giving promising data, and the tyre was working as we expected it to work. No problems, with that at all.

The qualifying was ok. We had too much some set-up issues before starting the Q1, but in the final run for the day, the car was at it’s best. Actually so good, that it surprised me in one corner. We lost some time and were out of the first row. But, all in all, it was a solid qualifying result to go for it in the race.

Obviously, the weather was not doing us any favors, while the real good sunshine from previous days was fading for the race start, and the so important track temperature came down accordingly, too. We went along with our tactics. The start was ok, but I could not improve more than one place.

With a hotter temperature, maybe, the second stint would have been our stint, but in this time, it was the stint, where we lost our way to higher positions. The soft solution was not the optimal solution this time. After second stint the gap to the leaders was just a bit too much to catch up in the end.

Well, we tried our best. With the hard tyre working better, we got close again - and a few laps more to go, we could have won. But it’s waste of energy to think, what could have happened. We got P3, 15 points and gained 3 places in the championship. As a racing driver I cannot be 100% happy, if I not winning after being so close, knowing the potential of the car, and being the fastest of top 3 drivers at the end of race. But You cannot always get what You want!

5/26/2012 04:27:00 p.m. No comments

Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean ensured that Lotus F1 Team were the strongest points scoring team in a fast-paced Spanish Grand Prix, finishing in third and fourth position to move the team within 14 points of second place in the Constructors’ Championship.

- Kimi pitted for a set of used softs on lap 11, then fresh sets of hards on laps 27 and 48.

Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E20-03

“I had a very good start and had a chance to overtake on the outside, but we did not have enough speed and I hit the limiter in fifth gear. I am a bit disappointed because if everything had gone right in the first part of the race, we could have won. There was no issue with the speed of the car, but it is so close between all the teams that if you have a small problem or a small issue it can cost so much. Our car can do it, but everything has to fall into the right place to be able to get on to the top step. My first stint was okay, but I didn’t have the speed to stay with the cars in front. We changed the tyres and it seemed to be pretty good, but we were too far away. At the end we needed a few more laps and we could have fought for the win. We’re not far away from it and so far we’ve made good steps forwards; the car feels strong everywhere.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal

"It’s a very strong result and it’s a great reward for the team today. I think we can expect a stronger season than we had last year and we need to carry on scoring points as we have in the last two races. I’m sure a win could arrive at some point this season. After qualifying you build expectations, and we could have expected after the strong race pace we had in Bahrain that we could have done the same here, but it was not the case. A race incident at the start didn’t help Romain, but the pace of both drivers at the end of the race illustrated our potential. Finally, we must say congratulations to the Williams team for their win, and we hope no-one was seriously hurt in the post-race incident in their pits.”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations
“Third and fourth is a really good result for the team and it meant a big points haul here – more than any other team this weekend – which helps us to close up hugely on second place in the standings. Of course, it would have been nice to have done better, but the key to a strong championship campaign is consistency and if we can finish third and fourth in every race this season we’ll be very happy. We didn’t have the pace to win today, that much was clear after the first stints. We tried to push our stints out and be quick at the end. We were, and it nearly paid off.”

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader
“It was a great race with another podium and fourth position to move us a lot closer to second in the championship. We introduced new engines after Friday practice and it went well. We managed the fuel consumption effectively on both cars in the race, but in Romain’s we had some engine air consumption in the middle stint. Congratulations to Pastor and our Renault colleagues working at Williams today – a well deserved win.”

5/23/2012 04:26:00 p.m. No comments

Kimi Räikkönen set the fifth fastest time under blue skies and light clouds in qualifying for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03. Q: P5, 1:22.487. FP3: P9, 1:23.936

“I think we had a chance to be in the top three but we’ve been fighting with the set-up quite a bit today. We changed the car for qualifying and actually it was the correct call in the end; it was just a few small mistakes which cost me some time on my Q3 lap. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow in the race; the car has usually been better on Sunday than it has been on Saturday, so if that’s the case tomorrow we’ll be pretty happy. A lot of small details will decide the race and the tyres are one aspect of course. Our long runs were promising yesterday, so we’re not looking too bad. Hopefully we get a reasonable start and we can be up at the right end and go for it. I think we’ve got a good car and that’s the main thing.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
“Today went relatively smoothly for us…”

How do you assess today’s qualifying performance?
“Today went relatively smoothly for us. In Q3 I think we could have had a little bit more from both drivers’ laps. For Romain in particular – after missing this morning’s practice – it was an exceptional effort. Having the hard and soft tyres as opposed to two compounds which sit alongside each other (the medium and soft used in Bahrain for example) meant we had to approach qualifying differently as we all needed the softer tyre to progress through Q1, limiting the number of soft tyres available for the next two sessions. We saw different approaches to this; we’ll have to see in the race whose was correct.”

How are we looking for the race?
“Our long run pace yesterday looked good so we can be reasonably confident heading into the race. Our target for today was to get both cars into the top six; we’ve got both in the top five so let’s try and exceed expectations once again tomorrow.”

What are we thinking for tyre strategy heading into tomorrow?
“We used three sets of soft tyres to go through qualifying, but we have two new sets of the hard compound Pirelli tyres. We are very flexible on tyre strategy for tomorrow and we’ll be spending a lot of time now looking at all the possible permutations. There’s certainly no clear solution shouting out at us at this stage, so we have a lot of number crunching to do. We’ll be starting both cars on scrubbed soft tyres, after that it is still to be decided.”

5/22/2012 04:25:00 p.m. No comments

Obviously, this is the most interesting time of the season. It’s a pleasure for the drivers and the teams, as we’ve been back at home for some time, and now the next couple of races will be not that far away to go to.

This is great. It’s easy to get to the circuit, have fun during the Grand Prix weekend, and come back home in such a short time.

For me the Spanish Grand Prix is a kind of checking-point of the season. All the teams know the Catalunya Circuit very well. This is the only race track we been testing with the new cars and now with the upgrades on board we can start evalutiating things to the data gathered during the preseason testing.

All the eyes are now on Barcelona. It will be tighter than ever before, while so many teams and drivers have been so close all the year long so far. I guess, for the spectators it must be as exciting as it is for us.

Hopefully this time our team will have a weekend with all the things getting sorted out quickly. Up till now we have not done any favours to ourselves in that side. We’ve been close, but close is not enough in this sport to gain poles and victories.

The Enstone boys have been working very hard with the car. It’s been one of the best cars I have had in the beginning of all the seasons in which I raced. The very encouraging thing is to keep hearing whispers the best is still to come from the car.

But you never know beforehand. There is no reason to promise anything right now. Like I said, it’s so bloody tight and close. With a smallest mistake you’ll be out of the Top 10. It’s like long jump. You have be able to leap hitting the board exactly right by millimeter to get everything out of all your competitiveness.

Twice I have had a perfect weekend in Barcelona. I’ve won both times from the pole. Obviously, I rank them to the best races I have ever had. The circuit is very challenging. It’s changing so quickly from the morning to the afternoon and the vary in the temperature is such an important factor to the set-up compromises being right.

My own approach is always to keep pushing 100 percent. It’s the same like the whole team. Our aim is to get the maximum result possible for every Grand Prix. Let’s wait and see how it goes in Barcelona.

5/21/2012 04:23:00 p.m. No comments

KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN ON THE SPANISH GP: “HOPEFULLY WE WILL BE REGULAR VISITORS TO THE PODIUM THIS SEASON”
Just four races into his F1 comeback and Kimi stood on the second step of the podium. The Iceman however was not completely happy; after all, the victory was so nearly in his grasp. Will Barcelona give him the opportunity to add to his win tally?

IT TOOK YOU FOUR RACES INTO YOUR COMEBACK BEFORE YOU ACHIEVED A PODIUM – WERE YOU SURPRISED AT THIS?
I never had any doubts in myself and it is clear we have a good car so in some ways the podium could have come sooner. We had the car already in the first three races to be up there, but we made some small mistakes and it cost us a lot. I would have been much happier if we had managed to get the victory, but nevertheless it’s a good result and the team deserved it for all their hard work. We have been good in every race so far, so hopefully we will be regular visitors to the podium this season.

ARE YOU FRUSTRATED NOT TO HAVE TAKEN THE WIN?
I chose the wrong side to make it past Sebastian (Vettel). I didn’t make it past and after that, I pretty much knew that was it. Of course, I wanted to win. I would have been much happier with myself after the race.

YOU DID NOT ATTEND THE MUGELLO TEST – IS THIS AN ISSUE FOR YOU?
We didn’t have any major new parts to test and we don’t race at Mugello so I was not crying when it was decided that I wouldn’t test. I know the track well but there was no need for me to drive. I am here to race and that is what I will do in Barcelona.

YOU MUST HAVE COMPLETED A LOT OF LAPS OF THE CIRCUIT DE CATALUNYA OVER THE YEARS; WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS OF THE TRACK?
I have tested there very many times. It’s a challenging circuit - great fun with a good car, but not that great with a not so good car. Usually a car going well in Barcelona, goes well everywhere. We had a good car there for the second pre-season test even if the car wasn’t quite together for the first one.The car has improved and I feel more comfortable in it.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PIRELLI TYRES AND THE STRATEGIES NEEDED FOR THE BEST RESULTS?
No matter what the tyres you always have to make a strategy to suit them best. The tyres are fine for me. For the strategy I work with my engineers and we make the best choices we can. Sometimes we get it right, like in Bahrain. Sometimes we get very close, like in Shanghai. After the race in China and after the qualifying in Bahrain, people probably started thinking that we are idiots and cannot do anything right. But we showed in the race why we did what we did. It was close already in China and this time our strategy paid back very nicely for us. It’s all part of racing and the same for everyone.

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO RACING IN EUROPE AGAIN?
I really like racing in Europe. We don’t have to travel too far and all the energy is saved for the weekend itself. Traditionally the real season starts while coming back to Europe. For me it’s just great.

WHAT DO YOU THINK CAN BE ACHIEVED IN THE SPANISH GRAND PRIX?
I expect Lotus to be very competitive at Barcelona. It’s going to be very, very close between the top teams. This is the only circuit where the teams have already tested with the new cars, and the set up is crucial as the track changes with the wind and temperature. All the teams have updates for the first European race, which makes it even more interesting and even tighter at the top.

YOU HAVE SOME GOOD MEMORIES OF THE SPANISH GRAND PRIX?
Yes, I have won there twice, and there’s nothing better than winning in any Grand Prix. Those two wins are my only podiums in the event.

FOUR RACES COMPLETED; WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE FROM THE NEXT FOUR?
Let’s see what happens. As I’ve said, the car feels good everywhere we’ve been so far. I am here to race and I race to win. That is the target for me and the team. We want to win Grands Prix. We have a good car and we saw in Bahrain it is good enough to win. That’s the target.

Barcelona is the next stop on the Formula 1 calendar as the European phase of the season gets underway next weekend. Stay tuned to the official Lotus F1 Team website, Twitter feed and Facebook page for all the latest from Enstone as we look ahead to the Spanish Grand Prix.

4/03/2012 02:26:00 p.m. No comments

5/17/2009 12:43:00 a.m. No comments

5/12/2009 12:29:00 a.m. No comments

There is a saying in the paddock that, if Formula 1 was easy, everyone would do it and today’s qualifying performance from Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro was a perfect illustration of that cliché. This is a sport where the difference between success and failure is always poised on a knife edge. Felipe Massa had a great session to make it through to the final part of qualifying, before taking fourth place in the top ten shoot out. From where he starts, with the F60 much improved with the new package brought to this race, the Brazilian has a real chance of making it to the podium tomorrow. However, bitter is the only way to describe the Scuderia’s feelings after a bad error of judgement saw Kimi Raikkonen’s qualifying end in Q1, with a start position of sixteenth. Prior to the session, the strategists calculate what lap time should be sufficient to make it through to Q2 and after Kimi’s run, it was felt he had done enough and that it was better to save a new set of the faster softer tyres for the next part of the session. It proved to be a bad choice, as the Finn dropped out of the top 15 and into the relegation zone. His afternoon was over.

Once again, championship leader and winner of three races this year, Jenson Button, steered his Brawn to another pole position, just beating Sebastian Vettel, the only other man to win so far this season, in the Red Bull Renault, in the dying moments of Q3. It was a thrilling few minutes that had the crowd on their feet. Inside Felipe on row 2 is his fellow countryman, Rubens Barrichello in the second Brawn. While behind them, Mark Webber (Red Bull Renault) and Timo Glock (Toyota) occupy row 3. There are two Ferrari engines on row 8, as Kimi finds himself alongside the Toro Rosso car of Sebastien Buemi.

It seems it would not be a Grand Prix weekend if the weather experts did not predict rain for race day and indeed, that is the case for tomorrow. Usually, drivers at the front end of the grid favour a straightforward dry race, while those at the back pray for rain to capitalise on unforeseen circumstances, therefore the two Prancing Horse drivers could line up with different aspirations on this front.

5/11/2009 12:27:00 a.m. No comments

5/09/2009 12:25:00 a.m. No comments

5/01/2008 02:58:00 p.m. No comments

4/30/2008 02:30:00 p.m. No comments

4/28/2008 02:35:00 p.m. No comments

4/27/2008 02:34:00 p.m. No comments

4/26/2008 02:37:00 p.m. No comments

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was the leader once more in Friday's second practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, but for sure this was an unusual session. It started with Robert Kubica setting the pace for BMW Sauber on 1m 23.547s, before Force India's Adrian Sutil went ahead for with 1m 22.548s.

When Giancarlo Fisichella bettered his team mate’s time, with 1m 22.494s, the squad’s co-owner Dr Vijay Mallya saw a Force India one-two. That pertained for some time, until David Coulthard finally shoved his Red Bull to the fore with 1m 22.321s.

Then Nico Rosberg grabbed the limelight for Williams with 1m 22.302s, only to become the tail-ender in a Williams one-two as Kazuki Nakajima aced him with 1m 22.172s. Not to be outdone, Renault got in on that double act. Fernando Alonso posted 1m 22.034s, before Nelson Piquet bettered that with 1m 22.019s.

Finally, Raikkonen slapped on some soft Bridgestones to lap his F2008 in 1m 21.935s to settle the matter.

Piquet stayed second, Alonso third and Nakajima fourth, but Felipe Massa slipped ahead of Rosberg with 1m 22.229s for Ferrari, and so did Mark Webber with 1m 22.238s for Red Bull. Behind Rosberg, Coulthard improved to 1m 22.289s for eighth ahead of Fisichella and Sutil, who did not better their times.

You had to look down to 11th place for Lewis Hamilton, on 1m 22.685s, having spun early in Turn 10. Towards the end it was clear that McLaren were more focused on race running on Friday. They lost their second MP4-23 when Heikki Kovalainen rolled to a halt in Turn Six with a mechanical problem. The Finn’s lap of 1m 23.264s prior to that left him 16th.

Kubica worked down to 1m 22.788s for 12th, ahead of BMW Sauber team mate Nick Heidfeld on 1m 23.130s, then came Jarno Trulli on 1m 23.224s for Toyota, and Jenson Button on 1m 23.263s for Honda.

Behind Kovalainen, Sebastian Vettel took back the upper hand in the inter-Toro Rosso duel, with 1m 23.661s compared to team mate Sebastien Bourdais’ 1m 23.684s. Timo Glock rounded out the drivers beneath 1m 24s, with 1m 23.883s in the second Toyota, then came the Super Aguris of Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson, on 1m 25.110s and 1m 25.163s respectively.

What did it all mean? Clearly several of the leading runners were doing race work with relatively high fuel loads, and a lot of things will be different on Saturday - except, one suspects, a Ferrari being fastest.

4/25/2008 02:22:00 p.m. No comments

As many had anticipated, Ferrari continued to set the pace in first practice for the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday morning, even though all of the teams were running their latest technical packages. The red cars featured their Lotus 80-type slotted nose, while Renault ran with a Red Bull-style engine cover fin and Honda’s noses had grown stylish aerodynamic 'moustaches'.

Kimi Raikkonen was back on form with a lap of 1m 20.649s, but after two spins (one on his first flying lap), Felipe Massa trailed him by only 0.050s with 1m 20.699s.

McLaren were left trailing, with Lewis Hamilton third fastest on 1m 21.192s, 0.543s down. Team mate Heikki Kovalainen was fifth, on 1m 21.758s. It is possible, however, that the silver cars were focusing more on set-up than really quick times. In between them came Robert Kubica, who pushed his BMW Sauber to 1m 21.568s.

The Renaults were sixth and seventh, Fernando Alonso sitting out much of the session and letting Nelson Piquet do all the work, before pipping him 1m 21.933s to 1m 21.936s.

David Coulthard was Red Bull’s leading runner in eighth place, with 1m 22.118s, which put him ahead of Nick Heidfeld on 1m 22.278s for BMW Sauber and Jenson Button’s 1m 22.632s for Honda.

Timo Glock was Toyota’s leading runner on 1m 23.002s in 11th place, a thousandth of a second ahead of similarly-powered Nico Rosberg in the Williams. The latter lapped in 1m 22.838s, but had that disallowed after missing Turns 13 and 14.

They were chased by Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 23.015s), Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 23.141s after a spin in Turn 10 early on), Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima (1m 23.153s), Force India team mates Adrian Sutil (1m 23.156s) and Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 23.196s, after a lengthy run down the dirt exiting the last corner on one lap), Honda’s Rubens Barrichello (1m 23.353s) and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais (1m 23.952s).

Sebastian Vettel was 20th in the second Toro Rosso, on 1m 24.082s. The two Super Aguris were only cleared to run hours before the session began; Takuma Sato lapped his in 1m 24.278s, leaving Anthony Davidson 22nd and last on 1m 25.068s.

4/25/2008 02:20:00 p.m. No comments

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