Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, Circuit de Catalunya, 2019

Melbourne set-up is Raikkonen’s priority

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In the round-up: Kimi Raikkonen says he is focusing on trying to fine-tune his Alfa Romeo for the very different demands of the Albert Park street circuit.

What they say

I think when we got the car it’s been working well and it’s been pretty nicely balanced. Last week we didn’t really do a lot of set-up work but we tried a lot of things today just to see what happens when you change things. So far OK. I don’t know where we are. It’s guessing from our side, we only know what we do.

There’s always a lot of things and we always run out of time every year, but that’s the same as everybody. We’re just trying to put things the way we think is the best now and do our programme and then see where we can be in Australia.

We have to be ready because obviously every circuit is different, especially Australia it’s a bit different circuit, street circuit, so we need to kind of have an idea if the set-up is not where we want, what are we going to do. That’s what really today [we] try to figure out.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

What are the realistic chances of Alonso making a return to F1?

It must be difficult when stuck in a rut trying to decide whether to cut your losses and leave. Alonso “sort of” did that last year and I’m not totally surprised to see him lingering around the team already.

The McLaren certainly seems to have made a step up, but it’s impossible to tell until Melbourne. I hope it’s a good year for the team.

I could see Alonso trying to get back in… surely McLaren won’t allow that in 2019 even if they surprise everyone by fighting for wins, but perhaps in 2020. It’s too harsh on Norris and Sainz to change plans this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Alonso in the car racing in 2020 if this season is promising (and maybe if he wins the Indy 500).
Ben Needham (@ben-n)

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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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28 comments on “Melbourne set-up is Raikkonen’s priority”

  1. Regarding the COTD, like many folks the first thing I thought of when I saw McLaren at the top of the timesheets was Alonso returning.

    Certainly would not surprise me to see Alonso back driving a McLaren by the 2019 Spanish GP if the car really is competative. When it comes to F1, anything can happen, and it usually does. : )

    1. And it’s pretty likely that Sainz and/or Norris will make a mistake which gives McLaren the excuse to demote one of them.

      I do think McLaren has a good package and can be close to the top in Melbourne. They might even claim: ‘now we can fight (again)’.
      But I’m not convinced that they have re-learned how to develop during the season. And a good finishing position in Melbourne might well be their highlight of the season.

      1. Whilst I think it is a bit cynical to think McLaren will look for ways to excuse putting Alonso back in the car, who on earth would rather have a rookie or Sainz in the car over Alonso?

    2. I don’t see Alonso returning unless Norris is an absolute failure, which he won’t be. Yes, Alonso has more experience, but he doesn’t have much longevity. Norris, on the other hand has less experience but lots of longevity. With practice and experience Norris will get better. On the other hand, practice and experience won’t make Alonso younger. Maybe Alonso will do well in another racing series, but that doesn’t mean he will do well returning to F1. Presumably he left because he saw there was no future for him in F1, if so then he shouldn’t be surprised if his replacement did as well as he could have done when younger.

    3. Alonso back driving a McLaren by the 2019 Spanish GP

      You make a good point – there’s a chance that McLaren might put Alonso in Lando’s car for the Spanish GP alone, just to win some fan affection there.

      1. why can’t they just get rid of Sainz all together?

        1. @johnmilk – for that race alone – running 2 Spaniards for the PR buzz. Longer term, would make sense to invest in Lando, I agree.

          1. @phylyp the race is in a part of Spain that doesn’t even consider itself to be Spain and probably will boo the Spanish Anthem. Better put Lando alone if you ask me

          2. @johnmilk – ah yes, the Spainish GP.

  2. Alonso has been very clear that he will come back if he can fight for wins and McLaren have said they would welcome him back if he wants to return. So the questions remains: What are the realistic chances of McLaren fighting for wins? None.

    The al-Araibi case is a scary example of the powers refugees flee and it happens all too often. Unfortunately unrealistic to expect a Barhain F1 boycott at least from a sporting perspective. It’s always brought up by a couple of outlets around this time but always gets pushed aside.

    It would actually be great to see an international code stand for what is right just for once though :(

    1. I’m also struggling with what to boycott due to human right issue. The problem is that when starting with one or is a smaller stop to find an issue in the next country, and before you know it we can only race with a conscience in Belgium ;)

      1. @coldfly if you think about it that is absolutely horrifying what you just said….

    2. Alonso left Ferrari and they improved their performance the next day, same is happening with McLaren, seems that his patience runs out right at the end of bad days…

      1. or Maybe, just Maybe, he is not exactly helping his teams

        1. don’t be ridiculous, how dare you speak ill of the gods

      2. In five years, Alonso twice managed to take the fight for the WDC to the final round, narrowly missing out both times. Vettel hasn’t managed that once in four years…

  3. The biggest news for me today is that Dieter got his hands on a can of Rich Energy!

    1. the made in Austria has me Thinking-
      Maybe they Let the same Company produce their “beverage” as Red Bull does and Simply mailed them a pdf of how to print the can ?

    2. Thanks @phylyp – I thought it was just me. I travel a lot in the UK for work and everywhere I go I have looked for the stuff from small shops to supermarkets . . . nothing. I guess it will be for sale or given away at the tracks this year though.

      1. @mrboerns – that’s an interesting thought. It is likely if the factories are generic factories that are sub-contracted. That said, for the scale of Red Bull’s operations, I’d think they would own their own facilities, simply because the vertical integration will be cheaper in the long run. For instance, Coke own and operate all their factories in my country. Besides, Rich Energy claim to have a 50 million euro (or GBP?) plant up and running!

        @ahxshades – I’m now waiting for Craig’s technical article about a comparison between Rich Energy and Red Bull ;-)

        1. Rich Energy claims to have a 50 million Euro (or GBP?) plant up and running, but they didn’t say who actually owned the plant as far as I can recall. They might very well be having someone produce it for them under contract, much like some smaller beverage companies in the U.S. will have their production and bottling done by Coke (even if they’re competitors in the same market).

          I still have a bad feeling about the whole Rich Energy thing… I want to trust that Gene Haas did his homework but my gut says something’s not right and the team will suffer for it somewhere down the road. I hope I’m wrong.

          1. They might very well be having someone produce it for them under contract, much like some smaller beverage companies in the U.S. will have their production and bottling done by Coke (even if they’re competitors in the same market).

            @partsguy20 – ah, I didn’t know that was a thing. And yes, I – like you and others – have the same concerns that you’ve articulated.

        2. @phylyp Red Bull is produced and distributed by Rauch afaik
          Rauch also used to be on the rbr rearview mirrors, not sure if the brand is still on the car though

          1. @mrboerns – thank you, good to know!

    3. It’s funny because I always thought that re-branded cans of RedBull are called ToroRosso

      1. @johnmilk

        LoL

        Brilliant !!!

    4. I think it’s online-only, and I’m guessing Rich Energy has a separate production facility (likely subcontracted) in the UK to ease Brexit. This would enable them to market themselves as British… …even though said facility probably won’t even activate until March 30, because if they do have their own Austrian facility (or even a larger-scale rental arrangement from Red Bull), Austria’s probably a cheaper production location in the interim.

  4. Regarding the COTD: I share the same views on it as @drycrust

Comments are closed.