Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Bahrain International Circuit, 2018

Raikkonen on Liberty’s 2021 plans: “I doubt I’ll be here so it doesn’t bother me”

2018 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikkonen says he is not concerned about the detail of Liberty Media’s plans for F1 after 2020 as he doubts he will still be racing then.

Formula One’s managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn will reveal his plans for future changes to the sporting rules, technical rules and income structure to teams tomorrow.

Ross Brawn, Circuit of the Americas, 2017
The Brawn ultimatum? Why F1’s future hangs on Friday’s crunch meeting
Speaking in the FIA press conference ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Raikkonen said he isn’t interested in what the sport’s commercial rights holders have planned.

“In the end it’s not our decision, it’s up to them,” he said. “It’s their business, they make plans and decisions what they feel is correct.”

“I don’t know what they’re doing, I know very little about it and I’m not interested either. We’ll see tomorrow what they see. it’s in many years’ time anyhow and I doubt that I’ll be here so it doesn’t really both me at all.”

Raikkonen said it would be a waste of time for him to consider what Liberty’s plans might involve. “I don’t have the power so what’s the point to waste thinking about it?

“I don’t understand what’s the point for me, to give you a list, because in the end I have zero power. We don’t make the rules, that’s my point, so what’s the point even making a story out of it?”

Fernando Alonso said he hopes one of Liberty’s goals is to make the racing more competitive.

“I think it could be a closer battle, that will be always welcome. But it has been always like that in Formula One,” he said.

“I remember watching the TV in the very old days, it was on the television last week a race from 1990 and 1989, and apart from the first four cars everyone was lapped. And we remember that year like a golden era with big names.

“I think if you see now there are series or if you watch a race of IndyCar or whatever, that unpredictable result until the last 10 laps makes you excited in front of the television. And now we can [write] down the qualifying order for this race right now on Thursday and that’s a little bit sad.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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34 comments on “Raikkonen on Liberty’s 2021 plans: “I doubt I’ll be here so it doesn’t bother me””

  1. Good ol’ Kimi, telling it like it is.

  2. Vettel fan 17 (@)
    5th April 2018, 13:55

    Not surprised.

  3. Gotta love Kimi Raikonnen.

  4. I think the headline is missing a “bwoah”.

  5. Hopefully, the post-2020 plans will be made available to the public as well. It’d be a bit shame if it were kept confidential, LOL.

  6. There is somehow a wonderful symmetry to Raikkonnen of all people to say: “I don’t know what they’re doing”. I guess he’ll leave them alone, then….

    1. Ha ha, very nice 😀

  7. I’m really a bit lost as to what everybody is expecting for 2021. I mean, do we simply want a faster F2 or IndyCar, or do we want the technically most advanced and fastest racing machines on this planet. I honestly don’t think 2021 rules should be so different but just a few key areas.

    1. I think most people want some variability on F1 season/races.
      Plus, F1 today is neither “technically most advanced and fastest racing machines” nor “a faster F2 or IndyCar”.
      Give me four drivers with chances of winning whatever GP and I settle for that.
      I care as much how many laser beams a F1 can shoot as what polymer soccer ball were made today.

      1. Plus, F1 today is neither “technically most advanced and fastest racing machines” nor “a faster F2 or IndyCar”.

        So what racing series is faster then?

    2. @flatsix @mrboerns

      (I hate this adding @names stuff.)

      What is sport without unpredictability? Boring.
      What is investment with unpredictability? Risky.

      We need concurrent sports and business models that reward the fans as well as the investors. But is this possible?

      We need a sport that simultaneously rewards the prowess of technical teams and offers close racing between most of the teams. But is this possible?

      Perhaps the amalgamation of a constructors and a drivers championship will never be a win-win situation. Are the benefits of each mutually exclusive?

    3. I think most people just want to be able to complain.

    4. @flatsix You are hitting on the very balancing act that Brawn (and Dieter in his article) has described. They know costs are out of control and continue to only advantage the have teams. They know too that there is too big a gulf between the have teams and the have nots. So they have to take a little away from the top teams, and try to give a little more to the lesser ones. They know they have to keep some innovation room alive and not make it too spec, while keeping said spending in check.

      It is difficult and is going to require the co-operation of the teams. The ones who have had their greed go unchecked thanks to BE are going to have to wake up to the fact that that way only benefits them and if it were to continue, they may not have an F1 to play in anyway.

      But I think you are right that in reality the rules or the philosophy needn’t be draconian, and that some common sense tweaking should prevail. We all want to see cars racing more closely and a more enthralling product on the track. Any team bucking that would be ridiculous. There just hasn’t been the need for them to change until now, with a new sheriff in town, they’ll have to make some changes. I think this is also why Brawn has already said that Ferrari and Liberty are indeed not all that far apart in their thinking for the future.

      The one’s with the more resources will continue to have that, but hopefully a more enthralling product on the track through the aero study that they will implement, will start to garner a bigger audience, and hence sponsors, and hence revenues for the all the teams including the lesser ones, who might then garner a fighting chance and some excitement from their followers with said closer racing and gladiators vs gladiators out on the track, instead of processions after processions of drivers conserving and monitoring moreso than actually racing.

      The general underlying theme imho coming from Liberty should be one of getting back to basics, and starting by reducing the dirty air effect so we can be more enthralled with the actual weekend action on the track. Let’s start with that, and everything else will become easier to implement as they repair BE’s damage.

  8. He’s back! At least when it comes to cool comments.

  9. I will miss him

  10. “what’s the point even making a story out of it?” Good question!

  11. So what Alonso described is a spec series, if he wants that he should go run Indy. But formula1is a innovation series. The best designers with the best drivers win. The rules are there to limit costs but should still leave innovation and team talent as the deciding factor. The rules also direct the innovation into key areas such as asrodynamics and hybrid technologies.

    1. Nothing in Alonso’s statement has anything to do with making F1 a spec series. He says he hopes for closer racing, with less predictable outcomes. That’s all.

  12. Mandating and actually enforcing Flat end plates of wings while increasing the weight of the cars by a considerable amount, say 90kg, could help put slightly more emphasis on driver talent and other mechanical aspects of engineering, instead of aero. With that said, I hope they don’t spec too many parts of the cars or engines.

    Increased simplicity and affordability of the chassis, or the engines, should not come at the cost of innovation by stifling the creativity of the engineers.

    I think it was Newey, who’s comment I once read, where he complained about the same issue and put forth the idea of restricting the tools that the designers can use.

    CFD is at the verge of completely replacing traditional wind tunnels, now would be the time to set the limits of how this technology could be used for the foreseeable future, and in doing so, it would set the precedent of the tool being spec-ed by a governing body’s regulation.

    1. Cranberry
      Please, no more weight increases for these cars. They are already by 90’s standard bloated. Loosing the same 90kg would transform these fast cars into to proper racing cars.

      1. With the introduction of KERS all those years ago, F1 became a bit of a Jockey sport for a couple of years, with drivers being 180cm tall and weighing under 70kg. With all those batteries, MGUH, MGUK, these cars should perhaps be even heavier that they were in the 90’s. 90kg was not random on my part, it’s the weight of an average man.

        Weight is one of the things FIA can reliably measure and enforce. When a car is physically heavy , the hard-ish limit of diminishing returns of Aerodynamics could come sooner, according to my non mathematical brain. It could perhaps push whatever marginal competitive aero advantages some teams may have, further into irrelevance. FIA has tried limiting aero with various insufficient tests that could not prevent us from seeing Flexi-Wings.

        So many people obsess over cracks, bumps and slots on the cars floors, barge boards, and now in 2018 MIRRORS, it’s ridiculous. Give us nice fat cars, with non-anorexic drivers, that the aero engineers make as slippery as possible and perhaps we will see overtakes without adding the 7th DRS zone in Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

  13. If formula 1 solves the downforce in traffic problem with some further innovation, now you have something applicable to grandpas road car. Just waiting for that innovation.

    1. Johns
      As is always the case with F1, instead of a simple solution, a complex one will be applied. Simplifying the front wings would solve many, though not I suspect, all of the wake turbulence problem for following cars.

  14. Why bother asking Raikkonen anything?

    1. Because his typically rude response creates clickable headlines

    2. He sounds positively chatty. I counted at least seven phrases. One more interview like that and he’ll have the script for an entire Ingmar Bergman film.

      1. @david-br – Excellent observation! LOL

  15. Kimi is gold! I took a photo of him and my mate last year. My mate couldn’t go this year so as gesture I took the photo and had Kimi sign it- a got a half a smile like “this isn’t even you, you *******” lol

    Good point about late 80s McLaren dominance- as a Senna fan for me 1988 was the battle of the big boys- I loved every lap. I was 12. I was stoked when Senna won of course, but looking back now that is what non-Merc fans cope a bit now, but at least other teams win now.

    McLaren used to lap most the field, dependant on the race may be. When I look back now I was not F1F…. just a Senna fan.

    1. Ahah, funny reaction from raikkonen, sounds like him indeed.

  16. “I don’t understand what’s the point for me, to give you a list, because in the end I have zero power. We don’t make the rules, that’s my point, so what’s the point even making a story out of it?”

    … a line from a story about it…

    Sorry, couldn’t resist!

  17. After reading that it somehow seems more likely Kimi will still be in F1 come 2021.

    Let’s see, pretty much every year lately has been his last year in F1, right?

    Really, I feel about the same regarding upcoming proposals and changes. What can be done about what they decide? Except for whingeing and complaining which happens regardless. I mean, I do have some hopes for closer racing and stuff, but…

  18. Kimi is an absolute legend, and the only current driver who can be described thus.
    F1 will just not be the same after he retires.

    btw does he look slightly unwell in the photo, …like he’s lost too much weight?

  19. Interesting he doesn’t care what happens, since he wont be around.

    Lack of passion for the sport which has supported him for so long perhaps?

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