Kimi Raikkonen, George Russell, Monza, 2019

Raikkonen: Singapore can’t be any worse after “s*** weekend” in Monza

2019 Italian Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikkonen says the next round of the championship can only be better after a string of mistakes ruined his Italian Grand Prix weekend.

The Alfa Romeo driver crashed in practice and again during qualifying. The second crash forced the team to change his power unit and gearbox, which meant he had to start from the pit lane.

However the team mistakenly believed that exempted Raikkonen from starting the race on the set of tyre he had used to get through Q2. They put him on a different set of tyres, and as a result received a mandatory 10-second stop-and-go time penalty. He finished the race 15th, one lap down.

“Well that was a sh** weekend,” said Raikkonen in the team’s post-race press release.

“First my mistake in qualifying which unfortunately meant that we had to change gearbox. Then we decided to also change engine and start from the pit lane, but we had the wrong tyres on and with the penalty my race was more or less over.

“[I’m] looking forward to Singapore, as it can’t get worse,” he added.

His team mate Antonio Giovinazzi enjoyed a much better day, taking a career best ninth place at his home race.

“It was a positive day for Italy today,” said Giovinazzi following Charles Leclerc’s victory for Ferrari. “I want to dedicate the two points to all the Tifosi here.

“I am so happy with the result, and I am also happy to see Ferrari do something very special for our country with their win. It’s a great feeling to score points as the only Italian driver in my home race.”

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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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8 comments on “Raikkonen: Singapore can’t be any worse after “s*** weekend” in Monza”

  1. Singapore will be bad for cars with low downforce philosophy.

    1. Still, as long as he can race in the midfield, without crashes, Raikkonen will have a better weekend, I guess; quite likely a much less frustrating one anyway.

    2. the Alfa is not a bad car downforce wise. they were very competitive in hungary and monaco so they have a chance in singapore.

  2. Jonathan Parkin
    9th September 2019, 10:12

    Putting a driver on the wrong tyres was grounds for disqualification twenty years ago

  3. They seem to struggle more on low downforce tracks compare to higher ones i feel. They have a decent car but the midfield is too tight thus mistakes are way costlier than any year for such a team. Even pitstop times are poor. They need to become sharper in such areas to really extract everything out and be best of the rest. Which i really believe is possible with such a good line up.

  4. Can knowledgeable friends here confirm that there IS a rule that says that if you start from the pitlane you do not have a choice of tyres ?

    1. struck me as pretty weird. you avoid parc ferme rules by taking the pitlane start, you basically give up all your advantage from reaching q3, but you are still bound to your q2 tyre…? also, noone in the team knows about it or asks…?

  5. georgeboole (@)
    9th September 2019, 14:24

    I wonder if there was some team radio like the one with the gloves and the steering wheel…

Comments are closed.