Renault not a factor in 2014 decision – Raikkonen

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Kimi Raikkonen says his choice of team for 2014 won’t be determined by how close they are to engine supplier Renault.

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Kimi Raikkonen Q&A: No deadline for 2014 decision (F1)

“I have no idea what they are doing at Red Bull. The only thing that I know is that Lotus is very close with Renault and they are working fantastically together. I don’t think that there is any difference between how the teams work together with Renault. They are very fair, so these considerations are not affecting my decision.”

Alonso unsure of strategy gamble (BBC)

“It is not clear which strategy is best. But, whatever the strategy, if you are fast you will be on the podium, and if you are not, you won’t be.”

Lewis Hamilton on pole again at German Grand Prix but Rosberg slips (The Guardian)

“In my wildest dreams, when I joined Mercedes I did not expect to win the championship in the first year. I thought the car was going to be in a completely different place. But I really don’t know what is realistic at the moment. I have got a 43-point gap between me and the guy in the lead but there are 11 races ahead and two wins and two not-so-good finishes for that person could change things.”

Red Bull pressure helping Ricciardo (Autosport)

“‘I guess I enjoy it,’ he said when asked about how the pressure of bidding for a top drive affected him. ‘When you hear things like that, you have to take it as positive information because it is positive for people to talk about me taking a seat like that.'”

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Comment of the day

@Pelican is pleased to hear more than just the usual dreary PR stuff from Nico Rosberg:

I, for one, am perfectly content with his honest answers. C’mon guys, would you rather he said something utterly meaningless, non-committal, and unimpeachable?

As it is, nearly every driver from second on down goes, “Yeah, it was tough but we’ll try our best tomorrow!” and you’re complaining about the one who didn’t?
@Pelican

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On this day in F1

Jo Schlesser lost his life in a crash during the French Grand Prix at Rouen 45 years ago today.

Schlesser was racing Honda’s new RA302 car which John Surtees had refused to drive, saying it was not safe enough. When Schlesser crashed on lap three the magnesium-bodied car burst into flames.

Jacky Ickx won the race ahead of Surtees, who drove an RA301, and Jackie Stewart’s Matra.

Image © Lotus/LAT

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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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35 comments on “Renault not a factor in 2014 decision – Raikkonen”

  1. Now Vettel is named “the guy/that person” by Hamilton. He doesn’t show much respect for his opponent.

    1. I don’t beleive that inference can be taken in literall sense.

    2. You’re reading too much into that I say.

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        7th July 2013, 3:04

        +1
        Making something out of nothing.

      2. This very much so.

        Seb will usually say he doesn’t look at the gap to “the guys behind” and other drivers will talk about gaps to guys or teams but they very rarely use names.

    3. @xenomorph91 I doubt Vettel is thin-skinned enough to take offence at being referred to as “that guy”. There’s nothing to this at all.

  2. @keithcollantine who is Jon Gates?

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      7th July 2013, 3:05

      From the looks of his twitter page, I’d say he’s a Red Bull propagandist.

      1. But it looks like he’s standing in a McLaren garage.

        1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
          7th July 2013, 8:16

          He’s in a Red Bull team jumper.

      2. pepe jeans jacket suggests red bull

  3. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    7th July 2013, 2:38

    @ F1 Fanatic tweet:

    I don’t think it’s anything wrong with the rules.
    I think it’s a problem with the tyres.

    This is what happens when you have 1 tyre that is good for qualifying, yet terrible in the race. And one tyre that is not good for qualifying, but is good in the race.

    The gap in performance between the soft and medium (in my opinion) is far too great. Because the soft tyre is rubbish in the race, all the teams will spend a little time as possible without losing performance on them. And then run the prime for the rest of the race.

    There needs to be less of a gap in performance between prime and option in the race so that running the option tyre is a viable option in the race.

    Same thing happened in Australia, Malaysia, China and Spain.
    Everyone ran the Prime for the majority of the race.

    1. If they got rid of the “must start on the tyre you qualify on” rule. They would all have a go.

    2. @tophercheese21 The rules force drivers who reach Q3 to start on the tyres they qualify on. It gives an incentive for drivers not to try to set the best lap time they can do in Q3, and the result is what I described in that Tweet: only six of the ten drivers tried to do the best lap they were capable of.

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        7th July 2013, 8:15

        @keithcollantine

        But if they have tyres that are of use to them in the race then there would be no need to enforce an additional rule that says they have to set a hotlap in Q3.

        I’m still confused as to why Ferrari didn’t try and set a time on the softs as their pace was very good. Atleast they could have set a good time on the Primes, but they didn’t even do that.

        Anywho, we saw in Monaco, Canada, and Silverstone, all of the drivers (if memory serves me correctly) set a hotlap in Q3, because the Option tyre was actually useful in the race.

        1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
          7th July 2013, 8:24

          Canada
          Sorry, I forgot Canada was wet qually. But from the way the race panned out, i still think you’d have seen most, if not all 10 drivers set a representative time in Canada.

          Still, I can see your point though. Something more does need to be done to get more action from EVERY car in Q3.

          Perhaps their needs to be a new rule, and a better option tyre. lol

  4. It would be nice to see Ricciardo get Webber’s seat, if only to show that the Torro Rosso kindergarten concept has value.

    However, Red Bull have said they want the best driver available; they have short-listed Raikkonen, Ricciardo and Vergne; Raikkonen is indisputably the best of those three.

    Therefore Raikkonen has the seat if he wants it and if it’s offered. Of course it also depends on how Red Bull defines the word “best”, and whether that definition takes into account the fact that the younger Ricciardo and Vergne have more development years ahead of them to deliver “best” driver performance.

    1. And also the fact that they probably want their second driver to be a number two driver. i.e. to help Vettel clinch as many titles as possible. Surely Red Bull are out to smash the record books with Vettel, so why would they want their other driver to ruin their statistics of consecutive WDCs?
      I’m almost certain Raikkonen won’t get the seat for that reason, and also because:
      – He hates politics where RB are always talking politics
      – He’s probably asking for a salary more than ten times larger than what the TR boys would get
      – He’s good mates with Vettel and I think he knows Vettel would be favoured, plus the saying “never do business with a friend unless it’s a friend you’re willing to lose”
      – He’s the oldest driver on the grid and quite famously doesn’t give a **** about anything else other than driving – try writing that on your resume, I guarantee the hiring manager won’t be too impressed when your job involves a lot of PR
      – Because of his age, he’d probably be signing yearly contracts from now where the TR boys potentially have whole careers ahead of them
      I think if Ricciardo keeps performing like he is, RB will cross Raikkonen off the list.

      1. I think if Ricciardo keeps performing like he is, RB will cross Raikkonen off the list.

        HA! Yeah right!

        Riccardo is hardly a Raikkonen equivalent, even on a multi-year basis!

        1. You don’t know that.

      2. @AdrianS @pault you guys make some very good cases, however, RBR won’t be looking at only those 3 guys, there will be those from feeder series like GP2 and other series around the world that they’ll think about, not to mention others within F1 or the test drivers. This isn’t a 3 horse race.

        1. This isn’t a 3 horse race.

          Christian Horner says it is:

          http://en.espnf1.com/redbull/motorsport/story/112949.html

      3. well said , Riccardo is the man who will get the job .

  5. “In my wildest dreams, when I joined Mercedes I did not expect to win the championship in the first year” – Lewis

    Don’t even think of it lad … not yet ..

    1. What?! Both Merc’s are clearly in the WDC hunt, along with Vettel, Webber, Alonso, and Raikkonen.

      I think what he means was he expected them to be lie McLaren are now – scrabbling for points, with no hope of the championship.

  6. I found the following responses by Vergne ominous, can anyone make any sense of it? (This is from an interview on formula1.com)

    Q: What happened to you today in qualifying? Daniel made it to P6 and you ended in P16?

    JEV: We have tried something with the tyres on my car and not on his. We split the two cars to be on the safe side with at least one car.

    Q: What will that mean for the race? Will you keep today’s changes?

    JEV: No, because what we’ve tried today on my car you can only do in qualifying so for the race I expect to have a good performance. […]

    1. The only thing that springs to mind would be the heat cycle of the tires, maybe max temp in blankets followed by slow out lap or min tyre temp followed by a fast out lap or combinations of this. this wouldn’t be possible at the start of the race.

    2. Considering the restrictions they have with Pirelli I’d say he tried a different warm-up routine and a different lap plan. Riccardo did 1 hot lap – 1 cooling lap and another hot lap while JEV did 2 consecutive hot laps.

  7. What is the latest time by which Renault and Red Bull need to finalize their driver line-up for next year

    1. The evening before the first race event of 2014.

      1. Exactly. In fact, there is nothing in the rules stopping them from running different drivers every race as far as I know.

        1. Actually there is, a team can only use up to four drivers per season. http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regulations/sporting_regulations/8694/fia.html

          1. I knew I should have checked the sporting regulations before posting this :)

            Thanks

  8. Brother Lehmann
    7th July 2013, 11:28

    HAHAA. Alonso is Talking the Kimi talk:

    … if you are fast you will be on the podium, and if you are not, you won’t be.”

    One wouldn’t have thought that being fast had anything to do with anything before This comment.

    :D

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