"Leaving Ferrari was a relief" —Kimi

I like Kimi's style. He reminds me of that one student in high school who never studied, partied hard and still aced all of the exams. Just a natural talent.

He knows what he is doing and doesn't like anyone telling him how to drive.

Cheers-Colin Firth

 

I love Kimi, I am so happy he is back in F1. He is the epitome of Cool. He doesn't even need to try.

 

Correction: who was never seen to study.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

+1

Once you get beyond Daily Mail style reporting, he's said to a damn hard worker and provides excellent feedback - I don't think there's another jockey who would have told his engineers, and they listen, after an installation lap that his car was undriveable. [Monaco, FP1]

Excerpt from an interview on Bernies site;

Cheers,
Ian
http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2012/11/14087.html

 

This statement about Lotus as compared with Ferrari says it all to me about the Scuderia's condition...

"the technical sides come before the politics"

 

Who was running wooden cars in the sixties beside Morgan?

OK Costin had some wood framed sports racers but that was in the fifties.

 

+1

Finally someone else to say it here! Apparently lotus will work on Kimi's steering for next year to get it to be better for him; Apparently he needs that sorted out to perfection and will be damn near impossible to beat .

Great interview!

 

Bas,

Jacky Eeckelaert, who was Kimi's first race engineer when the Kimster began with Sauber eleven years ago, said exactly the same thing after Kimi's victory in Abu Dhabi. I can't find the link right now, perhaps it was on a french or belgian media, but in essence he said:
"his technical returns to me were always very sharp, precise and to the point. Of course, being Kimi there was not one word too much, but I like it this way, as in that matter many drivers are getting lost in their own words".

Regards,

 

As did coulthard after the first time testing together when he signed for Mclaren. Also can't find the link.

 

Here you are: franco-belgian magazine "F1i", on the net

http://www.f1i.com/f1i-features/lanalyse-de-jacky-kimi-peut-etre-bavard-apres-quelques-bieres/

The exact sentence is in french:
"Kimi parle peu, mais son retour technique est précis et toujours vrai, débarrassé du superflu, ce qui n’est pas le cas de tous les pilotes, croyez-moi".

Which could be translated in
"Kimi is a man of few words, but his technical return is precise and always on the spot, without anything useless, which is not the case with all drivers, believe me"

And the sentence you have in the text and in the link is:
"Kimi peut être bavard après quelques bières": "Kimi can be talkative after a few beers"

Best

 

I guess he was speaking metaphorically - But I'm sure you knew that!...... He admires the "metal drivers in wooden cars." He's at least a little aware of history was the point I guess.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Unlike today when we have plastic drivers in plastic cars?

 

Ouch!

And when one of 'em does "speak out" they get slammed for it. It's all too PC these days unfortunately.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Amen brother.

 

winning with multiple teams too

 

Kimi rocks.

 

Received "MotorSport" magazine latest issue this morning (January); had a thought for Bas Jaski when reading Nigel Roebuck's column, page 34; he quotes Martin Whitmarsh, about Kimi:

Whitmarsh: "Another thing is that, in my opinion, Kimi is one of the best drivers when it comes to understanding the car, and to communicating that".

And there is even a three page interview of the Kimster (Yes!), untitled, guess what?
"leave him alone, he knows what he is doing"...

Rgds,

 

Since when were drivers made from steel?

It's a metaphor.

I think the implication is that it's the reverse today. wooden drivers in metal cars. Do I have to say it: figuratively speaking, of course.

 

I get it.

 

Do you agree with it?

 

Not exactly the metaphore I'd choose but it works.

 

he looks good wearing red as my ex-gf said

but i guess he is the kind of guy who hate politics and been told what to do..the kind of things run deep down in ferrari

 

Awesome! thanks for that! I'm going to see if I can buy the magazine here or South Africa!

 

I would have said so also, but tonight I caught the final SPEED F1 Debrief and they highlighted that Michael bridged the gap between the drivers of the last generation and the drivers of this generation -- I'm not sure they quite stated it but they at least heavily implied that he created this new generation of drivers -- fit and smart.

I can't disagree with that.

So thinking harder about it, the drivers in the 60s certainly weren't made of steel ... the cars just didn't demand that. At least not in the physical fitness sense. In the chutzpah sense, yes.

 

Well, I don't think that I can fully agree with this. G forces were certainly smaller, but the cars were much harder to drive, and exhaustion at the end of a race was fairly frequent then.
For instance, read in "Forza Amon" what Chris himself says of its physical state at the end of Monaco Grand Prix 1967; and that he still thinks that Bandini made that famous mistake due to being exhausted.
Extreme conditions where sometimes encountered, too; I vividly remembers the last laps of the Argentinia G.P in 1977, when Carlos Pace fainted and lost the victory to Jody Scheckter and its Wolf.
The cars demanded a lot of fitness, and the races were longer; the guys with strong physical resistence and fitness were often the one there to collect victory when others were exhausted: it seems fitting to me to speak about Denny Hulme, who died twenty years ago, for instance: the old Bear was indeed made of steel. His last Grand Prix victory was in terrible heat conditions, in Argentina in 1974.

I guess that driving those big 7 liters engined Ford MkIV, or the equivalent Ferrari P4, with teams of only two drivers per car, for twenty-four hours at Le Mans wasn't exactly a pic-nic either...

So different cars, different conditions, yes, of course. But some of these men, to me, were indeed made of steel.

Rgds,