KIMI

Kimi does push Vettel. Vettel is well and truly on it this year (possibility to win the championship). Last year no chance of doing that so I would've understood that Vettel and Kimi where closer but it's actually this year they're closer than then.

As has been said countless times...Ferrari focuses on only one driver, if that means totally wrecking the other drivers race just to have the opposition being held up for a couple of second they'll do (and have done) it.

With Kimi they know he'll obey team orders when they come (and they have). With others, that's a question mark. Ferrari can't afford 2 drivers (say if they hired Verstappen or Ricciardo) having an intra-team battle and watch Mercedes walk away with the big prize, again.

Do love how all these experts are constantly calling for Kimi's head yet Ferrari keeps extending his contract.

 

Very much so.

+4.600 seconds behind Seb at Interlagos - an average of 0.065 seconds per lap.

 

Maybe Ocon would've gotten 0.064 average. Kimi should be sacked!

 

F1 Racing has conducted a poll among its readers (“in conjunction with FerrariChat??”) on the popularity of all Ferrari drivers that had won at least a Grand Prix, that is 38 drivers in total.
Here are the results:

1. Michael Schumacher - 50.1%
2. Kimi Raikkonen - 12.4%
3. Gilles Villeneuve - 10.3%
4. Juan Manuel Fangio - 5.6%
5. Niki Lauda - 5.4%
6. Fernando Alonso - 5.3%
7. Nigel Mansell - 1.6%
8. Alain Prost - 1.4%
9. Alberto Ascari - 1.4%
10. Sebastian Vettel - 1.3%

Massa is 12th.

https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/sondaggio-schumi-il-pilota-ferrari-piu-amato-kimi-2-davanti-a-gilles-979376/

Rgds

 

OMG... Classic Kimi.

 

Fantastic commercial. Just perfect!

Kevin

 

Lol just leave him alone!

 

Next commercial---> "Give me the drink"..........."Hey you, give me the drink!"....."HEY, C'MON GIVE ME THE DRINK!!!"

 

Is that a reference to his NASCAR 2nd tier race? I went looking for the exact audio but couldn't find it.

 

Baku 2017....its hilarious

 

You may not be aware, but there is similar radio from Kimi about a drink bottle(water) during a pitstop in the heat of the southern US and the hot interior of a NASCAR.

 

My only problem with Kimi is that I don't think he really cares anymore. And I feel that if he really did care, he would be faster.

 

I think people mistake his introversion in interviews for indifference on the track. He's pretty passionate and animated on the radio.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Neuro, I do not as much think it is introversion, but that he is a person who isn't into "pointlessness".

On top of this the media asks him questions that can't be answered with any certainty, say asking about the race tomorrow. Kimi is only one part of the race tomorrow and cannot make any guarantee. He takes a view that the only certainties are what we do now; and while we work to improve our future we cannot enjoy the fruits of those improvement until it is time for harvest.

So it isn't that he lacks passion, it is that he has what I believe to be a very solid perspective on how to live a good life.

In opposition to Kimi's view, sits the media, trying to hype every negative and positive into as big of a story as they can make it. This is why he gets into the conflict with the media.

I've met Kimi when he was out with some friends here in the U.S., he likes to have fun on the side, just F1 is serious business to him.

 

Yep agree with this.

Kimi doesn't want to waste his time with something he hates (the media), like you say with pointless questions so he answers in short and very blunt. Some love him some hate him. Typically the ''writing'' type journo's go to the hating part as he never gives them anything. DC, Brundle etc love him, partially because Kimi at least gives them enough respect because they're ex drivers, and they don't ask stupid questions either which he why he tends to have better conversations with them (certainly jokier ones...Kimi knows Brundle has to ask certain questions and laughs them off...What tends to happen is Brundle asks the question and already knows he won't get the answer anyhow).

 

As someone who is 75% Finnish decent I will also add that thats how a lot of Finnish people are. Very short, to the point, without much emotion. My father, grandfather and great grandfather were all men of very few words. But rest assure they were all very smart, focused and had plenty of passion in everything they did. You just wouldn't know it by judging their demeanor.

 

Kimi is noted by those in the paddock and press for his inconsistency. Much like Massa who was his equal - he is not what he was and the seat should have been moved to another driver this year. Ferrari decided to keep him. For me it is a 'whatever' move. If you need to see how Kimi has not done well in his 'return' to Ferrari just look at his results vs FA. Thats about where he is. He doesnt make the top 5 in the WDC over time since he returned. He is about 6.75.

 

No wins this year, and according to the F1 website, no positions gained on the first lap all year. Stroll had the most positions gained on the first lap somehow.

 

Typically cars ahead of him was Vettel, the Mercedes and occasionally a Red Bull.

Mercedes too fast, Vettel not allowed to overtake and good luck with the Red Bulls .

Stroll may have gained the most places on the start but this is typical of someone who consistently underqualified his car. With the hugely powerful engine mixing it along 2016 power units and renault units, it would be hard NOT to overtake cars on the start.

I'll remind you that Kimi gave up the Monaco win (well, rather Ferrari with the old preferred pitstop for Vettel), he held station in hungary and duly defended well enough so that Hamilton/Bottas couldn't overtake a wounded Vettel. Who knows what could've happened in Malaysia, the Ferrari was very strong there and he got pole within .040 of Hamilton, who lost out to Verstappen...Kimi's ferrari broke down on the pre-start, I think he would've been favourite to win that race. Singapore he flew past Verstappen/Vettel but was crashed into...

Could've been a 3-4 race win season but he did his duty as teamplayer.

 

I wasn't criticizing Kimi's lack of passion at press conferences...they usually are stupid questions. I just don't sense his passion on the track. I see a professional driver who does what is necessary to get his next paycheck. But I don't sense a driver who will drive the wheels off the car to win a race. Any driver in F1 who doesn't feel he has something to prove, shouldn't be there.

 

If you think that is true, something that might change that would be to re-watch Kimi's post race demeanor when Ferrari had him hold station behind Vettel's wounded Ferrari.

To Kimi's credit, he didn't drive the wheels out risking a crash out with Vettel for a win.

You need to look at the results in the filter of Ferrari playing games, team orders, pit stops that hurt one badly to help the other in a minor way, etc.

Vettel is perhaps one of the top five drivers on the grid. I do not think it would be wise to bring any of those other four to Ferrari. Ferrari doesn't want inside team competition, and if you brought any of those other 4 alongside Vettel it would be the end result. Look at all the crashes with Force India when you combine two driver's trying to drive the wheels off to beat each other.

There really is not a better driver to replace Kimi with right now, and Ferrari knows it.

Kimi, on track performance, is outside that top five. However, you can find interviews with engineers that really praise Kimi as a race driver to work with. That has a lot of value, and just look at the results in pace of the team's he has driven for after he signed on with them. Ferrari became competitive again, Lotus got on the podium multiple times, etc.

He's a fine guy to have in the driver's seat alongside Vettel.

Who would replace Kimi?

Ricciardo, if he thinks Ferrari can get to a championship before Red Bull, might be an option; but Vettel and Ricciardo would both be chasing that championship hard. I'm not sure it would be the greatest situation.

Bottas has a lot of possibilities, but now that he is at Mercedes I'm not sure that can/would happen.

Pulling Nico Rosberg out of retirement, if possible, could also work. Rosberg was happy to leave a F1 champion, so he might make a good pair with Vettel, a man intent on getting as many championships in his lifetime as he can.

 

I found a video with it.

 

copy that. Man, he's whining throughout this whole race about a freakin water bottle. Reminded me of GRO.

 

A little back story, Kimi's first race was a night race, tier 3 of NASCAR. Temp's were nice and cool.

Kimi's second race was in the afternoon, tier 2 of NASCAR. The team asked Kimi if he wanted heat insulation or for the team to use that weight for ballast. Not realizing just how freakin' hot it'd be if he chose the latter; he chose the latter.

A lot of folks fail to realize that NASCAR races are as long as "Endurance" races in other forms of motorsport.

It probably was pretty hot in there. That clip is 2 minutes of a multi hour event.

 

But Kimi has said time and again, and this season, that he is only interested in winning and that he doesn't care if he is second rather than third. He is a Finn, and you won't ever see any passion in his behaviour, but I'm still sure that nothing else than a win would satisfy him. Furthermore, he has actually shown it: whatever you think lost him the Monaco Grand Prix (BTW, I think that he lost it himself, by not taking a sufficent margin during the first laps of the race, but that's another debate) it was rather obvious after the end of the race that the result he was aiming for was not a second place, and that it was hard to swallow. He may not be the Kimi of 2005 anymore, but he still has the "Sisu", and one or two or more victories waiting.

Rgds