2016 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE: RACE *** SPOILERS ***

I follow him on twitter and instagram. I think he's a pretty cool and classy guy, actually.

 

Complaining isn't whining. Considering what's at stake for these guys I'm not surprised there's a lot more bitter conversation. When you say he's "whining again" that's a bit of mischaracterization. I read that here about Lewis and Seb all the time. Every time they open their mouth... "oh what a whiner... what a baby..."

It's just gotten a bit old.

 

but it's generally true.

 

Let's try this. We all know how important it is to start and keep clean air. "Kimi Raikkonen believes his error at the final hairpin in Shanghai qualifying cost Ferrari a genuine chance of capturing pole position for Sunday’s 2016 Formula 1 Pirelli Chinese Grand Prix.

Raikkonen took provisional pole after the first Q3 runs. Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg responded to wrest back the advantage, but the Finn had matched the German through the first two sectors of his final run, only to squander time running too deep into the Turn 14 hairpin, leaving him third behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo."

Who knows what could have been if Kimi (or any Ferrari) started out front? I genuinely like Kimi, but I don't think the killer instinct, like Hamilton's, is in him anymore.

 

I'm not saying he's not. I don't dislike him really... I'm just curious that there's this level of indifference about him from fans and from the sport itself. I think even if he wins the WDC, it'll be soon forgotten. I don't know if there's an awkwardness or what. Seb is a very private guy as well, but he's a star of the sport. Maybe WDC are what make you, but Ric and Max and others seems to garner so much more interest. In a way I feel bad because I think he does deserve more recognition than what he gets.

 

RB announced Ric's signing of a longer term contract. He's out. To me Perez seems to be one of the few punching above his weight consistently over the last few years. Bottas and Hulk all seem more like flash in the pan guys who have their moments and their races, but aren't top top top tier it seems.

I still think Ferrari should steal Stoffel. Pair that kid with Seb.

 

Rosberg has pretty much always been a guy racing in the shadows. He has shown that he can race hard if he wants to. On the other hand, Canada was a prime example of a Rosberg race. He had a number of overtakes, but he never dared anything. He rather chose to wait another lap and make a save, yet unspectacular DRS overtake.
Rosberg is only ever where the drama is when Hamilton is nearby, for reasons being on Hamilton's side (as other pointed out, because Rosberg over and over permits him to do so). As I have repeatedly said, was there real competition Rosberg would be the perfect team mate for Hamilton. He is the safe bet. Always fast, never involved in nonsense. This would pair well with a hot-head that can place the needed overtake and battle to a win. Where hot-head crashes out over and again Rosberg takes it home.

Thus, Rosberg never polarizes. No controversy, no attention, no stupid comments, no reportable private endeavors, etc. Who is interested in such a character? Only folk that are really following racing, watch drivers evolve over years and look into things that occur over race weekends with a deeper interest than catching the headlines.

Rosberg has grown tremendously over the years. And whenever he got a beating he came back.

I don't know how he sells in Germany but I wouldn't be surprised if not much better than the Hulk...

But then, luckily, to some teams it is more important to have a hell of a good racer than someone that brings in sponsorship $$...

 

The completely stupid Kimi related posts. Did he do poorly last few years? Absolutely. Guy steps up his game, nothing is recognized, things are made up or ignored, even posts that are saying Vettel has lost it and Kimi is now beating him (words to that effect).

It is ridiculous. I get that people dont ''get'' him. Whatever, I'm not bothered.

But if you're going to make a statement about any driver, and why he should be dropped or promoted, don't make the posts so utterly blind with hate and full of things that are completely and utterly, factually wrong.

Make a factual post that sticks and we can have a normal argument about it, why the guy is either right or wrong. Don't **** something out because you don't like him.

Factually speaking, Kimi has had ONE race where he absolutely underperformed (canada), for the rest of the races he's been doing well compared to his teammate.

 

Yep I agree. And I'm a fan of Bottas.

Stoffel would be a wicked steal, but I think Mclaren has an iron tight contract with him (not that that means much in F1). I think, if Mclaren thinks that Ferrari is serious about stealing Stoffel underneath them they will drop Button (who, as someone else mentioned, would be a good fit in at Ferrari for a couple of years IMO).

I'd welcome Perez, Sainz, Stoffel and Button with open arms in place of Raikkonen. But I don't think Kimi needs replacing given how he is performing.

 

I don't find Rosberg boring at all. In fact it's the model of what a modern driver should be.
Just fast in the car, and not a prima dona out of it.
Nico has a pleasant personality to me; modest, calm, polite, reserved, etc...
I don't think he is a media type guy, but that doesn't make him boring.
It's the other side of the Mercedes garage that is over the top ...

 

Perhaps boring is the wrong word, it's hard to put my finger on.

You're making a good point, and I'm always happy when he wins. Perhaps it's simply because right now, he's in the Mercedes that's so exceptionally good, I just want another guy than a Mercedes driver to win.

He IS Mr nice guy of F1, he has many friends as is obvious by the many people that fly with him on the jet every time (not sure if it's his or they all charter and share, but it's always the same group of people). I wish he was more fighty in the car.

Perhaps I'm just disappointed by him most of the time, in which I mean the way he rolls over when Hamilton appears in his mirrors...

I do remember when he first came to F1 and he was 2nd or 3rd in Malaysia, I don't think he finished and I was absolutely gutted for him.

 

Did I tell you how beautiful Barcelona is? I was there last month. Wonderful city. I have to go back.

Are you going to pick on me for this too?

 

Well, it seems like you are being too easy on Kimi. The team told him to stop complaining and drive when he asked why they couldn't give him information to help him. The team cannot give information or he will be disqualified.

Kimi should have

1) known this
2) not gotten mad at the team when they stated the obvious.

I'm sorry he's frustrated. But his frustration is making him slower, not faster.

BTW: Barcelona is a gorgeous place!

 

He had a similar situation to Hamilton...I thought Kimi's complaining was much more aggressive and people are responding to that. All of these guys want to finish at the top and it's understandable that they gripe when the car is acting up, but you get the sense the Iceman is losing his cool in many races this year.

 

Drivers use the radio to vent their frustration. You are right, Kimi/Hamilton & all should know exactly what to do when things go wrong, as those are the current rules.

What you are wrong on was that this is a reason for not getting his contract extended. If we look at his overall performance of the season, he's been doing very well relative to his teammate, and he is where #2 driver should be all things considered. He had a bad weekend at Canada, where he was simply of the pace. All other races he has been on the pace and delivering.

Looking at the teams/drivers this year and whose locked down, I can't see a valid replacement. Sainz is about to be locked down, and I'm not exactly sure on what's going on with Perez contract.

 

This, though he's always had a shouty/sweary voice on the radio, especially when you hear him talk/mumble out of the car. No idea what it is, I think he has to raise his voice when talking on the radio as they simply won't understand him, his normal talking is very low volume.

That said, definitely a hint of frustration in his voice this weekend .

 

Another point: Kimi and Vettel where both in the garages till 1am Friday on Saturday to figure out how to improve the car for the weekend, definitely not collecting paychecks here but wanting to be competitive.

 

If they knew what was wrong, they would not have been angry (I don't think it's as simple as they didn't do their homework and the answer was obvious).

I think Kimi's anger was compounded by the team asking him to let Vettel through, though Vettel had no more chance of catching Rosberg than Kimi, and effectively costing him 3rd place on the podium.

Even though Kimi has been a team player for Ferrari, I think he's sick of being treated like a #2 with limited support. Just my $.02

 

Memory may be fading here (has been a long weekend with F1, Le Mans and associated beers), but wasn't his frustration quite a few laps after letting Vettel passed?

In any case, you make a good point...They didn't stand a chance of winning this race, and if they let Vettel run behind they could've secured a double podium by having Vettel push Perez back the 5 seconds. He was definitely screwed with the early pitstop and being dumped in traffic (not first time since he's been back...).

As for steering wheel settings, I'm currently looking into it. The base of it is quite simple, which button does what and which selector changes what...but they run several different maps throughout the race, which can't exactly be planned out in advance because rarely is a race straight forward (changes with traffic, temperature, strategy, unplanned attacking/defending), and going into those settings requires setting different maps for different modes, and to get the most out of them requires a combination of multiples.

The frustration is partly because they know it can be fixed, and the fix could secure a podium...but they can't be told. And no one knows what the penalty is, lol.

 

Yes, it was after Vettel had already passed but he said something about it later. Once he realized his step on the podium was going away, the anger seemed to increase. Just overall, I can understand his frustration and I think he's 'losing his cool' because he seems to be on the receiving end of most of the team's foibles.

Here's some info on the Hamilton situation...I can't find any Ferrari response to Kimi's:


Mercedes then provided a fuller explanation. They said that Rosberg was in the wrong mode because he changed the switch, and then changed it back. Hamilton's was a different issue.

A spokesman said: ""Nico had made a change during the race that caused the issue. So when told it was an issue with the mode, as permitted by the FIA, he switched back out of it.

"Lewis had the setting from the start of the race and it was not obvious that this setting was causing the problem.

"Fundamental problem is on our heads as it was a configuration not working properly, not the driver's fault. But the radio rules complicated things drastically: without this, it would have been solved immediately."

This will only add to Hamilton's annoyed mood.

 

In one of the drivers safety briefings the drivers had asked for the pitlane entry point to be extended to give a clearer indication to following cars that they were pitting.

This was agreed to on the proviso that drivers did not use the extended pitlane itself as part of the racing line.

What was agreed in the end was that if a driver put two wheels over the white pitlane line then they could carry on racing on track, but if they put all four wheels over the line, then they were committed to going through the pitlane and could not carry on, on track.

It was agreed by all that any driver caught with all four wheels over the white line, who did not then go through the pitlane, would receive a time penalty.

In Kimi's case, he became so preoccupied with getting a tow from Ricciardo's car that failed to notice that Ricciardo had entered the pitlane for a pitstop and by the time he'd swung out from behind the Red Bull it was too late - He'd broken the pitlane line rule.

Whilst I did note other cars running into the pitlane to some degree whilst still carrying on along the start finish straight , Kimi was the only one I recall who had all four wheels over the line, therefore breaking the rule.

It was a silly penalty, but all of the drivers agreed to it and accepted it so he only had himself to blame really.

As for Kimi's supposed poor drive in Baku: He drove the car exactly as required to make the tyres last as long as needed in order to make Ferrari's strategy work, which actually takes more skill to achieve than it gets credit for.


The reality of kimi's drive was, without the silly penalty he would have finished 3rd with only Nico and Seb ahead of him, in a car that wasn't working perfectly.

Anyone declaring that to be a poor performance must have incredibly high expectations from today's drivers as I see it!

 

Hamiltons team ****ed him once again. Rosbergs engineers (who are now on hamiltons side of the garage) are doing a good job of gifting rosberg the championship on a plate.

The team programmed the wrong settings on his car from the outset with some issues prevalent from lap 4 but more prominent from lap 11 onwards for the rest of the race. This was clearly a technical issue as The car magically fixed itself for one lap, allowing Hamilton to go fastest, and then broke again resulting in him lapping 2 seconds slower again.

Rosberg put himself into the wrong setting and then when told by the team it was wrong simply changed the switch he previously changed. Easy common sense decision.

Hamiltons car was programmed wrong BY THE TEAM from the start and there were over 300 different options only one of them being correct. Engineers are used to programme the cars at the start - to be an f1 engineer that's 5-6 years of college and years of work experience. Yet you expect a driver to be able to do what an engineer cannot even do when they have all the time in the world (clearly Hamiltons engineers couldn't do it otherwise they wouldn't have mucked it up) and you expect a driver to do it at 220mph.

The task expected of rosberg and Hamilton were completely different and to suggest otherwise is idiotic.

The purpose for banning the radio rules was to allow drivers to react to Changing conditions and make seat of the pants decisions to fix the balance of their car. Hamilton is very good at that. Not rectify complex technical issues that qualified engineers cannot even get right at 200mph

Feel sorry for Kimi as well. The guy admitted he's not very clever and never even finished school and the FIA expect him to also be an engineer at 200mph plus. These engineers cannot even get it right so how can we expect drivers to do it when they are flat out on the limit. Downright dangerous.

The purpose of the radio ban has been entirely misconstrued and needs clarification. A shame as a second or third definitely on the cards for Hamilton. His team ****ed him once again.

 

I'm not so sure if he would've been able to leave Perez behind him.

You can't really defend on the Baku main straight, and Perez had the top speed.

 

Also noteworthy are the Ferrari team orders. Turns out Kimi did a one stop in the end but ordered out the way to let Vettel trough. Had they not done it could have been Ferrari 2 and 3