Räikkönen's consistency is not enough without a winning car F1

Räikkönen's consistency is not enough without a winning car F1

Turun Sanomat 23:20

Lotus doesn't have the pace to fight for the F1-championship anymore.

Kimi Räikkönen is this F1-season's most consistent achiever, but when the updates to E20-car made in Enstone have one after another been further and further away from the lead's pace, Räikkönen hasn't been able to close the gap to the lead the way he hoped for.

Räikkönen focused immediately on South-Korea after the weekend in Japan ended, weekend which was filled with one difficulty after another.

Lotus will bring an update package to Korea which should improve the car's competitiveness quite a lot. According to information TS has, the update package includes a new diffuser and a new floor among other things. Apparently the DDRS-system that has been tested three times is still in plans, but it's not the key factor of the new parts.

– One can only hope that we would get everything to work starting from Friday practice and that we would get the speed we need. It would make the situation incredibly easier, Räikkönen confessed in Suzuka.

– This weekend was difficult right from the beginning. We didn't have much time for setup-work and we lost a lot of time due to the KERS-problem. Then when the car would have felt good in qualification I made a mistake at the end of my best lap. I didn't have that speed anymore in the race. The car was good only for a moment with the new tyres, but after that the rear end got worse and worse. On top of that we lost one position due to problems during the pitstop, Räikkönen summed up.

 – Fortunately we at least got some points so that we can maintain a feeling in the WC-battle. However this can't continue like this. We have to improve the car if we want to catch Alonso and Vettel. We still have five races so a lot can still happen.

Two unfamiliar tracks in a row 

Räikkönen also has a personal challenge when the following two races - Yeongam in Korea and Buddh International in India - are tracks he has never even seen. As known Kimi isn't fascinated by the idea of driving in a simulator so he doesn't even have any pre-acquaintance.

– I guess I'll learn the tracks the same way as earlier also, Räikkönen said.

What again was concerning on the team's behalf was when Romain Grosjean once again messed up in the start by crashing into Mark Webber when he tried to take care that he wouldn't collide with Sauber's Sergio Perez.

Webber went to scold the young Frenchman immediately after the race. This time he got a 10 seconds stop-and-go penalty. The harshest punishment was that Grosjean fell far away from the battle of points. Hence Lotus was ten more points behind Ferrari, although Fernando Alonso was out in the first corners after getting a tyre puncture when touching Kimi Räikkönen's front wing.

The accident was unavoidable

Ferrari is now 24 points ahead of Lotus.

Räikkönen was complaining over the collision with Alonso which damaged his front wing. 

– I got a good start and drove at the left when everybody seemed to come there. I was beside Alonso and he just tweaked more and more to the left. I couldn't have done anything, because there was no room anywhere to avoid him, Räikkönen described. 

Technical manager James Allison shared Räikkönen's pain. 

– We were disappointed when Kimi had to drive the race watching in the mirrors without being able to attack. The cold fact is that only by improving our car's performance ability can we get into better positions in the WC-serie. We would have needed points from our both cars, Allison analysed. 

 Turun Sanomat 

HEIKKI KULTA

Fonte: Turun Sanomat / Tradução para o Inglês: Nicole

Nossa, ler este texto me deixou para baixo! Apesar dos pontos preciosos conquistados no Japão a sensação que tenho é que estamos ladeira abaixo, já que o carro da Lotus parou no tempo. E é bom que o pessoal da Lotus saiba mesmo disto.

Depois do retorno das férias Kimi tem carregado o time nas costas e como equipe, só podem contar com ele, porque Romain está cada vez mais transtornado.

Queria muito ver Kimi em terceiro ao final do mundial, mas vai ser uma luta árdua demais, já que a McLaren tem carro de sobra para Hamilton passá-lo no campeonato.

Enfim, agora é esquecer o Japão e pensar na Coreia, uma pista em que Kimi pilotará pela primeira vez. Espero que nada dê errado, porque ele precisará utilizar ao máximo os três treinos para se adaptar ao curcuito. Não que seja complicado para ele. Quem já pilotou rali, aprender um traçado de F1 é fichinha! rsrsrs...

Beijinhos, Ludy