Kimi Raikkonen returns to F1 with Lotus F1 Team

[Moominpappa]

Thanks Mar

[Suomileijona]

Thank you very much, Mar!!

Welcome back, Moominpappa!!

[beefree88]

I've done some numbers (again). I did it for the Atlas forum. Somebody was telling Kimi had been much slower that Grosjean in the qualy regardless of the mistake, it didn't fit with what I remembered and went and checked it.

I have the new timing app for iPad and it allows you to re-play the live timing, I've re-watched the live timing for Q1 and wrote down the sector times for Grosjean and Räikkönen. I was right, Grosjean and Kimi were pretty much matched.

PS. I don't intend to start a "my driver is better than your driver" discussion, as a matter of fact I don't like that kind of discussion at all, but I thought somebody could find these numbers interesting, especially since there are people who seem to be a bit worried about Räikkönen's speed today in qualy.

Thanks Mar! I'm not interested in a "my driver is better than your driver" discussion either, but I always appreciate getting information that make the picture more complete

[reppo]

Thanks Mar

Heikki Kulta in Turun Sanomat wrote that Kimi lost the necessary seconds for an other lap in changing his helmet. Kimi wanted to try a different kind of visor. Without that he would have had enough time.
http://www.ts.fi/moottoriurheilu/f1/323 ... kierroksen (in Finnish)
Anyway he drove well from p17 to p7 and Romain showed that E20 has potential in qualifying That was very positive. Too bad Romain had bad luck with Maldonano.

[sleenster]

Kimi - blue flags

[Mar]

I know that I sometimes sound like a big hen mum, looking out for my little chicken, but I've read people, who actually were sitting in the stands during the race, saying the marshals were waving the blue flags to the wrong drivers.

I couldn't stop laughing when I heard him, though. I love it when he's angry

[Kriss]

thanks sleenie
that was hilarious

[Edi96]

Kimi was not the only driver who complained about the blue flags.
Button: "Why do I keep getting blue flags?"
Pit » BUT: "They are warning you about cars leaving the pits. Everything is fine."

[Ferrariman60]

Haha! It was even funnier the second time!
I didn't know Kimi could shout like that.

[Kriss]

http://www.lotusf1team.com/Kimi-Raikkon ... ml?lang=en

Kimi Räikkönen: "I think we have a chance to fight for podiums"

Kimi shares his thought on an eventful day down under, as he made his long awaited Formula 1 comeback at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix

Congratulations Kimi, that performance must make you one of the heroes of the day

(Laughs) I don’t know about that, but today went pretty well. Yesterday we made some mistakes which cost us quite a bit so it could easily have been better. We had the safety car which I think actually hurt us a bit as well. I made a good start but then there was an accident in front of me at the first turn, so we lost a few places there as I had to almost stop and move onto the grass to avoid it. That made the race harder again as we had the speed, but a lot of traffic to get through.

When you look at all these things we could have finished in a much better position, so overall the weekend was far from ideal. The good thing is that the car was handling well and to come back to 7th was not a bad result. It at least means we came away with some points and made a big improvement from Saturday.

How did it feel coming back to Formula 1 after two years away? Did you find it easy getting into the groove with a new car, new tyres and the DRS?

To be honest it didn’t feel any different to when I last raced. There have been a few rule changes but the racing itself is very similar. The DRS is easier to use in the race than in practice or qualifying because there are only certain places you can activate it, whereas in the other sessions people will try to push the limits of how early they can use it which can easily lead to a mistake if you are too aggressive.

I wouldn’t say the cars themselves have changed that much. Obviously they are different to when I was last racing in 2009, but every year the teams must design a new car so it’s like starting over again each season. The tyres seem fine so far as well, so overall it’s all been a fairly smooth.

You came on the radio asking the team about the blue flags; what happened there?

Nothing at all really, I was just wondering what was going on as they kept showing me the flags but I knew the gap to the leader was nowhere near a whole lap! I assumed it was for the car behind that I’d just overtaken but it seemed to go on for a while, so I was trying to find out why they were still waving at me!

Given your performance today and where Romain managed to qualify yesterday, how much potential do you feel the E20 has?

Like I said throughout testing and yesterday as well, the car feels very good. Today I was mostly stuck in traffic so it didn’t show so much, and who knows what might have happened if we had a better grid slot, but there is a lot of speed in the car. We just need to avoid putting ourselves in a position like we were in after qualifying yesterday.

With round 1 now done and dusted, what are your thoughts moving on to Malaysia?

I’m happy to get the first race out of the way. We’ll be trying to improve our performance in Malaysia for sure. We don’t know how the car will behave there but it’s been good everywhere so far so hopefully it’ll be the same again. It’ll be hot and humid which is a challenge but we have a good car, so as long as we don’t make the same kind of mistakes again in qualifying I think we have a chance to fight for podiums. We’ll have to wait and see.

Round 2 of the World Championship takes us to Kuala Lumpur next weekend, March 23-25 where the team will be looking to build on the potential shown here in Australia this weekend.

[f194girl]

Haha! It was even funnier the second time!
I didn't know Kimi could shout like that.

Oh yes, I laughed when I heard it So he did a solid race and I think, when he is 100% familiar with the team, the car, the procecesses he´ll do much better!

[Kriss]

Haha! It was even funnier the second time!
I didn't know Kimi could shout like that.

Oh yes, I laughed when I heard it So he did a solid race and I think, when he is 100% familiar with the team, the car, the procecesses he´ll do much better!

After a bad Saturday I think he should be a little bit happier. He was driving quite well today. Avoiding an accident in the first corner, baby-sitting the tyres , getting P7. OK there's a few pleces for improvement.
But I'm happy

[iceman1]

Australian Grand Prix: Kimi Raikkonen impresses on F1 return

The BBC F1 team analyse 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen's first race after a two-year absence from the sport.

Now driving for the Lotus team, the Finn had qualified a lowly 17th but surged his way up through the field to take a deserved seventh.

However, Jake Humphrey, Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard think he may need to brush up on his knowledge of the blue flags.

..baby-sitting the tyres.

I like that

[Kriss]

thanks Iceman for the video
Button was also complaining about the blue flag

[sleenster]

thanks Iceman for the video
Button was also complaining about the blue flag

But Kimi did it in a much funnier way