Rating Kimi Raikkonen’s Technical Ability
Adrian Newey, designer of the championship-winning Red Bull RB6 and RB7, had this to say about Raikkonen while they were both at McLaren: “Kimi and Mika [Hakkinen] have a similar way of reporting on a car’s behaviour. It’s economical in terms of vocabulary — they don’t waste words, let’s put it that way! — but the words they do use are very accurate. If Kimi makes a comment about the car, it’s worth taking notice of that comment, just as it was with Mika.”
BBC’s pitlane reporter, Ted Kravitz revealed that long after Raikkonen had left McLaren, “McLaren engineers still talk with wonder about Raikkonen’s consistent lap times. He was so good, they say, because he would come back to the pits, say what was wrong, they would fix it and he would go out and go faster. Simple.”
After Raikkonen clinched the 2007 world championship in the final round, former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn, currently the team principal of Mercedes GP, said, “I was particularly pleased for Kimi because he struggled a little at the beginning to adapt to the new team, car and particularly the Bridgestone tyre characteristics. What impressed me was that he worked with his engineers, understood the issues, got on top of the situation and, importantly and in the style of Michael, he did it in a quiet way within the privacy of the team.”
Whitmarsh tried to sign Raikkonen after he left Ferrari in 2009, saying, “He is not political, he is absolutely straightforward – what you see is what you get with Kimi – and on top of that everyone knows that he is a winning driver. I think he has been underestimated technically.”
Full article: http://www.f1zone.net/news/rating-kimi- ... ity/10802/
BBC’s pitlane reporter, Ted Kravitz revealed that long after Raikkonen had left McLaren, “McLaren engineers still talk with wonder about Raikkonen’s consistent lap times. He was so good, they say, because he would come back to the pits, say what was wrong, they would fix it and he would go out and go faster. Simple.”
After Raikkonen clinched the 2007 world championship in the final round, former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn, currently the team principal of Mercedes GP, said, “I was particularly pleased for Kimi because he struggled a little at the beginning to adapt to the new team, car and particularly the Bridgestone tyre characteristics. What impressed me was that he worked with his engineers, understood the issues, got on top of the situation and, importantly and in the style of Michael, he did it in a quiet way within the privacy of the team.”
Whitmarsh tried to sign Raikkonen after he left Ferrari in 2009, saying, “He is not political, he is absolutely straightforward – what you see is what you get with Kimi – and on top of that everyone knows that he is a winning driver. I think he has been underestimated technically.”
Full article: http://www.f1zone.net/news/rating-kimi- ... ity/10802/
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