Kimi Raikkonen explained the angry exchange with his race engineer when he was told to increase his pace to keep up with his team mate.
Raikkonen pitted before Sebastian Vettel and afterwards was told he needed to lap quicker to ensure his team mate didn’t jump ahead of him through the pit stops.
The following exchange between Raikkonen and his new race engineer Carlo Santi was broadcast:
| Santi | We need a little bit more pace Kimi. Seb is lapping 28.5, 28.5. Yourself 28.7. |
| Raikkonen | Is he not stopped yet? |
| Santi | Not yet, not yet. |
| Raikkonen | Oh, [censored by FOM] you tell me? You first say to me that you are not in a hurry. [Censored by FOM] me up with this. |
| Santi | We are fine Kimi, 28.5 is the target, 28.5. |
“Obviously we talked before the race and there were hundreds of options what we can do and that was his best option and no threat from behind. He would obviously take a chance because he had nothing else to lose at that point, safe in third place so it would work out well.
“I wasn’t really surprised what they did. I was surprised that we didn’t – at one point – know exactly.”
Vettel was able to jump ahead of Raikkonen through the pit stops thanks to the timing of a Virtual Safety Car period. At the end of the race Santi told Raikkonen he was unlucky to finish behind his team mate:
| Santi | We were unlucky with the Safety Car, it could have been an easy second place. Sorry, Kimi. |
| Raikkonen | Yeah, thanks guys. |
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Gabriel (@rethla)
25th March 2018, 13:33
Kimi wasnt unlucky. He secured a win for Vettel which is really the best he can hope for.
Palle (@palle)
25th March 2018, 13:58
+1, this is why a team has 2 drivers/cars – to be able to play them against the opposition f.ex. in this way, when it is possible.
Lauri (@f1lauri)
25th March 2018, 14:00
Kimi’s strategy aim was to secure at least 2nd and push Hamilton to box. If Vettel would have used the same strategy, it would have ended HAM-KIMI-VET. But Ferrari had nothing to lose – they lengthened the first stint without any risks and… it payed off in a way you can’t foresee, but you can give yourself a chance of it – what Ferrari did with VET.
No conspiricy here. If VET was 2nd after HAM and KIMI in third, things have turned out the other way. During the race people would have talked, that “oh, sure, Ferrari is giving VET the better strategy”…
montreal95 (@montreal95)
25th March 2018, 16:09
@rethla He secured a win for Vettel? Did KR crosstread Haas’ wheel nuts? Vettel was never going to jump Raikkonen on pace.
If anything this weekend was a pure win for KR over SV. He was faster all weekend. Yes, Vettel got a lucky win but everyone could see who was faster out of the 2
Gabriel (@rethla)
25th March 2018, 16:23
@montreal95
Yes he secured the win by forcing Hamilton to cover his undercut allowing Vettel to do an oppurtunistic overcut instead.
If you saw Kimi being faster than Vettel we saw different races.
Sviat
25th March 2018, 18:36
@rethla
Sorry, but you can’t just deny reality. Kimi showed a better pace in qualification, then during the first stint of the race than Vettel. Vettel himself acknowledged that he had no pace.
Some Vettel fans are not fans, but rather fanatics.
Sviat
25th March 2018, 18:37
Vettel himself acknowledged that he had no pace. – during the first stint.
Shimks (@shimks)
5th April 2018, 11:24
@rethla @sviatWhereverYouAre
‘Fan’ is short for ‘fanatic’. :O)
I agree with you, Sviat. Kimi drove better all weekend. I really hope he will keep it up but, knowing Kimi…
Islander
25th March 2018, 17:28
@montreal95
I have to agree with you. Anyone watching yesterday/today saw Kimi have a better weekend. Better quali better race start, better everything. The overcut was intended to get Vettel ahead of Kimi, just like in Monaco last year. I think Ferrari were pleasantly surprised when the ruse netted both Kimi and Hamilton.
Like Kimi said to Santi, do some straight talking and “Don’t **** me up with this” spew.
kanan
25th March 2018, 18:05
To be frank, half the race weekends Raikkonen is faster than Vettel until it’s time for the pole lap, and Vettel clearly has the better race pace whether he starts ahead or behind. Vettel just often starts off slower or around the same as Raikkonen every weekend. He seems often slower in Q1 and Q2. He just ramps it up for the pole shootout. Even this weekend with their first pole laps, Vettel was much faster, almost on the provisional pole. And ended up losing out to Raikkonen by 1 hundredth of a second when Hamilton went like a second faster.
Nitzo (@webtel)
25th March 2018, 17:35
@rethla
I find that truly hilarious.
Miani (@miani)
25th March 2018, 18:48
Ferrari destroyed both Raikonen and Massa career. It’s a one man team and everyone knows it since Barrichello.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
25th March 2018, 20:00
What a loosers conversation. You are not even Kimi fans. including you @socksolid . What are you envious or alien theorists.
@cplchanb A couple mechanics left their tomato sauce all over the garage.
nase
25th March 2018, 22:12
Between you and Jules, I really cannot pick a winner.
Ber101 (@cplchanb)
25th March 2018, 14:54
So I guess the haas air gun or the tire mechanics were supplied by ferrari? Lolol
Tango (@tango)
26th March 2018, 10:45
Well… Not impossible
rpiian (@rpiian)
26th March 2018, 13:50
Quite the coincidence, was my first thought…
socksolid (@socksolid)
25th March 2018, 16:38
In fairness vettel totally outpaced kimi in the end. It was/is the right move ferrari to put vettel ahead of kimi.
Islander
25th March 2018, 17:34
But his tyres were so much fresher than Kimi’s, and Kimi had no reason to push and lean on his engine for no gain. He did well to cover off Ric who has fresh boots like Vet.
So no, Kimi did all he had to to keep p2. But we have to accept that Ferrari will always resort to any option to take the place off a charging Kimi. This team is the worst place for him, but stay put he will.
socksolid (@socksolid)
25th March 2018, 19:01
To me it just looked like kimi went as fast as he could but vettel was so much faster. The tire difference wasn’t that big.
A
26th March 2018, 15:16
Vettel was saving his tyres during the first stint so he could go for a long first stint and make a later pit stop that’s why the pace diference, his second stint was a lot faster than kimi. He made a mistake during his final lap in qualifying and even with that mistake he has done virtually the same time as kimi who had a perfect lap, so I don’t think you can say kimi was the faster all weekend.
Islander
26th March 2018, 23:53
A very strange argument, that’s if you really believe it yourself….
montreal95 (@montreal95)
25th March 2018, 17:00
@rethla 1) Kimi’s strategy was the better one. Vettel would have never got in front of KR let alone LH with the pace he had before the stops. Not even close. And that’s the pace he had in the car to go that long on a set of ultras into the race. It’s not the “best” strategy at all in terms of laptime as was confirmed by Isola from Pirelli. SV was only able to do that because there was no threat from behind. Otherwise he would’ve pitted the lap after Kimi.
So , to call SV’s strategy “opportunistic” is to misuse the word. Being opportunistic is to use a small chance. Like some of Ricciardo’s overtakes for example. Without Haas Vettel would have had zero chance. So it’s not opportunism it’s just praying for a SC, to compensate for your lack of pace. Which brings us neatly to:
2) There’s no such thing “saw a different race”. No two sets of facts. Either I’m wrong or you are. Even Vettel admitted after the race that he didn’t have the pace, couldn’t get close to KR and would have only got third place in normal circumstances. I saw the gaps between them as well and KR lapped faster than SV every time he felt like it, or asked on the radio to do so, before the stops.
I’m sure there will be a detailed analysis of the race pace including KR vs SV on this site and others. I’ll just quote Vettel on the matter: “I wasn’t really a threat to P1 and P2, to Lewis and Kimi.” This from the article here on Racefans. So he was looking at a distant third place had the Haas situation not happened. Luckily for him it did. That’s all there is to it.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
25th March 2018, 17:12
@montreal95
it’s worth a punt going long on any street circuit in anticipation of a safety car
detailed analysis is just going to reveal how much control the pits have over the cars and driver’s decisions, the stuff Im reading just isnt racing. Lewis wanted to go faster, and when he did he lost the car anyway.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
25th March 2018, 17:36
@bigjoe And I largely agree that not enough of the racing is in the hand of the drivers. If I wanted to see a boffins contest I’d buy a ticket to the physics olympics. It’s very boring indeed the way F1 is now, but this is OT regarding the subject at hand.
Gabriel (@rethla)
26th March 2018, 9:55
@montreal95 I dont know why you have an obsession with stating everything Kimi did was better. They obviously split the strategies to cover all ends and Kimi got the short stick. No strategy was better than the other because they where both the same strategy.
Qualifying Kimi was impressive and Vettel made a mistake but we are talking the race here.
Kimi was never fast or on the attack when he needed to be and Vettel was. Personaly i belive that Kimi in the same position as Vettel wouldnt score a p1. We have seen it so many times before.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
28th March 2018, 21:47
@rethla I don’t know from where you get the info to base your comments on. Every credible info source is supporting my view. No expert I read had said that Vettel’s strategy was equal to Raikkonen’s. In fact every source stated it was worse and SV would’ve been farther behind KR after his stop had blind luck not intervened. So no, the strategies weren’t equal
Now to the other point: KR was fast when it mattered, he made a gap to Vettel easily in the first stint and Vettel was struggling to keep up. So much so, that had he pitted earlier he would’ve emerged behind Magnussen. Ferrari stretched the first stint to avoid that and got lucky.
You say Vettel was fast when it mattered? I dispute that too. Where did Vettel overtake LH? In the pit lane on the limiter under VSC. Now that’s fast, huge skill required… NOT! Or maybe you think LH would’ve overtaken on track if it was KR in front and not SV? Please. With the huge overtaking delta required, all SV needed to do was not make a mistake. You may think, KR would have made a mistake where SV hadn’t, but that’s pure conjecture and a logical fallacy. This weekend SV did far more mistakes than KR. In fact the only mistake KR did all weekend was being slow on the SC restart. And after that KR defended from Ricciardo easily with no mistakes.
To sum it up: I base my opinion on facts, logic and the experts view. Yours is based on nothing solid apart from maybe your solid anti-KR bias.
Gabriel (@rethla)
29th March 2018, 7:06
@montreal95
What a load of nonsense. You may base your “logic” on facts but you dont understand the facts. I have expressed my views and if they dont suit you please move on.
Len
26th March 2018, 0:22
Agree..
montreal95 (@montreal95)
25th March 2018, 17:32
@bigjoe Albert Park is just an old type circuit not a street circuit and here’s what Christian Horner said about the Haas situation: “You don’t strategise for that,it’s just luck.”
Point being: it’s not a strategy worth pursuing unless you’re on one hand desperate, as you’re not quick enough to pass the guys in front another way, an on the other hand and more importantly, you don’t have a threat from behind. You put yourself in the lap of the gods then and sometimes they do smile at you
Thanks
25th March 2018, 22:18
Considering the bad luck of crap last season, I say Vettle deserves a little luck this year. Just came down to timing. The tires kinda showed in the last 8 laps where if Vettle didn’t pull off the pit for first but came back out in third, he could have pushed Kimi for second.
I think Kimi wants to be the #1 guy. Just as Alonzo. Tension is definitely there with the teammates
mystic one (@mysticus)
26th March 2018, 0:15
you call it luck? funny, he thrown all the toys out of pram himself! he didnt need any aid in doing his miserable judgements under pressure… all he deserves is that same last laugh he had this race wiped from his face come the season end… like he said, what goes around comes around/// also what comes around also goes around…. we ll see at the end of the season whose face will be still laughing… i m not sure kimi will be pleased with decisions like these… he normally ignore and dont give duck about it, but when he cares, he shows his face…
Todfod (@todfod)
27th March 2018, 5:56
I’m not surprised with the favouritism in the Ferrari garage. When do you ever remember Vettel getting on the radio and ranting to his engineer that he wasn’t keeping him updated about Kimi’s strategy? Vettel has never had to worry about it because he knows the team has his back, and the race strategy is always to keep him in front of Raikkonen. I don’t think Ferrari could have predicted that Vettel was going to luck in to the VSC and jump Kimi, but they gave him a good shot of going long to jump Kimi, and things somehow worked out.
If Kimi can keep this weekend’s form up throughout the year, it will be an interesting battle between them. Although I wonder at what point Ferrari will just tell Kimi to pull over and let Seb through.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
28th March 2018, 21:55
@todfod The problem with your theory is that(extending SV’s first stint) was never gonna work. . In fact had there been no Haas situation SV would’ve emerged farther behind KR than he was before the stops with the pace he had on worn ultras. Yes, he might have been able to catch up on fresher tires(plus SV had better pace on soft than on ultras). But track position is king. So KR’s strategy wasn’t inferior. In normal circumstances, overcut was not a sound strategy in Aus 2018.
Todfod (@todfod)
29th March 2018, 6:04
@montreal95
I’m not saying that Kimis strategy was inferior. I’m saying that they didn’t inform kimi to push hard after his pit stop. They didn’t keep him posted on Vettels pit stop and his lap times as compared to kimi. It was crucial for Kimi to have this information for him to maintain P2, but Ferrari didn’t give him this information. That would never happen to Vettel. He would be constantly informed and asked by the team to increase his pace.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
29th March 2018, 11:25
@todfod I see, sorry I misunderstood you then. But anyway, even if they were trying to somehow put Vettel in front, without the Haas situation it was never going to work. The gap Vettel had was never even remotely enough to jump Kimi