Raikkonen baffled by repeat of hairpin spin

2015 Canadian Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikkonen was bemused by the behaviour of his Ferrari after spinning for the second year in a row at Montreal’s turn ten hairpin during the Canadian Grand Prix.

His spin, which occured on his out-lap following his first pit stop, allowed Valtteri Bottas through into third place.

“The spin is exactly the same story than last year,” Raikkonen told reporters afterwards. “No problems in practice and for some reason both out-laps there’s something odd happening.”

“It just gives a massive kind of throttle release and you cannot control it. So it’s not ideal but it is what it is.”

Raikkonen was at a loss to explain the recurrence of a problem he believed the team had fixed twelve months ago. “I don’t know why,” he said, “it’s a very odd thing.”

“Because obviously we do practises and try to simulate stuff and so far this year no issues in other places and in here again… who knows? I don’t know the answers.”

Raikkonen apologised to his team for the error after the chequered flag. “Sorry for the spin,” he said, “but there was not much I could have done.”

He finished in fourth place having had to pit for another set of tyres following the spin. “Not the result we wanted,” he summed up afterwards. “The tyres were working more or less fine but in this kind of circuit fuel-saving is a big part so obviously that really limited our speed today in the end.”

2015 Canadian Grand Prix

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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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    58 comments on “Raikkonen baffled by repeat of hairpin spin”

    1. Amateur hour from Kimi.

      1. @davef1

        Sure…exactly the same spin happens at exactly the same turn at exactly the same time just after the pitstop for 2 years in a row, yet KR is at fault?

        1. yet KR is at fault?

          Dunno whose else it could be? Last time I checked, the Ferrari car with number 7 belongs to Kimi Raikkonen. Or did I miss something?

          Maybe it just boils down to Kimi making the same mistake 2 years in a row.

    2. Kimi: go home!
      You was a great champion, a great driver, a great person but…go home please.
      We need Bottas, Hulkenberg, Perez, Grosjean or Ricciardo in your seat.

      1. “We” means some Ferrari fans…

      2. DR needs to worry about his teammate before setting sights on the red suits.

      3. Ricciardo ? Are you kidding ? He’s a really nice guy and all that but as a F1 driver, Ricciardo is the new Webber.

        1. @elio. Ricciardo? Yes. Are you kidding? No. Ricciardo the new Webber? Riccardo did in one year what Webber didn’t do in 5, our race with more wins and beat Vettel over the course of a season in the same team and of those 5 drivers listed in the OP who’s the only who’s won a race and beaten a world championship winning teammate over the course of an F1 season. So please explain your logic for the Webber comparison.

          1. Out race*

          2. Maybe he should ask for a new chassis.

            1. …Ouch!

            2. Like Vettel did?

          3. So what ? Vettel was clearly put aside by Red Bull as soon as he announced in the beginning of the 2014 that he was moving to Ferrari at the end of the season, so RB put all of their efforts on Ricciardo and favoured him big time. I have seen this happening in F1 teams before and I have absolutely no doubts it was a political / tactical decision.

            And unlike Vettel’s win at Malaysia this season, Ricciardo’s 3 wins last season were the outcome of mechanical glitches in the W05’s when those were leading the races, mixed with a fair share of dumb luck.

            1. Vettel was put aside by Red Bull at the beginning of 2014 season because he said he was leaving? 1, didn’t tell them he was leaving until Suzuka and 2, That thinking is the same as Hamilton vs Rosberg conspiracy theorists, let’s pay 1 driver so much less than the other but we will favour the lesser paid driver, I don’t buy that. Mechanical glitches may have played a part in his 3 wins but in those 3 wi he had to pass other cars to get to the front, Vettels Malaysia win while not a mechanical error was still fortunate due to a strategic error by Merc and he didn’t have to overtake anyone once that happend. And Vettel had the chance to win those same 3 races but didn’t. Same share dumb luck Vettel had in 2010 and 2012 finales.

            2. @ultimatemp4-4

              are you saying that vettel had no major mechanical issues on each of those weekends in which DR won?

            3. “let’s pay 1 driver so much less than the other but we will favour the lesser paid driver, I don’t buy that.”
              Yeah, they are clearly favoring the more paid driver.

              Were you watching last season? Dumb luck must be what happened to Vettel who could have won a couple of races but didn’t because somehow his teammate ended up in front of him by the “dumb luck” quite frankly.
              Do you realize amongst people on grid Vettel has the record for most DNF from lead? That must be the same “dumb luck”.

              In Malaysia though, Mercedes was plain simple “dumb”, no luck there. They underestimated Ferrari but that has nothing to do with luck.
              “Vettels Malaysia win while not a mechanical error was still fortunate due to a strategic error by Merc and he didn’t have to overtake anyone once that happened.”
              Yeah, since he qualified 0.074 secs off pole in wet conditions, he just had to overtake Rosberg and Hamilton. I guess they don’t count. Must be because Vettel cannot overtake. Not able. Nope.

            4. @ultimatemp4-4

              Vettel had the chance to win those same 3 races but didn’t. Same share dumb luck Vettel had in 2010 and 2012 finales.

              IIRC, in Hungary, Vettel was fighting Bottas for 2nd, but the safety car massively handicapped those two, and the leader Rosberg, while aiding Riccairdo and Alonso who were well behind. In Canada, Vettel’s slow stop also slipped him behind his teammate.

              And while a load of stuff happened in Brazil 2012 (good and bad luck, like being hit by Senna, biut not retiring from the damage), at Abu Dhabi 2010, Vettel simply won the race from pole when it mattered. Alonso & Webber couldn’t overtake Petrov, never mind Kubica & Rosberg to take the title.

        2. Yup, beaten by Kvyat..

          1. @erix. Check the current championship standings.

            1. Check the race results? Why do people insist on the only stats that show they are right? Then look at the last 2 races, the only races both RBR drivers didn’t have any problems. We’ll see how the season goes. But you know what? I am not sure Kvyat is better than Ricciardo, as I don’t think Ricciardo is better than Vettel. It is pretty much impossible for a 3 time race winner to be as good as a 4 time world champion who beat 5 other world champions along with 15 other guys to the WDC. That doesn’t say anything about Ricciardo’s potential though. Better be patient.

            2. @ultimatemp4-4

              “Check the current championship standings”… You mean, the same standings showing Button destroying Alonso this season ? So by your line of thought, we can also assume Jenson’s a much better driver than the Spaniard, right ?

        3. He’s a really nice guy and all that but as a F1 driver, Ricciardo is the new Webber.

          @elio

          Because Webber convincingly destroyed a 4 time WDC teammate?!?

          1. Webber was very close with Vettel on qualifying and championship standings at times. He was better at some points. Doesn’t mean much.
            Like Button and Hamilton.

      4. I genuinely pity Ferrari drivers more than anyone on the grid. You treat your drivers and especially your champions so disrespectfully. Did you even read the article?

        1. I’m not a Ferrari fan.

          1. And I am not talking to you.

    3. @jorge-lardone His results have dipped in the turbo era. I still think his driving style is worth having in F1. I’m sure that whenever he feels the car is great it means Ferrari and Kimi have achieved what they were looking for, in that sense Kimi is valuable to Ferrari, he won’t stop trying to improve the car.

      1. I absolutely agree with you. I think Kimi’s feedback and its importance to the teams are invaluable. Ferrari have been going down since 2008 when they developed the car against Kimi’s advice and it finally started to come together for them since he came back. I don’t think people realize the extent of his contribution to that team. He’s a really sensitive driver I think, that’s probably what makes him also a bit more vulnerable. In an era without proper tests and development drivers, he is golden.

      2. @peartree I’m not sure what this comment has to do with the matter at hand. A spin that happens at exactly the same turn, at exactly the same circumstances for two years in a row is clearly not the driver’s fault but the team’s

    4. Does a car spin all by itself ???? Going by Kimi’s comments that seemed to be the case !!!!

      1. If you have lock on and the engine management decides to open the throttle then yes.

      2. @tmax These cars are full of electronics, too much of it. Two years in a row exactly the same thing suggests that yes it does spin by itself

        I bet Kimi wishes he lived in James Hunt analog era, now more than ever

    5. I’ve been a fan of Kimi for quite some time now, but I find it progressively hard to deny his heyday is behind him. Apart from his qualifying woes, odd incidents tend to only happen to him and not his team mates. Since his return in 2012 he just seems sort of hit and miss.

      I wonder if there is anything that changed him as a driver since 2009 or so, or if it’s simply his age. Then again, Alonso and Button seem to be having less odd incidents.

      1. Alonso and Button are not even in the race. Who knows what’s going on with them. Their cars might be masking their issues….

    6. Obviously he has been going up against 2 great drivers in Alonso and Vettel, but I feel the performance he is putting in isn’t enough anymore. His performance has been mediocre. With Bottas and potentially Ricciardo available, it’s hard to see why Ferrari wouldn’t change driver line-up for next year.

    7. i hope kimi stays in formula 1 if ferarri end up replacing him. We need the entertainment lol

    8. Kimi no longer knows what he’s doing.

    9. I think di Resta’s comments seemed pretty plausible. Why throttle and brake by wire are even allowed in F1 is ridiculous anyways, that is if you actually want to reward the best drivers.

      1. Brake by wire is needed because some of the rear braking is done by the MGU-K; and this one does is not controllable by how much they push the pedal.

        1. brake by wire has nothing to do with the application of a electrical generator on the drive train. You can easily tie the KERS motor and the rear brakes together, and even give the driver two separate balance adjustments, one for rear/forward and one for rear/KERS to manage the brakes.

          all you really need is a sensor on the pedal to tell the “MGU-K” how hard to be applied. You do not need brake by wire, brake by wire makes it possible to completely bypass the operator of the brakes and takes the control away from the driver and in to the hands of the guys who build the car. You do not want this because it can lead to circumstances where favoritism trumps ability.

    10. Greg Rouchon
      7th June 2015, 23:56

      A great driver who makes too many excuses.

      1. Excuses? should he say that it was his fault when it clearly wasn’t?

    11. It would seem that the car reverted to some unexpected torque map after the stop. Maybe Kimi fat-fingered the usual reset procedure during the stop, maybe a glitch.

    12. If Arrivabene wanted to keep KR at Ferrari for 2016, his silly mistake, repeating exactly the same mistake from a year ago on the same track, at the same corner and during the outlap, just makes me think that Bottas will be driving alongside Seb at Ferrari next year.

      1. With Bottas probably doing the same spin from a year ago on the same track at the same corner during the outlap…

      2. @svianna His silly mistake? Or the team’s for failing to rectify the torque spike problem after a year?

    13. Kimi are you sure you didn’t get on the throttle too hard ;-)

      1. On both outlaws? 2 years on a row? I mean he is a consistent guy sometimes but not that consistent I think.

    14. Kimi is the ideal #2 for Ferrari. He had a pretty normal race until that spin which was out of his control going by the statement. I am not sure if he has the qualifying pace to put it right on top but his race pace is rather very good and that will make him act as an ideal backup for a team challenging for championships.

      If Massa’s contract can be renewed multiple times even when he only turned up for the second half of the season, Kimi should have not trouble. I hope he is there next season.

      1. @evered7 +1! Sen is clearly the future of the team! So keep Kimi at least for 1 year more to gain stability during this new progress phase of the team and then I would choose a younger but good driver!

        1. *Seb is clearly

      2. Massa+Alonso was the sponsor’s choice of drivers. That is the reason Raikkonen was gone. That is the reason Massa wasn’t gone.

    15. These comments here bashin KR for something that clearly wasn’t his fault are appalling in my view. One of the last natural drivers in F1 first gets hampered by this throttle-by-wire and electronics taking away half of the impact of what was once an essential driver skill-throttle control. And then he gets those comments from “fans”.

      I never was a KR fan, but I like him more and more lately. He’s a breath of fresh air in a playstation F1 where everything is electronics and most drivers are just a bunch of boring clones. What happens when in a few years KR, FA and JB stop I really don’t know. A collective personality profile akin to the cardashians or some other awful reality show perhaps

      1. +1 I don’t think most of the drivers are happy with by-wire things anyway. I know for one Vettel hates the bbw and other latest technology things. I think it is very important there is a proper connection btw the driver and his car.

    16. Don’t worry, Kimi!
      You’re still the coolest of them all.

      To bad that this year for this race 100Kg of fuel was not enough. Judging by how many drivers had to save fuel i would have hoped they were allowed a little bit more for this race; like 110Kg. Isn’t there a rule like that? Didn’t they allowed more fuel at Monza last year?
      It’s bad enough people drive to the limit of the tire most times, this time the had to drive to the limit of the fuel tank.
      Wish they would drive to the limit of the car.

    17. A lot of the comments seem to come from observers who forget that the current generation of F1 cars has a bunch of computers second-guessing the driver inputs. Maybe a cool modern development for us amateurs in our phony boulevard GT cars but something like the Airbus airplanes that keep flying into the ground when the pilot has a different opinion.

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