The target of the comment has left Lotus

The target of the comment has left Lotus F1

Turun Sanomat 

27.12.2012 22:57 

Kimi fan-gear had as the most popular item the shirt-campaign ’Leave Me Alone. I Know What I’m Doing’. 

Kimi's race engineer Simon Rennie reminded him constantly to keep his tires warm during the SC. In the end Kimi snapped back telling that he doesn't need any advice since he knows what he is doing. 

Rennie was supposed to be Räikkönen's race engineer according to Lotus-team's original plan, but Kimi wanted a familiar work mate and so Mark Slade was invited back to Enstone. 

Hence Räikkönen had two engineers. 

According to information Turun Sanomat have, Rennie has left his job and hence Mark Slade will be Kimi's only official race engineer next season. 

Slade interpreted the chain of events in Abu Dhabi which escalated into Räikkönen's sharp comment. 

 – I was also very nervous but that's how it always is. The fact is that we used to have problems to get the tires to work in restarts after SC-events. Sometimes you have to give advice to the driver, but I recommended Simon to say nothing. 

– In a situation like that Kimi is of course 100 % concentrated. His intention wasn't to reply as sharply as it sounded to outsiders. He only wanted to say that he is concentrated and knows exactly what he is doing. 

– And Kimi proved that in his restart. He was fantastic and pulled in two laps the gap which brought victory. 

Turun Sanomat 

HEIKKI KULTA

Fonte: Turun Sanomat / Tradução para o Inglês: Nicole

Eu sinceramente espero que não tenha sido por causa do evento em Abu Dhabi que Simon tenha deixado a Lotus. Estas coisas acontecem, os pilotos precisam estar acostumados com os seus engenheiros lhes dizendo o que fazer (alguns inclusive, precisam disto) e os engenheiros devem estar acostumados a levarem respostas duras, às vezes.

Enfim, uma pena que ele saiu. Mas Mark conhece Kimi bem então acho que a dupla não terá problemas.

Beijinhos, Ludy