Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, Bahrain International Circuit, 2019

V6 hybrid turbos now feel like V8 era cars – Raikkonen

2019 F1 season

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Kimi Raikkonen says Formula 1’s V6 hybrid turbos now feel very similar to drive compared to the previous generation of V8 cars.

The complex hybrid units marked a major departure from the conventional V8 engines – albeit with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems – when they were introduced five years ago. But Raikkonen says the latest iterations are little different “purely from driving aspect.”

“I think it was a big difference when we swapped to these regulations from 2013 to ’14 because everything was new and obviously then everything works differently,” he said. “Plus also they are very complicated cars now.”

Raikkonen had just returned to Ferrari when the current engine rules were introduced in 2014. “I think, at least in Ferrari, [at that time] we were far from where we finished last year. They were pretty poor in many areas, they were for sure far away [from] where it should have been.

“So for sure things didn’t work very well on some of the engine side and pick-ups and stuff like that. It made it pretty poor compared [to] what we had in ’13 because those rules had been for ages so you are a hundred percent in the right areas and everything.”

The 2014 cars were “completely different in the drive-ability side” when they were first introduced, said Raikkonen. “Today when we go, at least what I remember, it’s no different, everything works very nicely. Most of the time at least. On that side the driving itself is no different anymore.”

“OK, the sound is different,” he added, “but the driving itself, we do the same things, it’s not like you do something completely different.”

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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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12 comments on “V6 hybrid turbos now feel like V8 era cars – Raikkonen”

  1. georgeboole (@)
    7th April 2019, 9:16

    He is right. You just turn the steering wheel.
    If you have it…

    1. Bwoah + 1

  2. I was thinking the other day how many of the current drivers actually come from the V8 era. 9 drivers raced the V8s, with Kimi being the last guy from the V10 era and isn’t that just a bit sad how time flies!

    1. I wonder who was the last retired driver who drove the 3.5 liter engines?

      1. That must be Barrichello.

      2. Probably Michael Schumacher

      3. Alonso?

        1. @jaymenon10, the last time that 3.5 litre engines were used was 1994, long before Alonso was even close to entering F1.

          Dale is right that Michael Schumacher was the last driver to race in F1 from that era, followed by Barrichello, then Badoer and Coulthard.

          When you look at the 3.5 litre era, most drivers either dropped out of the sport pretty quickly or were already approaching the end of their careers and retired soon afterwards. I believe that, out of the 46 drivers who competed in the 1994 season (the last season with the 3.5 litre rules), only 6 lasted into the early 2000s and only 3 (Michael Schumacher, Barrichello and Coulthard) were still racing in F1 a decade later.

  3. Schumacher. Alonso only drove 3.0, while Schumacher drove the 3.5, 3.0 and 2.4 formulas. Barrichello did too but started his f1 career later than Schumacher.

  4. José Lopes da Silva
    7th April 2019, 22:17

    Only Kimi for saying this kind of blasphemous sacrilege without getting a “vacuum cleaner” backlash.

    1. This aint about the sound.

  5. Fair enough he’s got used to it but the torque profile alone on a N/A V8 and a Turbo V6 is night and day.

    Just reaffirms that Kimi doesn’t really give a toss and gets in the car and drives as quick as he can and good on him to be fair. He’s as old school as they come.

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