Raikkonen expects improvement ‘right from next race’

2014 F1 season

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Kimi Raikkonen expects Ferrari will be more competitive at the next round following a disappointing start to the season in Australia.

“I’m sure that, if we work in the correct way, then right from the next race in Malaysia, the results can definitely be better,” said Raikkonen, who took seventh place in his first race after returning to Ferrari.

“We have to stay calm,” he said. “The team is united, we know what we have to do and how to go about finding more performance. We also know this development process will not happen overnight and so we must be patient and concentrate hard on our work without watching what the others are doing.”

“I’ve been in this game for quite a while now, and I can say this is definitely not the first time that I’ve gone through a difficult first race weekend,” he added.

Raikkonen singled out the car’s brake-by-wire system as an area where he believes he can make a lot of progress.

“We identified some general problems which we have to tackle in Maranello and there are other aspects linked to the set-up on my car to do with the brake-by-wire system. Getting this device working correctly is definitely something that contributes to the general feeling from the car, because it has a great effect on corner entry.

“Having said that, the F14 T improved right through Friday and Saturday and not getting into Q3 was not down to the competitiveness of the car.”

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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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18 comments on “Raikkonen expects improvement ‘right from next race’”

  1. In many ways, Raikkonen joining Ferrari has been the best thing that has ever happened to Alonso. Because if it was Massa who performed on Kimi’s level in Australia last weekend, I can assure you that both Ferrari drivers would be bashed by the usual suspects. Massa for being a poor driver (apparently the worst driver of all time since his accident), and Alonso for “under performing” in qualifying and downplaying his car.

    But now instead, with Raikkonen alongside Alonso those excuses aren’t there anymore. Some people might finally begin to acknowledge that there are indeed fundamental problems with the Ferrari car instead of asking for the drivers’ head.

    1. I think Ferrari did partly sign Kimi to get him to push Fernando but more important to them was to get someone to bring the car home in the points by staying out of trouble.
      Massa’s inconsistency from 2011-2013 was I think the bigger problem than him being way behind Fernando in the races.

      In fact if you bear in mind both cars had problems in Australia, both Ferrari drivers probably achieved close to their maximum possible haul of points.

      They really do have a long, long way to go before they can be considered challengers for a race victory this year though…

      1. Kimi didn’t achieve the maximum haul of points. If Alonso managed fifth (now fourth), Kimi should have managed at least 7th, but instead he finished 8th and only got lucky to overtake Vergne.

        1. Actually, taking into account his starting position, 8(7) is more than decent, I’d say. In comparison, Alonso didn’t gain any place on track. Of course, competition up front was more intense. But I also think that given the circumstances, what they’ve gathered was more or less the maximum they could get. That doesn’t change the fact that those ‘circumstances’ have to be different for future races.

        2. @mashiat

          If it wasn’t for the double pit stop during the safety car he would have finished 6th, just behind Alonso. Coming from behind.

          He was a disaster in qualy, but his race was every bit as good as Alonso’s, arguably better.

          1. Mr win or lose
            19th March 2014, 20:30

            Räikkönen went off twice in the race, Alonso didn’t. Räikkönen finished over 20 seconds behind Alonso and he was struggling visibly all race long, so I think he wasn’t every bit as good.

          2. I must say, I thought he looked a bit messy too.

          3. At times Valtteri made Kimi look like a sitting duck – it wasn’t Kimi’s weekend, but I expect him and Ferrari to improve.

    2. @kingshark Hold your horses! When the lotus 49 came out only Hill was able to test the car, so in the first race of the year Hill made pole whilst Clark was way back, in end Hill retired and Clark won the first race. Allison has confessed that the Ferrari has a straight line speed deficit and that the car has problems in braking but for the first time in a long time the Fiat has good high cornering capabilities thus proving that I wasn’t mad to say that the Ferrari was closest to the redbull in downforce.

  2. 2 weeks between Australia and Malaysia this year – I wonder how much that will help Ferrari (and other teams with problems, such as Lotus). Surely the cars are in crates for most of that time…

    I hope the teams get some benefit, because it’s killed all the momentum there used to be at the start of a season with 2 races in 2 weekends.

    1. Helps them only if they had several parts that they just were not able to make in time to ship to Aus, but now have them ready for use in the next race. As well as setup things where they can use what they learnt in AUS off course, which seems to be especially the case for Kimi and his balance/brake/… issues

  3. I must say I am expecting improvement too.

    1. … I mostly hope so, in fact :)

  4. Surprise surprise. The Iceman is telling everyone to take stay calm and not loose their cool. I really hope Ferrari can figure out Kimi’s setup to work with his very specific driving style, because honestly, this was the worst I’ve seen him drive since his comeback.

    1. That new engineer Antonio Spagnolo did so many configuration mistake and lack of leadership. One time the radio didn’t work and he ask Kimi what to do, then Kimi shout if it doesn’t work then change it!

      1. So easy to talk… were you there ??? Give Antonio Spagnolo a chance…

  5. It was a pleasure to see that ‘second’ driver in Ferrari is not losing pace through race. I was happy to see that Kimi was 2 seconds behind Alonso only because of 2 cars between them.
    Alonso simply didn’t impress with the first lap when Kimi did. And the finn having such troubles with setup and BBW-system had pace to recover some time after making faults on track. Moreover, Kimi should be ‘grateful’ to his team as he lost 10-15 sec because of wrong strategy.
    I am pretty sure that if they resolve their issues Kimi will be incredibly fast in race. Hopefully we will see it in Malaysia.

  6. Are those really proper qoutes? Cuss not a single one of those sentences sound like somethini Kimi would be able to out together…

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