Kimi Raikkonen returns to F1 with Lotus F1 Team

[reppo]

http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f1/uutiset.s ... -muutoksia (in Finnish)

Mika Salo: Of course Kimi must demand changes

MTV3's F1 commentator Mika Salo considers fully correct that Kimi Raikkonen insists persistently changes to steering of his car from Lotus.

The steering of Lotus has not been at any stage entirely consistent with the wishes of Räikkönen. Kimi demanded changes to steering last time in Grand Prix of Monaco's first practice. Sky Sports confused the situation earlier this week by claiming on its website that Lotus team workers would already have an opinion that Räikkönen should just adapt to it, what kind the steering of the car is.

- Of course, Kimi must demand changes, so that he gets the feeling to the car. Otherwise it is not possible to drive it at the limit. It is quite normal that the driver requires the team to change their car. Large teams are able to build even a new car during the season, but Lotus does not have that possibility, Salo says.

Salo points out that Raikkonen could not have affect to this year's car design in any way, because he came to the team just in this season.

- The current car is built according last year's drivers' Petrov's and Senna's feedback. There is no effect from Kimi. The more Kimi requires changes, the more the team understands it and makes changes to at least to next year's car, Salo says.

Salo know from his own personal experience how drivers must drive a car developed according to preferences of the team's previous drivers.

- When Kimi entered to Sauber at the time , the car was constructed by my preferences. And when I went to Sauber, it was after Alesi pretty terrible car, which had up to three pedals, when he refused brake with the left foot, Salo says.

[Kriss]

thanks reppo

finally some sence

[icemaid]

It takes another driver to know better not some journo hearsay from an unhappy employee.
Thanks reppo.
Thanks Mika!

[mikhailv]

Its the Trulli thing; It took Caterham a year and a half to get power steering sorted, once that was sorted, Trulli beat Kovalainen consistently.

I bet its quite hard to adapt from one F1 car, to another, let alone the feeling different ones would give. But imagine going from an F1 car, to an adapted road car for two years, then coming back. It would be ultimatly harder. Especially when Kimi would be used to tyres which are predictable; you knew the characteristics of Michelin, he knew the characteristics of Bridgestones compounds. Pirelli are a totally different rubber changing hour by hour in how they act ontop of a car which hates anything but perfect temperatures.

Kimi still does a good job with steering not to his liking. When he does get it, I can only hope the team themselves can pull it together because theyve let kimi down at just about every opportunity possible. I think the only problem is, will Lotus have the patience with Kimi to keep trying to fix the steering if and when its not to his taste again? They should do, but with how Boullier is, i wouldnt be surprised if he just tells him to adapt.

[phil1993]

Alan Permane talking about Monaco

"I don't want to say he didn't turn up, but he had a difficult start to the weekend with his power steering," says Permane. "He said 'Absolutely no way,' which is a bit of a shame really because what we did we only did because of his request. We designed something specifically to his specification. We said, 'What do you want to use in Monaco, what have you used in Monaco before?' We produced that and he didn't like it. He said there was no way he could drive with it, so we lost the session."

Could he have muddled through at least the first part of practice one and then have it changed in the lunch break? Permane accepts it would have been tough for the Finn if he wasn't happy or confident in the feel of the car.

"He is incredibly sensitive to steering, so I think it would have been a waste of time. If he says so, then there's no point. It wasn't ideal. Of course it's never easy when you miss a session in Monaco and then it's wet, but he wasn't quite there. If you look at Romain's times in FP1 and compare them to Kimi's times in FP2 when it was dry, Romain was there straight away, the way he was chucking the car around and the way he was comfortable with the car. It was really sorted for him and he was really happy, and I just don't think Kimi was happy at all during the weekend."

[Kriss]

Alan Permane talking about Monaco

where did he say that?

[phil1993]

Autosport PLUS.

[Kriss]

Autosport PLUS.

Thanks

[Mar]

Alan Permane talking about Monaco

where did he say that?

What is it that you don't like/makes you sad there, Kriss?

Permane says they had done the steering thing to Räikkönen's wishes (which is true) and he didn't like it (which is also true). He doesn't say whose fault it was, it could be Räikkönen's feedback or whoever should have designed it that took it wrong. I think it's okay he doesn't say who made the mistake there, whoever it was.
At least, he acknowledges it made no sense to drive a car the driver felt as undrivable, which is already an improvement compared with what's been said lately, and he also acknowledges that Kimi didn't feel comfortable with the car all weekend long. That's also not bad. It happens every now and then and the drivers have to try to survive those weekends with as many points as they can. Actually, I don't understand that part as something bad.

I have read the whole article and I have to say that I don't find anything wrong in it. Okay, there are two things that aren't that right. First, he forgets all the times it's been the team who binned it and, second, that he uses "screw up" to explain what Grosjean did with the start in Monaco. It's true Grosjean screwed it up, but Permane should have not said it.

He explains pretty well what happened with the strategy in Monaco, for example, and why they made the decisions they made. As a matter of fact he's right there.

Another part of the same article:

It's no secret that the Kimi steering saga caused some frustration in the Enstone camp in Monaco. But just six races into his comeback the Finn has shown some real spark on Sundays, even if his less experienced team mate has usually had the edge in qualifying. Permane is not afraid to express disappointment if he thinks the drivers haven't got the most out of the package, but overall he's happy with the way they have performed.

The only thing is that the Lotus guys talk to the press about some things the other teams don't, and they always forget to talk about their own mistakes. Okay, it's not one of those absolutely empty PR interviews that, for example, Ferrari give to sing the praises of Alonso or McLaren to sing the praises of Hamilton even when they've made evident mistakes (which all drivers make). But I really don't see any worrying criticism there, I don't read in that article that they have given Räikkönen a winning car and he's not winning with it, on the contrary,he explains they have not won yet because the circumstances weren't the right ones... and I'm one of those who doesn't trust Lotus management intentions in anything related with Räikkönen.

[Kriss]

It was just a surprisingly open opinion, at least for me

Reading this part I felt they were blaming Kimi for being picky nevertheless the team did eveything to please him with that stupid stearing. Maybe I was too sensitive

"He said 'Absolutely no way,' which is a bit of a shame really because what we did we only did because of his request. We designed something specifically to his specification. We said, 'What do you want to use in Monaco, what have you used in Monaco before?' We produced that and he didn't like it

I always enjoy to read your posts

[Mar]

Aww, thanks!

That's probably the issue, Permane is talking about things other teams will never talk about and if we read it using the eyes we would use to read what Whitmarsh says (for example) it would be more than worrying. But reading the different things he says about Grosjean, I think we can stay calmed That or Permane thinks that Grosjean is a slow driver, that underperforms with a perfect car, who doesn't even know how to use the throttle of the car and who should have been penalized by the stewards for being a crash kid Compared to that, not being able to make the team produce a steering with your feedback is a pretty minor defect.
The thing I like the most is that Permane always talks about the car when he's talking about Monaco's race. He never suggests that Kimi could have extracted more from that car (or the way it was set up) on Sunday.

We don't know what these guys are telling in the paddock. If they are telling other teams "Kimi is a lazy idiot that blah, blah, blah", well that would be bad, but if what they are saying is what Permane told Autosport there is no problem.

Imagine you are Whitmarsh and you are thinking about hiring Räikkönen next year (just an example, I'm not saying that the case) and Permane comes and tells you "we designed a steering for Kimi with the feedback he gave us, and he didn't like it". What would you answer? I would reply: "we didn't have any problem to design steerings for him with that same feedback. Who's designing steerings in your team? I would like to know his name to be sure I won't hire him".

Really, reading what Permane says about Grosjean in that article, I simply think he's being unusually open/honest to be in F1.

[iceman1]

Good explanation Mar

The whole situation remind me of a film called "The curious case of Benjamin Button". Well it should be Kimi Raikkonen

[Suomileijona]

Phil and Mar thank you very much!

[Kriss]

Good explanation Mar

The whole situation remind me of a film called "The curious case of Benjamin Button". Well it should be Kimi Raikkonen

you mean Kimi will be young again?

[Green Flag]

It was just a surprisingly open opinion, at least for me

Reading this part I felt they were blaming Kimi for being picky nevertheless the team did eveything to please him with that stupid stearing. Maybe I was too sensitive

"He said 'Absolutely no way,' which is a bit of a shame really because what we did we only did because of his request. We designed something specifically to his specification. We said, 'What do you want to use in Monaco, what have you used in Monaco before?' We produced that and he didn't like it

Actually I took it the same way. I understand that the team was disappointed when the steering didn't work as intended, but the way it was reported made it sound like rather than being disappointed the team was somehow offended. And that is just wrong. I mean they are professional engineers and if a piece of equipment doesn't work properly, then it doesn't work properly. There are no two ways about it. It doesn't matter if the part is designed specifically for Kimi, it doesn't matter how hard you have worked to make that part, it doesn't matter how many laps it took to find it out, it doesn't matter how badly you wanted it to work... if it doesn't work it doesn't work. And making your disappointment publicly known doesn't help. Find out what went wrong and try to fix it.

Sorry for the rant I really hope there will be no need to even mention the word "steering" in Canada...

I always enjoy to read your posts

Me too