Kimi Raikkonen returns to F1 with Lotus F1 Team

[Claudie_Schnaudie]

and the team felt there was some unused potential in the Lotus as Raikkonen faded from sixth early on to ninth by the finish.

Wasn't he out there a lot longer than he was supposed to be because of Lotus's raindance? It is 2012, teams with high-tech equipments can not predict the weather for the next hour??

Telling bad things about Kimi is one thing. What about the other driver? He finished 3 out of 6 races at the first corner

It is well-known that Kmi has motion sickness in the simulator I really don't know throwing up how could help them with the steering issue?

Well to be fair at this moment I also wanted Kimi to stay out longer coz of the potential rain! And Lotus hasn´t been the only team who thought that it would rain soon. But yeah they could have pit him at the lap when Nico pitted.

I don´t want them to say bad things about Grosjean (same with Kimi). They should criticize them inside the team (both drivers).

Well I guess that it wouldn´t have hurt him to at least do some simulator work (half an hour or whatever)

[Claudie_Schnaudie]

Kimi should do all the tests possible. There are not too much of them. Häkkinen used to sit from sunrise to sundown in the cockpit just waiting what to test next. If Kimi really didn't want to test it in simulator then it is nothing but his own fault. They could at least found out that it was too fast for Monaco track and not waste the whole practice session doing remounting. Kimi might be following too much Hunt's example: jump in and drive, jump out and have fun. Even if F1 is entertainment and not dead serious thing or the most important thing in the life, do it as well as resources lets you do. I won't go to listen a band where drummer misses the beat because he didn't practise, or go to watch a play where an actor forgets his lines because he didn't care to memorize the script. Kimi has exceptional talent but that is not enough to succeed nor an excuse to skip testing. I wish Lotus would clear the thing- though might be too much to ask.

+1

[Kriss]

well said reppo

[Mar]

Losing FP1 dry running cost him-setup time and lost tyre data. I'm sure it cost him points!

Their main problem were the supersofts. They don't use the supersofts in FP1. That's what doesn't add up.

But even if they did struggle on SS he could have qualified 4th-5th (as Grosjean) which would have helped him at the end!

The reason why he didn't qualify around 5th (remember Grosjean got 4th because of Schumacher's penalty) was the mistake he made in S3 in the hot lap. Both Lotus were matching times in that hot lap until that moment.

What would have happened if he had started upper front? Well, first, Grosjean would had provably had taken him with him during the crash, but anyway, the result would have been the same. The problem were the supersofts wearing off too soon. If he would have started upper front to the maximum the car was giving, he would have hold behind him maybe Alonso and Massa the same way he held Schumacher, but it wouldn't have made the smallest difference, because in the pits he would have come out exactly in the same position, behind pic and Alonso and Massa would have jumped him the same way Schumacher did.

[reppo]

It is well-known that Kmi has motion sickness in the simulator I really don't know throwing up how could help them with the steering issue?

It is actually Schumacher who had a well known issue of motion sicness in simulator. He has told that other drivers including Kimi suffers it too. That was a problem with early simulators which didn't simulate G-forces. Modern simulator do that, unless, of course if Lotus is using XBox or something

[phil1993]

Losing FP1 dry running cost him-setup time and lost tyre data. I'm sure it cost him points!

Their main problem were the supersofts. They don't use the supersofts in FP1. That's what doesn't add up.

If their problem was with the supersoft then they should have done a 2 stop strategy and pushed more on the prime tyres.

I'm sorry, but losing FP1 did cost them. It's 90 minutes of data that isn't gathered. Grosjean got the better of him and would have finished ahead but for the turn one collision. It was a disappointing weekend for Kimi; I know he likes the sensitive steering, but why does it keep changing from track to track? They need to find a fix, if not then Kimi will go the way of Trulli once Romain curbs his enthusiasm.

It's just one bad race, they'll get over it hopefully. It's just not good that six races into the season he's still having problems with the steering.

[Claudie_Schnaudie]

Losing FP1 dry running cost him-setup time and lost tyre data. I'm sure it cost him points!

Their main problem were the supersofts. They don't use the supersofts in FP1. That's what doesn't add up.

But even if they did struggle on SS he could have qualified 4th-5th (as Grosjean) which would have helped him at the end!

The reason why he didn't qualify around 5th (remember Grosjean got 4th because of Schumacher's penalty) was the mistake he made in S3 in the hot lap. Both Lotus were matching times in that hot lap until that moment.

What would have happened if he had started upper front? Well, first, Grosjean would had provably had taken him with him during the crash, but anyway, the result would have been the same. The problem were the supersofts wearing off too soon. If he would have started upper front to the maximum the car was giving, he would have hold behind him maybe Alonso and Massa the same way he held Schumacher, but it wouldn't have made the smallest difference, because in the pits he would have come out exactly in the same position, behind pic and Alonso and Massa would have jumped him the same way Schumacher did.

Well at least he would have had fresh tyres for Q3 and wouldn´t have started on older tyres (compared to the rest).

At the end he might have been that he only finished 1-2 places higher but at least he wouldn´t have had such problems over the whole weekend and had more pace.

[Mar]

But then again I dunno maybe he thought that this problem can´t be solved with simulation work? If this was possible they already could have tried 10000 solutions?

Well anyway if true I can understand why some mechanics who are working their asses off are frustrated with him and his performance has been really poor! Of course such stuff shouldn´t come to public but I hope that Lopez and Boullier gave him philippic

One of the things is to which extent simulations work.
In my field they are simply c**p. And in F1, last year for India, the teams said pre-GP which times they expected for the laps in the circuit, and no-one of them was close at all

His performance has been really poor?
Well, I suppose two podiums are not really that poor. And if you mean during Monaco GP, well, he avoided an unavoidable crash with his teammate, he avoided a more than unavoidable crash with Pérez (I'm still trying to guess how on earth he got out of there in one piece), he managed to hold cars much faster than his behind him for laps and laps and laps, and he was the fastest guy on track during the race when it began to rain.
Maybe it was not his best race ever, but "really poor"?

[Claudie_Schnaudie]

Was talking about Monaco only

Yeah he still knows to handle difficult situations (he is one of the best when it comes to such stuff me thinks) but his pace has been pretty poor the whole weekend! That´s what I meant

[Mar]

Losing FP1 dry running cost him-setup time and lost tyre data. I'm sure it cost him points!

Their main problem were the supersofts. They don't use the supersofts in FP1. That's what doesn't add up.

If their problem was with the supersoft then they should have done a 2 stop strategy and pushed more on the prime tyres.

I'm sorry, but losing FP1 did cost them. It's 90 minutes of data that isn't gathered. Grosjean got the better of him and would have finished ahead but for the turn one collision. It was a disappointing weekend for Kimi; I know he likes the sensitive steering, but why does it keep changing from track to track? They need to find a fix, if not then Kimi will go the way of Trulli once Romain curbs his enthusiasm.

It's just one bad race, they'll get over it hopefully. It's just not good that six races into the season he's still having problems with the steering.

The problem with the steering was specific for Monaco. All drivers have a different steering (and suspension) for Monaco to be able to go through some of the curves, especially Loewe's. It seems for the rest of tracks they have arrived to a solution where everybody is happy, it should really be a punctual problem.
As a matter of fact, they have been a bit unlucky with the steering thing. It seems what Kimi was feeling in the first test in Jerez was the chassis problem. Then they lost 4 days of testing and when they went back on track the steering they brought was not what was needed (the initial feed-back was bad because of the chassis).

A little bird has told me they already have a configuration for normal circuits that's not perfect but good enough. It should not be a problem for the rest of the season.

About the strategy, I think they really tried their best there, but it didn't work. I think that, if they had pitted twice, they would have come out in traffic after the first stop and fall out of the points in the second.
I usually think Lotus' strategists are a bit nuts, but this time, I don't really think they could have done better with what they had. Plus they were expecting the rain that didn't come.

[reppo]

A problem with power steering is that rules require it to be mechanical. Due to that changing the setup requires lots of work. If they could use some other systems and computer control, it would be easier, but rules are what they are.

I just checked from google about the Kimi and Lotus problems and found confirmation in the first hit:
viewtopic.php?t=6935&p=286582
There is a lot discussion about the subject. It must then be true - it's in TEH internet

[phil1993]

The problem with the steering was specific for Monaco. All drivers have a different steering (and suspension) for Monaco to be able to go through some of the curves, especially Loewe's. It seems for the rest of tracks they have arrived to a solution where everybody is happy, it should really be a punctual problem.
As a matter of fact, they have been a bit unlucky with the steering thing. It seems what Kimi was feeling in the first test in Jerez was the chassis problem. Then they lost 4 days of testing and when they went back on track the steering they brought was not what was needed (the initial feed-back was bad because of the chassis).

A little bird has told me they already have a configuration for normal circuits that's not perfect but good enough. It should not be a problem for the rest of the season

Thanks for the info.

[Kriss]

thanks Mar for the info

configuration for normal circuits that's not perfect but good enough

I think Kimi can live with that

[Claudie_Schnaudie]

A problem with power steering is that rules require it to be mechanical. Due to that changing the setup requires lots of work. If they could use some other systems and computer control, it would be easier, but rules are what they are.

I just checked from google about the Kimi and Lotus problems and found confirmation in the first hit:
viewtopic.php?t=6935&p=286582
There is a lot discussion about the subject. It must then be true - it's in TEH internet

Huh? Wrong link?

[Claudie_Schnaudie]

thanks Mar for the info

configuration for normal circuits that's not perfect but good enough

I think Kimi can live with that

But he could be faster with the right steering