Raikkonen’s car was ‘crabbing like crazy’

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In the round-up: Kimi Raikkonen says he almost put his Alfa Romeo in the wall more than once in the Monaco Grand Prix because of a suspected problem with his differential.

What they say

I don’t know. There is something because I almost went in the wall a few times on the exits because only one wheel was spinning and once somehow it heated up or something and the it crabbed like crazy and I got sideways. We don’t know, they couldn’t really see what, something with the diff, but it was a bit odd.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Niki Lauda helped persuade Lewis Hamilton to join Mercedes in 2013, but how far was his 2012 championship disappointment also a contributing factor?

Lauda had great respect for Hamilton and he really wanted Hamilton to drive for Mercedes. Then in 2012 everything came together. Schumacher’s Mercedes contract expired and Hamilton got fed up with McLaren, so he moved to Mercedes. Had Hamilton won the 2012 championship, he may have stayed with McLaren and face a similar fate as Button and Alonso. Him not winning the title in 2012 was a blessing in disguise.

I think Mercedes is the best team on an operational level and I think their dominance is even more impressive than the Ferrari dominance at the beginning of this century, which was exaggerated by unlimited testing and tailor-made tires. Wolff and Lauda were at least as good as Todt and Brawn in their Ferrari heydays, so the best team got the best driver and now they’re dominating.
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On this day in F1

  • 40 years ago today Jody Scheckter won the Monaco Grand Prix while James Hunt made his final F1 start

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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 “Raikkonen’s car was ‘crabbing like crazy’”

  1. Profile Photo

    Hemingway (@)
    27th May 2019, 2:40

    Why was Bottas allowed to slow down to build a gap to Lewis under the safety car, before entering the pits?

    I’m sure Lewis was in the pits before Bottas entered the rascasse. Essentially taking the risk away from Lewis’ pit.

    These tactics have been employed by Merc on multiple occasions now, and it is breaking the ‘10car length rule’ or whatever it’s called. FIA really needs to enforce this rule on the approach to the pits.

    1. Profile Photo

      Harrisf1 (@harrisf1)
      27th May 2019, 8:31

      The 10 car length rule only applies to the car behind the safety car, not every car during a safety car period.
      Furthermore, anyone behind bottas was welcome to over take him at any time on the track and up to the pit entrance speed limit line.
      Nothing wrong with this smart strategy!

      1. Profile Photo

        ColdFly (@)
        27th May 2019, 8:56

        “Furthermore, anyone behind bottas was welcome to over take him at any time on the track and up to the pit entrance speed limit line.”
        And as a ‘welcome present’ they’d get a penalty (no overtaking under SC)

    2. Profile Photo

      Ninjenius (@ninjenius)
      27th May 2019, 8:37

      @theessence Based on article 39.5 of the sporting regulations I guess the stewards just deemed that Bottas wasn’t driving “unnecessarily” slowly. As with many regulations it is open to a wide degree of interpretation (whether that’s a good thing or not is another debate entirely).

      1. anon
        27th May 2019, 13:02

        @ninjenius, as you note, when you look at the onboard footage from Verstappen’s car, Bottas speed through that final sector is actually fairly consistent.

        There’s no sharp braking from Bottas or any sudden changes in speed – he simply doesn’t accelerate as hard as the drivers in front of him, so there is nothing erratic about his driving, and as he let the gap grow slowly, it is hard to argue that it is unnecessarily slowly either.

        As an aside, that onboard footage does slightly undermine Max’s claims that he “didn’t see Bottas” in the pit lane, as the onboard footage from the pit stop does show Max was looking to the right – i.e. looking at Bottas – before he made contact with him, suggesting that he did in fact know he was there and continued to move to the right anyway.

        1. stefan
          28th May 2019, 11:23

          Was he looking at bottas or for bottas? I think the later. Verstappen had nothing to gain to hit bottas on purpose, and after he did hit him he turned instantly away. If he would have seen him he could have stayed besides bottas and that would have been much better for both of them

  2. Profile Photo

    Patrick (@anunaki)
    27th May 2019, 9:11

    Yeah the stewards probably didn’t find Bottas being unnecessarily slow (if they even looked at it at all). But because of it the 3 cars were extremely close together in the pitlane and unfortunately Max hit Bottas and got a penalty for something out of his control.

    But with this drama we got a very interesting Monaco GP that was great to watch until the end.

  3. Profile Photo

    Phylyp (@phylyp)
    27th May 2019, 11:35

    LOL at Hamilton getting back at Vowles :)

    Also, that tweet about Ferrari floor damage had me wondering “what floor, there’s barely nothing left?”. Charles’ tyre was like a thresher in chewing away at that floor. Karun and the commentators also mentioned there was floor damage on the rear left (i.e. the good side). Any idea how that happened? Does the floor consist of transverse pieces, so the beating on the right side took out the entire piece?

    1. mhoog
      27th May 2019, 20:53

      When he hit the barrier on the right rear, the car shifted to the left and hit the right rear of Hulkenberg damaging his floor on the left.

  4. Profile Photo

    Jere (@jerejj)
    27th May 2019, 13:23

    I share the same sentiments as the COTD.

  5. Profile Photo

    F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
    27th May 2019, 21:13

    You made my day! :)

  6. Profile Photo

    juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
    27th May 2019, 23:42

    Ricky Bobby was in a lose/lose situation as it all depended on who behind pitted and who didn’t.

    In fact it was still all good for RIC and MAG if they hadn’t been stuck behind NOR who was running slow to give SAI time to pit and stay ahead. Worked like a charm for the papaya team, although could have been even better for them if they’d pitted NOR a lap earlier he would have come out ahead of RIC as RAI had started to go very slow and NOR had his gap but RAI pitted and RIC was freed to close the gap and just pipped NOR.

    On the other hand, if RIC and MAG didn’t pit then those behind could have pitted and kept close with fresher tyres, meaning when RIC or MAG pitted they would have ended up well back – probably even worse than the 10th / 12th that they finished. It was a lose/lose situation unless maybe if they didn’t pit but NOR did what he did anyway. And if the reason that RIC was driving so slowly – about 3 secs a lap slower than the 4 cars in front – was because his tyres were already struggling then pitting when they did made sense.

Comments are closed.