Nice article here from Ron Dennis..... Dennis remains wary of Kimi Tuesday 26th August 2008 - PlanetF1.com McLaren boss Ron Dennis is refusing to write Kimi Raikkonen off in the chase for the World Championship after a difficult few weeks for the Finn. After picking up four podiums, including two wins, in the first five races of the season, the Finn has gone off the boil. His last victory was at the Spanish Grand Prix in April. His frustrations were compounded over the weekend when his engine blew up with just 11 laps left in the European Grand Prix at Valencia, and he has now dropped to third in the World Championship behind team-mate Felipe Massa and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. But McLaren boss Dennis believes it would be foolish to write Raikkonen off with six races still to go. "Kimi is a fierce competitor, a highly-talented racing driver and I wouldn't levy any criticism at him at all," Dennis said. "The bottom line is drivers have good and bad races, and I'm sure he will forget this one, but he is more than capable of winning. "So I certainly wouldn't discount him at this stage. With only six races to go, I wouldn't want to make any predictions about him. That's the worst thing we could do." Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali also insists the Scuderia will continue to support Raikkonen during his lean period. "He's very happy that we won," Domenicali said. "As an example of the team atmosphere, he said to me 'I'm very sorry, I'm very sorry' and it was not his fault. It just shows how Ferrari people are, the passion that they have, the way they behave and the professionalism that they put in every day. We need to be very proud of the guys who work in this team. "Of course, it's easy when things are going well. Everyone close to you puts their arms on your shoulders to say you are number one, number one, number one, But then suddenly when you have a difficult situation, then they say, ha ha, this is already finished. "That's not the case with Kimi. He's the World Champion, we are a team, and of course we will support everyone in the team, and above all, of course Kimi, because we trust him 100 per cent. "It's in the difficult moments that the team has to stay together. We don't have any doubt at all about Kimi's performance and I'm pretty sure he will come back between here and the end in Brazil."
How can anyone start to count out Kimi after what happened last year. This shows that RD is not a complete ***** and does have some respect for his former drivers.
Agreed but you are only good as your last race and Kimi's last RACES look really bad. He has stated problems, ranging from balance, qualifying and tires - setup. He has alot to do to catch up. He can with some luck and a quick win. I expected him to do alot better vs Felipe this year but sadly that is not the case so far. RD knows him well and its nice to see these words about my favorite driver.
Oh come on. It's a well known fact that not an honest word ever issues from RD's mouth so these nice words can only be complete lies!
come on. RD is patronizing. He's not worried about Kimi. I am. Kimi better pull it up a peg or two...don't care if he won last year, it was such a squeaker that, well, it was almost a give-way for the title, like "well, we think LH is good, but he's a rookie after all, so....Kimi’s next". Like Kimi and all, but he needs to step up to his salary. Masa is a keeper to me.
The best possible thing for RD and LH is for Kimi to rebound. This would leave Ferrari not sure which driver to place their WDC effort behind. Right no Massa is their biggest threat and RD knows it.
You make a pretty good point, right now Ferrari doesn't even need to try and favor one driver or the other since over the last few races they've been too far apart on the track to hinder/help each other. If Kimi can close the gap and start running closer to Felipe we may have a problem like McLaren experienced at the end of last year.
I don't think so. If that were to happen i think it already would have. That is not kimi's style to start complaining that his team mate is out pacing him. Hell, i think we're seeing how stable the relationship is right now! With massa on top and carrying the team at the moment, while a world champion is struggling.
I was really mad when Massa came out of his stop and pushed in right between Kimi and Hekki. In the end, it didn't matter with Kimi's engine life the way it was, but at the time I looked at that and was like "Well, that isn't going to sit well."
With any luck, Kimi will be able to repeat this pole position performance at Spa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBmcjp-vAaY (Great commentary on this piece, I love David Hobbs, but whoever this guy is - Bravo!)
That's Martin Brundle. He's a Former F1 driver. Never really had a competitive car, accept for a stint at Mclaren where he was smoked by Hakkinen. He's also done Le mans and touring cars. He's very knowledgeable, and a pleasure to listen to him talk about racing.
Thanks. Just watched it again, great stuff; commentary is really terrific -- gets your heart racing right along with Kimi's drive.
No team order's bro and it was a decisive move in which Massa was making a statement, I cheered when Massa cameout ahead of Kimi.
I totally understand, it was just a bit of a shocker to me cause Kimi was RIGHT on Hekki and I thought a pass was coming in the next couple of laps. At least set up nicely for a jump in the pits. IMO this did not help Kimi's state of mind in the race and of course its all water under the bridge, a nice drive from Massa. Boring race though. Big disappointment. If I paid to see that race I would have been PISSED. I can't think of 1 pass after the 1st lap. In any position.
It was the team's fault it happened though. For me, it was indicative of the lack of flexibility governing SF pit tactics currently. The best mathematicians in the back room sifting strategies for the best is great. However, when Kubica picked up the debris and lost 4 tenths it backed up the front running group, including Kimi, that same 4 tenths. The strategy was timed for Filipe to be behind Kimi, but was still blindly followed even when the likely outcome had changed. I have to believe they knew what the outcome in timing was likely to be. To think otherwise is lose faith anyone is taking charge and co-relating all that timing data into race winning responses, anymore!
The bigger problem is that a car can collect debris, back up a crowd of cars by .5 seconds, and not get passed! Bring on the slicks! Bring '09 already!
IMO, Kimi's recent "slump" is no where near as bad as some make it out to be. I still firmly believe Kimi will win the WDC again. I'm very thankful he races for Ferrari.
for me, Kimi just has 2 more races to get it right. failure to win this next 2 races, and Massa will be the No1.
