Kimi Raikkonen says his Alfa Romeo team was aware of the potential problem with his front wing which led to his disqualification from qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Raikkonen revealed he had a damaged front wing at the previous race in China but the team was not able to address the problem which led to the failure before this weekend’s race.His front wing did not pass a deflection test after qualifying, which led to him being disqualified from the session.
“I don’t know what happened, I got a message this morning,” said Raikkonen. “Last race I had an issue at the end of the race with a broken stay on the front wing and we lost the downforce. So probably it is a similar thing that has caused it, unfortunately.
“We knew the issue after the last race but we didn’t have time to produce a new one so this is what you get. It surely doesn’t make us faster but this is what it is. Hopefully then it’s fair for everybody.
Raikkonen’s disqualification meant he started the race from the pits. He finished the race in tenth place. “We need to do things better a little bit better here and there,” he added.
@Josh5Holland contributed to this article.
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elchinero (@elchinero)
28th April 2019, 16:45
He got 10th from the pit lane = +1
Rahim.RG
28th April 2019, 16:48
Nice drive by Kimi. Kept his points streak. With some luck though. He’s having fun battling at the back:)
Jere (@jerejj)
28th April 2019, 17:16
I was going to post ‘And yet they still did nothing to avoid the potential of a DSQ from the qualifying results’ until I saw the ”but we didn’t have time to produce a new one” part.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
1st May 2019, 1:38
Yet they somehow managed to make the front wing strong enough so it could pass the test and be allowed to race.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
28th April 2019, 17:17
Really with the problems Alfa lost some points already this season. His pace was good for P6/P7 in this race so at least 5 points lost. Adding up the 3-5 points lost in the previous 3 races and the Giovinazzi troubles and they could be ruing it later in the season. Also, they didn’t have time to change the electronics in China while Haas did, they didn’t have time to change the wing between China and Baku(?!). It’s a worrying trend. At least Kimi’s getting the best he can out of it…
juni
28th April 2019, 17:36
It seems that Alfa is really poor financially…….
erix
28th April 2019, 18:15
This scandal is worse than Austria 2002, humiliating the sport.
khm78 (@khm)
28th April 2019, 23:15
Why did they not have the correct frontwing for quali, but after the disqualification, they suddenly found one in the garage…..?
mog
28th April 2019, 23:44
Was thinking the same.
Perhaps it was a spec 1 and 2 issue?
DAllein (@)
29th April 2019, 8:22
Front Wings are easy to miss!
Around all the mess in the garage it probably just fell behind some toolbox…
Ahmad Albashrawi (@abashrawi)
29th April 2019, 10:10
@khm I think what he means is that they have a wing that fails easily. It failed in China, replaced, and the new one failed again during Qualifying. They didn’t have time/resources to replace it with a redesigned, more robust build yet.