Pit error won’t make Raikkonen leave Lotus – Boullier

2013 British Grand Prix

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Lotus team principal Eric Boullier says strategy errors such as the one Lotus made at Silverstone won’t lead Kimi Raikkonen to leave the team.

Raikkonen has been tipped to join Red Bull in 2014 as a replacement for Mark Webber who is leaving F1 to race in the World Endurance Championship.

During the second Safety Car period at the British Grand Prix Lotus deciding against putting Raikkonen on a fresh set of tyres. It left him vulnerable to several drivers who had and he fell from second to fifth in the final laps.

“It was pretty obvious with hindsight that we made the wrong call,” Boullier admitted. “Kimi was pretty frustrated when he got out of the car which is understandable – we wouldn’t want a driver who
wasn’t frustrated after what happened – but there’s no point sitting in the corner sulking. We’re focused on getting a good result in Germany.”

“Kimi’s an intelligent guy and he won’t let a single pit stop call define a decision like where to drive for 2014,” Boullier added. “One of his psychological strengths is that he clearly lets you know when he’s upset about something, then he refocuses and gets on with the next challenge very quickly. He seems to like being with Lotus F1 Team and we’re doing everything we can to show him this is the place to be for next season and beyond.”

Trackside operations director Alan Permane said whichever decision Lotus could have taken at that point in the race posed a degree of risk:

“Having stopped moments beforehand, Fernando [Alonso] was extremely fortunate with the timing of the safety car. Mark [Webber] was on options that were fading fast, so the timing of Sebastian [Vettel] parking his Red Bull in a place where a safety car was needed was most fortuitous for Mark. Nico [Rosberg’s] lead was such that he had a free stop.

“Of the cars, like us, who were on hard tyres and planning to go to the end, Daniel [Ricciardo] and Adrian [Sutil] stayed out just like us. Based on the information we had at the time and what we believed the pace difference to the medium tyre would be, the call was made to stay out because we believed that our tyres were in good enough shape to run to the end in that position.

“Had we pitted for [medium compound tyres] and seen Kimi stuck behind Daniel and Adrian for the remainder of the race we would have been equally criticised, so it was a risk either way.”

2013 British Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
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18 comments on “Pit error won’t make Raikkonen leave Lotus – Boullier”

  1. It would make an interesting fight at RBR if Kimi does go there. I really hope he does.

    1. It’d be a bit like the Mercedes duo- two strong drivers raising each other’s games. I’d love to see it.

      On the other hand, I hope Ricciardo and Vergne can remain in F1, I’d miss them a lot more than I do with Buemi, Alguersuari or Speed.

      1. If TR were not a feeder team to RB then I suspect neither Ricciardo or Vergne would be under consideration for Webber’s seat. I just hope RB can do the sport and their brand a favour by hiring Raikkonen.

      2. Kimi goes to Red Bull, Ricciardo and JEV go to Lotus and Grosjean goes to demolition derby, problems solved.

      3. @david-a

        Mercedes have an amazing situation. Both drivers are incredibly fast, but at the same time, they are both to come second if the other guy beat them fair and square.

        If Kimi went to Red Bull, I doubt they’d be able to emulate that. And that I think should be enough to prevent him going there…

        I hope I’m wrong though, it’d be great to watch!

  2. It seems like Alan Permane had not learned his lesson…

    Webber clocked 1.33 on fresh set of tyre….2 sec – 3 sec faster than kimi on 2x laps old tire.

    Had they pitted kimi for fresh option, he could easily breeze through the vulnerable Daniel and Sutil.

    1. Hindsight is a gift, ain’t it?

      1. Is that what “HS” stands for? ;)

      2. 20-20 vision in Hindsight i say!

  3. Funny how often these qoutes come up. And also interesting how it’s just from Lotus every time.

  4. Even during his mclaren days when retirement is like having lunch, he never blame the teams.

    This is the first time i saw Kimi getting so furious and blame the team. That’s a sign of ” forget it, im getting out of here”

  5. Kimi’s an intelligent guy and he won’t let a single pit stop call define a decision like where to drive for 2014.

    But 10 mistakes related to pit stops can do it. Lotus made many mistakes related to pit stops – wrong calls, slow pit stops etc., and Kimi can remember all of those when/if Red Bull offers a contract to him.

  6. “…so the timing of Sebastian [Vettel] parking his Red Bull in a place where a safety car was needed was most fortuitous for Mark.”

    Is this not a seditious statement?

    1. I don’t know but i heard it from plenty of fans and it’s really annoying, he stayed on the track because he was still trying to coax the car and when he gave up he parked as far away from the racing line as possible, i doubt Mark ever came to mind, and if so he certainly wouldn’t try to help him

    2. It was pretty clear to me that Sebastian could have parked his RB a lot closer to the pit wall.

  7. The choice of teams for Kimi, should he have that choice available, a combination of where he has the best chance of winning and where he is the most comfortable with the team. In other words, we won’t really know until Red Bull makes an offer and what the state of the Lotus development is at that time. Next season is already going to be a shake-up anyway. Sure, Red Bull should be one of the best teams next season and I think they will be. But, there are no guarantees.

  8. yuya (@john-locke)
    3rd July 2013, 12:18

    Kimi blames teams not few time. He blamed ferrari often 2008,09.

    Kimi don’t want to go RBR, he fears beaten by Vettel.

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