Why podiums are not enough for Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen is back to his best in his return to F1. So much so, that the Finn is not happy to settle for podium finishes - he wants wins. They will come.

Raikkonen finished second in Bahrain and third in Spain

"Hyvaa aitienpäivää. Ei muuta."

If something is worth doing, then it's worth doing well. For Kimi Raikkonen after the Spanish Grand Prix, that meant making sure that if he was going to be disappointed at not winning, then he may as well do it in the best possible way.


Not for him the corporate boring PR response – that it was good to take some points and ‘I am happy with all the efforts my team and my sponsors have made’. Instead, in front of millions of fans on live television, when asked for some words in his own language about the race, he muttered simply with a cheeky grin: “Happy Mother’s Day. That’s all.”

Those words said a lot about the mindset of Raikkonen at the moment: the deep disappointment that courses through his veins when he does not win, and why he has found himself in a situation where he is the happiest he has been in his F1 career – liberated almost – because he can let his personality run free.

When word first got out that Kimi Raikkonen was making the push for a Formula 1 return in 2012, it would not be wrong to suggest that a lot of the paddock reacted with apathy.

Here was a former world champion: dropped by Ferrari in favour of Fernando Alonso at the end of 2009 because he failed to deliver the leadership Maranello felt it so needed, who had spent the following two years enjoying himself blasting through forests but not achieving anywhere near the levels of success that either he or his fans expected.

Furthermore, his first port of call was down at Grove when he and Williams chiefs sounded each other out. On the back of the team’s worst ever season in F1, and questions above Raikkonen’s ultimate motivation and whether or not he would ever be bothered to dig deep enough to help haul a team up from near the back of the grid, it was not looking likely that this was a partnership that was going to be producing wins.

In the end, the Williams talks collapsed and instead Raikkonen concluded a deal with the then Renault team. But even that looked like it was going be a partnership that was not going to produce much. Renault’s 2011 campaign, which had started off on the back foot following the loss of Robert Kubica, went into free-fall as a decision to develop a forward-facing exhaust proved to be a development dead-end.

Yet, ultimately, neither has had to worry about the other piece of the jigsaw. The rebranded Lotus team has produced a neat little machine in the E20 while Raikkonen, although perhaps a little rusty at the start of the season, appears already to be back to his best.

In fact, if we were to scratch the Australian GP on the grounds that it was Raikkonen’s first race for more than two years, then the Finn would be second in the championship at the moment – just five points behind leader Fernando Alonso. That’s not a bad feat considering the amount of time it normally takes for new team/driver combinations to hit the good times.

At each race, Raikkonen and Lotus appear to be getting better: which in a season when most outfits are struggling to find consistent form, says a lot about what we can expect from the future.

There is another interesting factor to consider about him too, that could well point to the potential for some big gains in a season when rivals are scrambling around searching for answers as to why they are or are not quick on a certain weekend.

Raikkonen told my media colleague Heikki Kulta in Spain last weekend that he did not concur with the widely accepted view that it is Pirelli’s aggressive tyres that are having the impact on racing at the moment. Instead, he suggested it was the legacy of the banning of refuelling.

“I don’t think the nature [of F1] is different because of that,” he told Kulta in an interview with his Turun Sanomat newspaper about Pirelli’s tyres. “It’s because of the amount of the fuel on board. I don’t think there would be that much problem with these tyres, if we would race with 50 or 60 kilos, when we start.


“Previously the pitstops were made usually after every 20 laps, while we had less fuel. I think it would have been the same situation with Michelins and Bridgestones if we would have this much fuel as we have now. These tyres are good in qualifying: they have a good grip and all in all they are good tyres.”

Interestingly, in the first chapter of Raikkonen’s career, he only ever knew an F1 of refuelling – where there were flat out blasts between pitstops, which put a premium on aggressive and relentless driving at the limit. His departure at the end of 2009 coincided with the banning of refuelling that winter.

So while he may be two years behind his rivals in understanding how to deal with a changing grand prix car from full fuel load to empty, it also means his databank is not full of contradicting previous knowledge of how to do it best with Bridgestone tyres in 2010, and blown diffusers in 2011. He is living here and now: taking on the challenge of what it takes to be good with these regulations.

Raikkonen and his team nailed it in Bahrain, when it had the car capable to win: and it nearly did the same in Spain where perhaps a few degrees more temperature on Sunday could have given the Lotus the speed boost that would have got it on to the tail of Alonso and Maldonado much earlier.

That is why the disappointment of not finishing first in Spain was so strong for Raikkonen. He knows things are coming together so well right now; and that that tantalising first victory since Spa 2009 is oh so close. So when he does not do it, it hurts. And he isn’t going to sit there and let the world pore over his feelings.

But if the only Raikkonen fan smiling on Sunday was his mum, you can be sure that it will not be long before all of them can join here and cheer him on as he finally takes that top step of the podium.

Source: autosport.com | by Jonathan Noble

Spanish GP Analysis - And then there were five

Pastor Maldonado had been quick throughout final practice and qualifying, but few seriously expected him to win the Spanish Grand Prix. Those in the know were tipping Lotus for glory and the black and gold cars did ultimately prove quickest, just not - critically - over 66 laps. Instead Maldonado defied his critics - of whom there have been plenty since he entered F1 - with a faultless maiden victory. In a superbly balanced Williams FW34, the Venezuelan kept his cool after losing the lead to Fernando Alonso at the start of the race and then withstanding huge pressure from the Ferrari near its end.

The surprise sleeper

Nobody would have predicted pole position and a victory for Pastor Maldonado, except perhaps the man himself. In a moment of prescience, Maldonado said on Thursday: "Personally I've been concentrating on improving for qualifying, because starting from the back it's always difficult to overtake, it's always difficult to make a good strategy because of the traffic and because of many things. Personally I want to start from the front and to do a good race. I think we have the pace to be competitive and to fight for a good place." Turns out he was right.

Schumi's unluckiest season yet?

It wasn't Michael Schumacher's most successful weekend. In the race he slammed in to the back of Bruno Senna having misjudged the braking point of the Williams and then proceeded to call Senna an "idiot". The stewards - and most observers - didn't agree with that view, and as a result Schumacher finds himself handed a five-place grid penalty for Monaco. It comes after his Pirelli comments which got little support prior to the race, and he then insisted he wasn't criticising the tyres, merely starting a debate. The race itself delivered the fifth different winner from the fifth different team in five races, and that's in no small part down to Pirelli. The current format makes for great racing and great viewing, long may it remain that way.

All downhill for McLaren

For a team that prides itself on attention to detail, it was surprising to see McLaren drop the ball in qualifying and fail to fuel Lewis Hamilton's car sufficiently. It was even more surprising that the mistake came just one race after pit stop blunders in Bahrain. And it appears the team was surprised as much as the rest of the paddock, as when its data started showing Hamilton's car was low on fuel during his outlap it didn't know whether to believe the computers or not. In the end Martin Whitmarsh said he took the call to allow Hamilton on track and after the race was very candid in his assessment.

"I don't think we, rightly or wrongly, envisaged the severity of the penalty that resulted and also Formula One is a great one for hindsight and there's a lot of analysis from experts to inform you where you got it wrong," he said. "But I put my hand up and as team principal as that was unfolding - bearing in mind you're in the adrenaline fused seconds of qualifying, you're trying to understand what's happening and you've got 10 or 20 people trying to deal with it - I said let's go for it and once we get over the line let's start to monitor. It's not easy [to monitor] you can't just put a dipstick in and find out how much fuel's there, and we could have stopped the car and taken three or four litres out of it and I would have been very embarrassed. I was still pretty embarrassed and that's the challenge and you've got to take those decisions."

Vettel, the impressionist

During the FIA press conference on Thursday, Fernando Alonso was flanked by Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. In front of the media it's hard to find two more different characters, and while Kimi sat quietly Seb was in buoyant mood following his Bahrain victory and in the mood for a joke. When Alonso was asked if the rules were clear now following his incident in Bahrain when Nico Rosberg crowded him off the track, Vettel jumped in. Turning to Alonso he did his best Spanish-accented impression of the team radio that was broadcast: "All the time you must leave a space!" Alonso's face almost matched his Ferrari shirt as the media centre burst out in laughter.

A giant leap for Ferrari

Ferrari spent the Thursday and Friday playing down their upgrades, but on Sunday there was no disguising the improvement the team has made since the first four races of the season. Remarkably Fernando Alonso is tied on points at the top of the championship a quarter of the way through the season and the signs are that things will continue to get better for Ferrari. Nevertheless, the team is not getting carried away and believes more needs to be done over the coming races to make it a real championship challenger. After all, it has performed well above expectations this year whereas the likes of McLaren and Lotus have underachieved. But team principal Stefano Domenicali said the marked improvement in Spain is crucial for motivating the team back at Maranello to make the next step forward. "I'm happy because I saw that the job [we've done] in the last weeks has given the right sign in terms of trend, but we know that it's not enough. I'm happy for my people that at least they showed that the job they are doing is moving things in the right direction."

Why Pirelli tyres cause unpredictable racing

It doesn't take an expert to realise that the latest generation of Pirelli tyres are having a big impact on racing this season, yet extracting consistent performance from the rubber is proving to be a dark art.

The Pirellis functionality is a dark art this year

There's no doubt that the field is closer this year, making every last tenth of performance all the more valuable, but the fact five different constructors have won the first five races shows just how dramatic the difference can be between getting it right and getting it wrong. But this is not a criticism; the racing is closer, more dramatic and more unpredictable - three things that the sport has sorely lacked at times in the past decade.

The difference is that now the teams and drivers are forced into a balancing act where they have to trade speed against degradation over the course of qualifying and the race. The same was the case last year, but this year's compounds are more sensitive to variables such as temperature, setup and the way the driver treats the tyre throughout its life span. The balancing act has shifted from walking across a river on a plank of wood to walking across it on a tightrope.

"Tyres are a very complex thing and there's a very complex chemistry involved in producing a racing tyre," Mercedes technical director Bob Bell explains. "Just because they're black and round we've taken them for granted for too long, but there's some very clever chemistry in getting them right for racing purposes and it's entirely possible within those boundaries that you can produce a tyre that requires a lot of understanding to get the best out of it."

Getting the tyre to perform within its "operating window" has become the Holy Grail to qualifying and race successes this year. If it was an exact formula then clearly there wouldn't be such an issue, but the sensitivity of the tyres means their peak performance has been a moving target between circuits and throughout a weekend.


"If you have a very small operating band, a very small target, the people that have to try and hit that sweet spot are facing a very difficult job in order to do so," Bell adds. "Clearly that means you can have very good consistency [from the tyre], but if that consistency produces a small window then it means the user of the tyres has a slightly tougher time.

"It's more to do with how we use the tyres, how we bring them in on an out-lap for example if we're going for one timed lap and if we're going for multiple timed laps how we condition them between those laps - fast, slow, fast for example. There's that operational side to it and then there's the side of the setup of the car and what you need to do to affect the way that the tyres heat up, the way that they're loaded and to get the best out of them.

"We're fighting on several fronts. We're fighting on wear because you need the tyres to last a certain time and we're fighting on degradation to make sure they deliver the grip over the period of that life. Managing both of those is the tricky balancing act for these tyres. That's why we're seeing variability in grids and race positions this year."

The other problem is that changes in setup can solve one problem but create an issue elsewhere - rather like when you squeeze a balloon and the air goes from one area to another. The trick is to squeeze as much performance out of the tyre without stressing its limitations. Jenson Button struggled with his tyres throughout the Spanish Grand Prix weekend and on Saturday explained some of the problems he'd been having while trying to find the right setup in practice.

"We did two runs on Friday on the prime tyres, and on the first run I told the guys I had massive understeer," Button said. "We pumped the tyres up a bit more and I went straight back out and went half a second quicker just because the fronts were switched on. But forgetting the time, the balance was completely changed. So it's a tricky one to try and work out and it's obviously difficult for everyone, but I'm finding it especially difficult so it's something I need to work on."

The problem is that an upset balance can lead to higher levels of degradation as the car slides, meaning you can produce one fast lap but struggle on a longer run. So it's vital to find the balance first and foremost, but then there's the challenge of maintaining that across qualifying and the race. The teams cannot make setup changes under parc ferme conditions on a Saturday night and this means finding a balance between qualifying pace and race pace.

"You set the car up to try and deal in the best possible way with what you foresee coming in qualifying and what you foresee coming in the race," Bell explains. "The ultimate objective is to bring home the most championship points so you bias that towards what you need for the race, and qualifying is a step in that process."


But the tyres are so sensitive this year that a change in temperature between qualifying and race can have an effect on performance. At the start of this year the Mercedes cars overheated their tyres in the dry in Australia but struggled to get enough heat into them in the wet at Malaysia. Then at the next race in China they got it bang on in cool but dry conditions. Bell says most the teams now know how to change setup to suit the temperature, but if the ambients change between Saturday and Sunday it can cause problems.

"I think it's fair to say that you can set the car up perhaps to be better in qualifying conditions because you know the ambients you expect from that and you then might be slightly disadvantaged for the race, or vice-a-versa. I think we all know the sort of things we need to do to try and account for variations in track temperature, but if those track conditions change you can be in trouble. Again that's because it's such a narrow operating window we have to get those tyres in."

The huge influence the tyres have on racing at the moment has led to some criticism, but as fans we should be relishing this period of unpredictability and exciting racing while we have it. The teams are full of intelligent and skilful people, and just as they learned quickly how to cross the river on the plank of wood last year they will no doubt become adept tightrope walkers too.

"We've closed down the range of compounds," Pirelli's Paul Hembery says, "and the cars have obviously changed as well, and you put that combination together and you have a start to the season pretty much as we saw last year - some question marks that tend to get ironed out as the season goes on and the teams get to understand better the cars, the tyres and how to get the best out of them all. I think you'll see over the next few races that that will be the case."

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the show.

Why Ferrari could bounce back in Spain

With Ferrari delivering the first parts of a major update package on the final day of Mugello testing, Alonso mentioned that he was under no illusions about the importance of their development plans - even though it is too early to judge how much of a step forward it will bring.

Alonso celebrates victory in Malaysia

Testing times mean little. Yet, if we consider the winter testing performance of the Lotus, which proved to be genuine so far, there's probably a good reason why we need to consider the timesheets in testing. Thus, Ferrari come into the picture.

The team were the very first to debut a new exhaust system on Thursday morning with Fernando Alonso behind the wheel, but Massa said the full upgrade will not arrive on the F2012 until the next race at Barcelona. On Wednesday, Massa tested a smaller update package, admitting "the defects are the same", but he is hopeful Ferrari will improve the car over the next few races.

Alonso also ran a new rear bodywork on the final day at Mugello, but has played down the significance of what he tried out - and thinks too much is now being made about exhaust designs.

When asked for his feeling on the new exhaust configuration, he said: "Nothing surprising in terms of performance. I think we tried different configurations of exhaust layout and each day we had a different one and different parts on the car. I think it was just to confirm what our thoughts were and what to bring for the next races and for development.

Ferrari's new exhaust package

Despite both drivers playing down any significant performance changes, the timing screens suggest otherwise. On all three days, the team seemed to be close to the top and running some quite consistent laps. Their pace was much more promising than during winter testing, and it's clearly visible that they managed to take at least a few steps forward. Their upgrade package is already huge, and they seem to have quite a unique exhaust solution on their hands, but it's only a small part of the final picture. In Spain, Ferrari will most likely introduce a revamped exhaust design, a new floor, new sidepods, different front wing and probably their own DDRS system.

One thing Ferrari can count on is their money. They have the financial resources to regain momentum, and this three day testing has done them some good. Expect them to be much closer to the top than in the previous races.

Mugello, Day 3: Grosjean ends test on top

Romain Grosjean finished this week's Mugello test at the top of the timesheets after a promising couple of days at the wheel of the Lotus E20.

Grosjean was the fastest man in Mugello

Grosjean tied for the fastest time with Kamui Kobayashi on Wednesday but went half a second quicker on Thursday with a 1:21.035. Grosjean warned specifically against reading too much into the times earlier in the week, but his solid improvements as Lotus has tinkered with various suspension and floor options over the last two days bodes well for the team.

Sebastian Vettel was Grosjean's closest competitor, 0.232s off, but did not improve on his time in the afternoon. Fernando Alonso also failed to improve on his morning time, but Ferrari were more interested in getting useful data from the new updates on the F2012.

The Italian team debuted the first stage of its substantial update package for the Spanish Grand Prix, including a revised rear end with a more conventional exhaust layout. The new package showed potential on its second proper run with a 1:21.363, but just a few laps later Alonso ran wide and dislodged the Ferrari's new front wing. The team spent two hours repairing the front-left corner of the car, but by the end of the day Alonso had completed a respectable 98 laps in total.

Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest ahead of Sauber's Sergio Perez after both racked up over 100 laps testing new parts on their respective cars. Nico Hulkenberg was sixth fastest after taking over from Paul di Resta in the Force India after lunch. Hulkenberg's best time, a 1:22.325, was 0.677s faster than his team-mate and he also completed more laps with 55 to di Resta's 34 from the morning. The team focused on performance and aero work during the day after problems with the car's hydraulics severely limited its programme on Wednesday.

Williams suffered reliability issues in the morning after an electrical problem restricted Pastor Maldonado to just four laps before lunch. The issue was solved by the afternoon and the FW34 added a further 59 laps to its tally as Maldonado clocked the seventh quickest time.

There were no reliability problems at Mercedes as Nico Rosberg clocked up an impressive 129 laps, following on from Michael Schumacher's 144 on Wednesday. He finished eighth fastest after setting his best time on his final run to just stay ahead of Oliver Turvey, who also set his fastest lap late in the day. The McLaren test driver racked up 99 laps in total as his team continued with its low-key test programme, which, over the course of the week, has featured no major upgrades and neither of the race drivers.

Heikki Kovalainen completed the most laps of all with 139 in the revised Caterham by the end of the day. His best time was a 1:23.169, which was just under three tenths faster than Timo Glock in the Marussia.

Times

Driver Car Time Laps
1. Romain Grosjean Lotus E20 1:21.035 66
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull RB8 1:21.267 106
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari F2012 1:21.363 98
4. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso STR7 1:22.143 117
5. Sergio Perez Sauber C31 1:22.229 118
6. Nico Hulkenberg Force India VJM05 1:22.325 55
7. Pastor Maldonado Williams FW34 1:22.497 63
8. Nico Rosberg Mercedes W03 1:22.579 129
9. Oliver Turvey McLaren MP4-27 1:22.662 99
10. Paul di Resta Force India VJM05 1:23.002 34
11. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham CT01 1:23.169 139
12. Timo Glock Marussia MR01 1:23.466 110

Mugello, Day 2: Grosjean and Kobayashi quickest

Romain Grosjean and Kamui Kobayashi have topped the second day of Formula 1 testing at Mugello with almost identical times.

Grosjean and Koabayshi on identical time in Mugello

Grosjean banked his 1m21.603s best for Lotus just over an hour into the morning session, while Sauber's Kobayashi waited until there was just four minutes left for the day to replicate Grosjean's time to the thousandth of a second.

Sebastian Vettel finished the day third fastest, having taken over the Red Bull RB8 from Mark Webber after the lunch break. Vettel completed 64 laps in the afternoon session, his 1m21.825 best narrowly eclipsing Webber's fastest morning time of 1m21.997s. Grosjean, Kobayashi, Vettel and Webber were the only drivers to break into the 1m21s bracket.

Felipe Massa was one of three drivers to complete more than 100 laps throughout the day, finishing fifth fastest. Behind him it was the Toro Rosso pair of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo, with the Frenchman taking part in the morning session before handing over to the Australia. However, Ricciardo got less than an hour's running in, emerging from the pits for the first time with just 47 minutes remaining for the day.

Michael Schumacher was eighth fastest after completing more laps than any other driver, with 144 for the day. Charles Pic and Vitaly Petrov rounded out the top 10.

Garry Paffett finished the day 11th for McLaren after completing just 59 laps, while Timo Glock's post-lunch running was also limited thanks to a power steering problem, which required a full steering rack change. The German still managed to bank 37 laps, the best of which put him 12th for the session.

Paul di Resta completed even less laps, hydraulic problems limiting him to just 14 for the entire day. He and Bruno Senna finished the day 13th and 14th respectively.

Mugello, Day 1: Fernando Alonso fastest in damp conditions

Fernando Alonso topped the first day of testing at Mugello on Tuesday after a downpour seriously limited running in the afternoon.

Alonso on his fastest lap in Mugello

Alonso set his time during a brief window of dry running just before lunch, making the most of a set of slick tyres before the rain returned in the afternoon. At one stage the weather was so intense the session had to be red flagged as the medical helicopter was not able to take off - not that it made much difference to the teams, which showed no desire to send their cars out in the worst of the weather and risk an accident.

Alonso's time of 1:22.444 was 1.204s clear of his nearest competitor, Mark Webber in the Red Bull, and 1.447s faster than Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro Rosso. Ferrari, which is working on a major update for the Spanish Grand Prix next weekend, completed 46 laps in total, including 15 in the final hour of the afternoon when Alonso was sent out to complete a series of practice starts. But the Spaniard denied the Spanish Grand Prix updates will make or break Ferrari's season: "We need to catch up race after race. [But] if we do poorly in Barcelona, it doesn't mean our season is over."

Other drivers willing to brave the conditions in the afternoon were Michael Schumacher, who took over the Mercedes from Nico Rosberg after lunch, Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas, Roldolfo Gonzalez in the Caterham, Jules Bianchi in the Force India and Gary Paffett, who took over the cockpit of the McLaren from Oliver Turvey in the afternoon. Needless to say, none of them improved on their morning times.

That meant Lotus test driver Jerome d'Ambrosio remained fourth fastest with his morning time of 1:24.048, ahead of Rosberg in fifth who said the damp running in the morning was actually quite valuable for Mercedes after its struggles at the wet Malaysian Grand Prix.

Kobayashi set the sixth fastest time in a Sauber with a new front wing, new rear body work and new diffuser. Turvey was seventh fastest in the McLaren ahead of Bianchi in the Force India and Gonzalez in the Caterham, who last weekend raced for Caterham's GP2 team in Bahrain. Charles Pic rounded out the top ten for Marussia while Bottas did not set a competitive time as Williams gathered data on a modified exhaust layout in the morning before returning to its old setup in the afternoon.

Paffett completed just four laps in the McLaren with a best time of 1:50.898 on the soaked track, while Schumacher ducked in and out of the pits during his five laps and therefore did not register a time.


1. Fernando Alonso 1:22.444 46
2. Mark Webber 1:23.648 24
3. Jean-Eric Vergne 1:23.891 32
4. Jerome d'Ambrosio 1:24.048 40
5. Nico Rosberg 1:24.100 49
6. Kamui Kobayashi 1:24.736 48
7. Oliver Turvey 1:25.303 30
8. Jules Bianchi 1:25.475 19
9. Roldolfo Gonzalez 1:27.197 35
10. Charles Pic 1:27.359 45
11. Valtteri Bottas 1:29.179 28
12. Gary Paffett 1:50.898 4
13. Michael Schumacher  No time 5