Raikkonen’s drive ‘showed he’s a champion’ – Arrivabene

2017 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene said Kimi Raikkonen demonstrated the qualities of a champion with his drive in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen spent more than half of the race stuck behind Sebastian Vettel who was slowed by a problem with his car’s steering.

“Seb drove a magnificent race, managing to keep the lead despite the problem with the steering wheel,” said Arrivabene.

“He was helped by a great performance from Kimi who demonstrated not only that he is a champion but also that he is a true team player.”

Arrivabene said the team’s one-two finish was “a result obtained in far from easy circumstances – once again it demonstrated the strength of character at Ferrari.”

Raikkonen caught Vettel before the pair made their pit stops. After his stop Raikkonen complained on the radio he could have gone quicker, and potentially got ahead of Vettel, had he stayed out.

“When they called me for the pit stop I wanted to stay on track a bit longer because I felt I had the speed,” said Raikkonen, “but the team has the big picture and I trust them.”

“I ended up following Seb through the whole race and I was never able to use my full speed. Today I knew I had all the tools to finish in a better position, but I should have done a better qualifying.”

“In places like this it’s tricky to try and overtake and I did not want to force things too much with my team mate,” he added. “When you end up between two cars is not the easiest situation.”

2017 Hungarian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    33 comments on “Raikkonen’s drive ‘showed he’s a champion’ – Arrivabene”

    1. Kimi was the only one that actually deserved to be on that podium.

      1. Old_mate_Mick
        31st July 2017, 1:30

        Really? Vettel managed to keep a crippled car in the lead for the entire race to take the win, and he didn’t deserve to even be on the podium? Also, Bottas would have definitely finished 3rd if he had ignored the team orders, so why should Bottas gift Hamilton the podium, and why should Ferrari allow Kimi, who has half of Vettel’s points, to finish ahead? Guess that’s why you’re not running a Formula 1 team hey…

    2. Well, this definitely sounds like Kimi was asked to come second. What a shame for Ferrari… once again

      1. @ivan-vinitskyy It’s lost in translation but no Kimi wasn’t asked to come second, Kimi did however not asked to be swapped nor tried a desperate move.

        1. Isn’t it even worse that Ferrari didn’t ask? Raikkonen seemed to think so when he complained over and over that Ferrari had messed up his race.

          1. If Kimi doesn’t like it, I guess he can decide to retire. Nobody is forcing him to stay at Ferrari and he has certainly not done much to earn his keep. When he tried to close on Vettel, Vettel simply turned it up and pulled out of DRS range. Given the choices that Ferrari had, they made the best choice. I’m sorry they didn’t consult with Kimi’s fans first.

      2. How is that shame for Ferrari? They maximized points with keeping the cars in that order. If they let kimi pass Seb the Mercedes would have eaten Seb alive and lost those points….I fail to see how what they did doesn’t make sense. It just so happened to be in Seb’s favor. The only thing I can think to maybe make it better would be let Kimi pass at the checkered flag….

        1. Old_mate_Mick
          31st July 2017, 1:37

          Just like Schumacher and Barrichello, I expect if Seb wins the championship, and finds himself in a dominant championship position next year, he’ll likely gift Kimi a win to pay him back for helping out in this tough season.

          The only people getting salty about Ferrari are fanboys of other teams who can’t accept the fact that team orders and favouring the best placed driver in the standings is commonplace among all top teams. Hamilton’s benefited from team orders multiple times already this year, despite his team mate actually having a shot at the title. Kimi made his bed early on by being so thoroughly smashed by Vettel. With half of Vettel’s points for msot of the season so far, Kimi is the only person preventing himself from being a number one driver. Ferrari executed the race perfectly.

          So thumbs up to Ferrari for taking another one-two, props to Mercedes for making sure Bottas got his podium back (Hamilton would have never passed him on his own, so Bottas was always going to take that podium without team orders), props to Hamiton for doing as he was told, props to Vettel for having such a good pace and driving so consistently in a car with a pretty major issue, and props to Kimi for finally being quick enough to play rear-gunner and actually contribute to the team. If Kimi can keep this level of performance up, Ferrari might actually still have a shot at the WCC.

        2. That actually makes sense, however it seems that allegedly even RAI was having some difficulty staying close to VET. All in all, i would’ve preferred to see RAI on the top step but i guess the only way he can do that if he is outright faster than VET which at the moment he isn’t.

    3. I wouldn’t fancy to be in Kimi position….not allowed to go faster…cannot afford to slow down too much as there were fast cars behind closing in rapidly….

      Good team result

    4. I think this is the need for Ferrari to close up to Mercedes in the constructors championship because they know that the following tracks bar Singapore might not suit their car and that they could lose more points to them.

    5. Super drive from Kimi today, once again Seb massively prioritised by Ferrari.

      1. yeah, Kimi has shown in the last couple of races that he can still drive, but *sigh* why Seb is being prioritised over him, just look at the points: Vettel is fighting from the WDC, Kimi on the other hand isn’t, which is completely understandable and I don’t resent Ferrari at all. And this comes from a longtime Kimi -fan.

        1. @dinaveer It’s Bottas and Verstappen’s work that has put Kimi so far down. I don’t think Seb is being prioritized, Ferrari have been pretty lucky not to have been forced to do so, on one side Kimi is not contributing enough on the constructors on the other hand he and Vettel haven’t crossed paths much and when they did they haven’t had to resort to team orders, unfortunately something bad tends to happen to Kimi. Lately Kimi is driving really well and today he could have thrown an hissy fit but he didn’t.

          Also, gauging the team’s demeanour, I’m pretty sure both drivers have re-signed with the Big Boss who coincidentally was present in Hungary.

          1. It was 100% clear that Vettel was being prioritised. Otherwise they would not have stopped Raikkonen immediately after Vettel’s stop. Rightly so perhaps, but don’t pretend he wasn’t gifted that win.

            1. Old_mate_Mick
              31st July 2017, 1:46

              Kimi made his bed by not being on Vettel’s level for most of the season so far. It was made clear at the start of the season that the drivers could race, but if and when one of them was in the title hunt and the other not, then they would start to favour the title contender. Kimi’s poor performances in most races so far have led to him being out of the title fight very early, which makes Ferrari’s job pretty easy when it comes to managing their drivers. Kimi’s currently costing Ferrari a shot at the WCC, so why should they let him win? He only had more pace because of Vettel’s car problems, without that problem, Vettel would have sailed away to a half a minute lead like he usually does against Kimi.

              China is the only example required if you’re wondering why Ferrari aren’t favouring Kimi. Vettel wound up behind a bunch of drivers because of the unlucky timing of the SC. Ahead of him, Kimi was stuck behind Dan Ricciardo, and couldn’t find a way past. Vettel caught Kimi, battled with him for a couple of laps, then got past without any team orders. Vettel then closed up on Dan and passed him the next lap. After that, Vettel lapped more than 1 second per lap quicker than Kimi for the rest of the race, putting over 40 seconds between himself and Kimi in something like 35 laps…

            2. But did he actually faster lap times than Vettel and mercedes on that time? At least I remember seeing fastest lap for Bottas shortly after his pit stop. He might have dropped back of all that trio if he would have stayed out too long.

    6. Seems like Arrivabene wish too thanks Kimi big way now, so he dont have to put this on the “I owe you” list, when they decide next season driver lineup.

    7. Robert McKay
      30th July 2017, 21:37

      When we’re talking about champion we mean constructor’s champion for Ferrari here, right?

      I mean, they may as well have just told him over team radio that he was their number two driver, the subtext in the messages was pretty clear.

      1. Kimi already knew that when he signed up for this year. If he didn’t want to be a number 2 driver he shouldn’t be sitting in 5th place in the standings. If he doesn’t like it, there are plenty of drivers that would murder him in his sleep to get the seat. This is show and everybody knows their job. If they don’t do their job, they don’t get rewarded.

    8. showed he is a champion??

      He isn’t allowed to win a race while seb is in it. He follows the most ridiculous team orders to keep seb protected. Worse of all he happily goes along with it all.

      Is this the same man that wowed us weekly between 2001-5, Japan 2005 was one of the best performance you will ever see. Then for a few years was hit and miss. Showed he still had it while at lotus and then went backwards again when he returned to Ferrari. He has been back there 4 or 5 years and I can barely name one good performance. In that time Alonso totally destroyed him and Seb for the most part has been faster and more consistent.

      Id love to see that car with someone that could actually challenge seb and push him and the team on. Ferrari I hope lose the constructors due to their lack of ambition for car 2. And it is a shame Seb won’t step up to the challenge either. In Alonso defence he took on Kimi & Button and would probably take on Seb or Lewis again given the chance.

      No point in Kimi being unhappy on the podiums. He has allowed this to happen.

      1. Time to wake up. Your are wrong.

        1. I am wrong that Kimi hasn’t been fast enough for 4 years?

          I don’t think I am.

    9. Kimi fans all over the place defending him and critizing Ferrari and Vettel. Yet it was Kimi him self that regognized that he should have taken pole yesterday in order to win, while Vettel in turn regognized that Kimi was the quicker driver on race day. There is no real issue here..

    10. Neil (@neilosjames)
      30th July 2017, 23:37

      Yes, he’s a champion. Just like Nico Rosberg.

      I chose him because the two of them seem to have equal interest in winning another one.

    11. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      30th July 2017, 23:39

      Did you guys see how Arrivabene nearly pushed off Will Buxton today before the start of the race? That was quite rude…

      That statement is a parody… Strength of Character which in English translates to “Kimi is Vettel’s wingman” :-) It’s funny that Kimi is the Iceman but in Top Gun, Maverick was his wingman.

    12. Sounded like on Kimis radio, he just resigned to the fact that hes officially number 2. Feel for Kimi, he would of past Vettel easy on most other circuits. It was perfect timing for Ferrari being in Hungry

    13. This was a drive of a never will be champion again.

      Seb was clearly slower, there were many times he could have attacked, especially around pitstops… But Ferrari instead chose to protect 1-2.

      Maybe they considered Sebs car unfit for all out speed, and to much racing between the pair would only hurt them.

      1. If RAI didn’t enter at the time he entered, Mercedes drivers could have succeded in the undercut

    14. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
      31st July 2017, 9:52

      Raikkonen’s drive showed he’s a number 2 driver, just like the other drives this season where he’s been put on bad strategies to protect Vettel. The real shame is that he accepts the role.

    15. Fukobayashi (@)
      31st July 2017, 10:01

      While I am no Vettel fan I really don’t understand why he should have yielded to Raikkonnen. I could see from sitting at home that there would be no overtakes on merit between the lead 4 cars, hell Hamilton was -2secs quicker than Bottas at one stage and couldn’t overtake him, so it was patently obvious that track position was king and Vettel did that work on Saturday.

    16. Long time Kimi fan , he has been on an off this season – but have to consider 3 or 4 incidents at starts have led to bad or no points at all, Bottas twice hit him , Vettel once , and Ver(forgotten) , season has not been easy on him.hence the big points difference to Leaders, Just as well I have a feeling car setup is more Vettel( Alonso in 2014 ) biased, and takes Kimi more time to adjust to it ( unlike the case in 2007 – he had Schumachers car. :) . .. I have a feeling that in true speed he is the better driver than Vettel , strategy , team orders and other drivers mistakes are the odds for Kimi. He is also way too gentlemen in one-to-one fights, will never endanger or risk in a dogfight ( Bottas, Verstappen should take a note here ) …. Second part of the season will be a blast for him , the car is good, reliable , and manageable for podium all the way !

    17. Ferrari played a blinder by letting the slower of their cars dictate the pace for most of the race. Of course, the nature of the circuit made it all possible. It would likely have been a different story had the Red Bulls kept it together. They are at least as good as the Ferraris in dirty air. On a day when their pace was evident, they would likely have taken the win away from Ferrari.

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