Race engineer tells: These were the challenges during Räikkönen's comeback-season

Race engineer tells: These were the challenges during Räikkönen's comeback-season 

Julkaistu 
14.12.2012 07:14 

Kimi Räikkönen had to change his driving style in order to adjust to this season's Pirelli-tires, Mark Slade tells. 

Räikkönen's comeback to F1 succeeded excellently as a whole. After being away for two years he still had a lot to learn, especially with the tires. 

– This year Kimi had to learn to get along with Pirelli-tires. They were quite different to the tires he earlier used to race with. It might have taken a little more time than he expected, Slade told Autosport. 

– He had to some extent resist his natural inclination to drive the way he had learned to earlier. I believe that's the reason why he took a very careful approach to the season. He didn't have much any accidents during the whole year, which TBH is unusual to him, Slade continued. 

Räikkönen got bronze in the end. 

– He decided to achieve as much as possible during the season and secure the points. This approach is the reason why he ended up third in the WDC-standings, Slade tells. 

Qualifications didn't always go as Räikkönen had hoped for. Sometimes Romain Grosjean got the upper hand in this area. 

– Kimi's driving style tends especially the front tires. In some races we couldn't get the front tires in their right performance window, whereas Romain succeeded in that. The season had maybe four races where Romain had an upper hand when it came to performance ability during one lap, Slade calculated. 

– Kimi also had a lot of developement work to do on Fridays. This inevitably affected on how the weekend would take off. It didn't always go as we had hoped, which has to be taken into consideration in some qualification performances. When taking the circumstances in regard, he did however do a good job, Slade summed up.

Fonte: MTV3 / Tradução para o Inglês: Nicole

Nada como as palavras do engenheiro do seu piloto favorito para deixar as coisas ainda mais claras né? Inclusive, na entrevista da F1 Racing que postei abaixo, ele falou como estas questão dos pneus acabou afetando Kimi em 2005 (no caso os Michelin) pois como não tinha abastecimento e os pneus se desgastavam muito, Kimi acabava tendo problemas em função do seu estilo de pilotagem. #melhornãolembrar

A boa notícia é que para 2013 todo o processo de adaptação já terá passado e Kimi poderá focar em achar uma abordagem de sua forma de pilotar que não bata de frente com os pneus Pirelli. Fora que já conhecerá o carro, a equipe, enfim, estou esperançosa por um bom ano em 2013.

Beijinhos, Ludy