Raikkonen: E21 is stronger in every area

2013 Australian Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikkonen says Lotus’s 2013 challenger is an improvement over their previous car in every area.

“I think you always want more, but this car is a pretty good starting point and we’ll see,” he said. “Hopefully we’re fast enough.”

“I don’t think there’s any area where it feels worse than last year’s car, so far everything is better.

“We had good speed last year, but not enough to win the championship. That means we need more speed this year. If we can get just a little more from the car and keep our consistency, with some better results at the beginning of the year, then we should have a much better chance.”

Raikkonen said he wasn’t concerned about the amount of pre-season testing mileage he’d missed out on due to problems with his car and, on one occasion, being unwell:

“We had some problems in testing but we still completed quite a few laps. Of course, you always want more laps, but it is what it is. We’re all going racing and then we’ll really see where we’re at.

“I’m not really concerned about reliability or anything like that as it was the same problem which caused us the biggest problems in testing and we’re on top of that now. You can never be 100% certain of course, but if you look at last season we had problems before the start of the year then we were pretty good when we got to the races.

“Of course we hope that we can perform better than last year, but let’s see how it goes.”

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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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34 comments on “Raikkonen: E21 is stronger in every area”

  1. The excitement I’m feeling right now is just plain painful.

    1. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
      11th March 2013, 10:34

      +1. Me too.

    2. The excitement seems heightened somehow this year. I certainly have never known people to pay so much attention to testing. Me and a couple of my mates have even taken Friday off work to watch practice sessions, since practice 2 starts at 0530am UK time. I don’t care what people think, I’m not missing it!

  2. petebaldwin (@)
    11th March 2013, 10:29

    “We had good speed last year, but not enough to win the championship. That means we need more speed this year”

    Good old Kimi… Telling it how it is.

    1. Kimi, you are a good honest politic-less man.

      Wish you all the best in 2013. May the force be with you.

    2. I wonder if Alonso has that car what position in the championship he will be??

      1. Im sure kimi would be glad to exchange car with Fernando.

        A car that only good on extreme hot weather compare to consistent strong pace of the ferrari.

        Not to mention the team had difficulty developing the car after summer break with insufficient fund unlike ferrari that kept bringing new parts.

        1. What?, Alonso would have won the Championship with last year’s Lotus. Can’t help but feel Kimi and Romain did not quite utilise their far superior package in relation to Ferrari, especially in qualifying.

          1. The car was so bad on cool condition and extreme wet races.

            The car + DRS couldn’t even overtake ferrari on straight without DRS.

            Ironically, the car failed to heat the harder compound for eg Austin.

            Ferrari is a great racing car. With best launch, best straightline pace and consistent race pace on all tyre compounds.

            Not to mention Lotus had dropped their development after summer break.

            Im not Alonso fan who believe he could defy the law of physics. LMAO

          2. Haha, win title with a lotus when he couldnt with a ferrari.

            what a joke. Another delusioned fan believe the ferrari is crap.

          3. what?? superios than Ferrari??

            What kind of illogical statement was that?? How can a car with almost 0 development after summer break win a title?? LOL

            And Candice is right about the inconsistent pace that only showed on extreme sun shine. And the car ‘s difficulty in overtook car due to poor straightline pace. Thats why you only seen kimi overtook people from corners.

          4. Speaking of wet pace, didn’t Lotus tried to find the rear balance on barcelona wet outing in order to solve their gremline issues on wet pace?? They could spot irregular aero testing spray pattern on the rear wing, suggesting the airflow wasnt working with the rear wing configuration.

            Hopefully they sorted it out.

          5. he is not a Ferrari fan as i know. He is a Hamilton fan.

            In the first part of the season Lotus had the best car. from Italy to Suzuka they were behind Red Bull, Mclaren and Ferrari. From Suzuka to Brasil they were the third team behind Mclaren and red bull.

            Based on the analyse in this site made by @keithcollantine rating car performance in 2012 was:
            1.Mclaren 2.Red bull 3. Lotus 4. Ferrari

            So in average Alonso drove the 4th fastest car (but in terms of reliability the 1st)
            Considering that Raikkonen complete all the races the reliability of the lotus was also great.
            In my opinion Alonso could and should had more chances to win the championship with Mclaren, Red Bull and Lotus based in performance compared to Ferrari.

            I cant say 100% he would had won because i dont know, that’s why i think he would have more chances.

          6. “In the first part of the season Lotus had the best car”

            For eg
            Ferrari dominating on most wet gp. Consistenly challenge for podiums in most gp unlike Lotus only on certain track that was hot.

            Williams dominating Barcelona.

            Sauber dominate in malaysia and often quicker in most qualification than Lotus.

            Rbr lead the pack by 20 odd sec in valencia.

            Mclaren lead the pack in Spa with 20 odd sec too.

            Both team dominate in most qualification.

            You are saying Lotus is the best car on first half despite lacking qualification pace, and only do goods on softer compound and hotter track ( deg advantage)??

            Keith ‘s analysis was done based on fastest lap that has nth to do with car ‘s overall performance. Team that pit latter would have the privilege to set fastest lap time. Anyone with common sense knew that.

          7. Alonso might have just done that, after being passed by Force India and Mercedes on a straight.

      2. Are we talking about the same cry baby FA?

    3. @Manished
      Even at the last races the Ferrari was a crap car, remember the spectacle of having to penalise Massa so as to give Alonso a better grid position in Austin? Whereas the Lotus was a good car throughout the year but the 2 pilots just could not qualify it high enough consistently.

    4. Yes, I hope they did get the car on a similar level, or better. Good to see them fighting for the top spot too.

  3. Oh how badly I want that this man would win this years world championship!

  4. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
    11th March 2013, 10:36

    Testing speculations are something I have learnt to ignore over the years. The first Grand Prix is usually the only indicator of what is to come for a team, or for a particular driver.
    Having sleepless nights waiting for 17th! :D

    1. Usually the teams don’t rely on performances from the flyaway races. Barcelona is a more clear indicator. If you take into account how Ferrari’s performance in the opening round last year, they were out of the championship.

      1. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
        11th March 2013, 11:02

        @klaas : Ferrari would have stayed out of the Championship if new parts hadn’t come in. Alonso getting so close was a result of new parts coming in, and also some unreliability issues in Vettel’s RB8.

        1. @shreyasf1fan Exactly what I was pointing out. The new parts came at Barcelona and from there the picture changed – from struggling to get in Q3 they became contenders.

          1. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
            11th March 2013, 11:24

            Yeah. To be honest I had forgotten that the new parts had come in at Catalunya. Somehow it was in my mind that they had come in at Monaco.

          2. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
            11th March 2013, 11:24

            @klaas Yeah. To be honest I had forgotten that the new parts had come in at Catalunya. Somehow it was in my mind that they had come in at Monaco.

      2. Mind you, last year Ferrari’s tyre strategies botched up from Spain to Britain, which should have been at least a few more wins, and a podium in Canada. Which in my view, does par with RB reliability issues.

        1. Why Spain? If I remember right it was Charles Pic who sealed the deal for Fernando

          1. In Barcelona, not Valencia, Ferrari didn’t nail their pitstop at the right time which allowed Moldonado to win.

  5. Whatever Kimi said I read them in his voice.

    1. @aish I even read that comment in Kimi’s voice and now I’m happy for the team and the car is ok but not great and we must improve the car for sure..

  6. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    11th March 2013, 15:47

    I suppose this has something to do with the fact that he no longer hears Simon Rennie’s voice when he’s in it.

  7. Kimi, may the force be with you

  8. Kimi is awesome. While 3rd in WDC in his first year back might not meet the Iceman’s high standards, he’s amazing!

Comments are closed.