Raikkonen’s start may have lost victory – Ferrari

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene says Kimi Raikkonen might have won the race had he made a better start.

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With so much negativity around F1 at the moment, let’s throw some more light on yesterday’s much more positive story about Nico Rosberg:

On a positive note, I am proud to see Nico Rosberg being in the news for being helpful, heroic and modest. This is the sort of news F1 needs. Nico’s rescue reflects very well on him as a person, as does the fact it took this long for it to get into the news (presumably because he did not wish to draw attention to it).
@Alianora-La-Canta

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Keith Collantine
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64 comments on “Raikkonen’s start may have lost victory – Ferrari”

  1. At the time of this post, Channel 4 STILL haven’t managed to get the race on All4 catch up. Such a shame, given the high quality of what they’re producing…

    1. Agreed. I haven’t watched either race yet because by the time the kids are in bed and I’ve got a couple of hours free it’s still not available on catchup. Curiosity then gets the better of me so I check websites like this and then I don’t feel the need to watch. It’s a shame.

    2. Fudge Ahmed (@)
      5th April 2016, 10:13

      I’m not so convinced by the C4 coverage, it’s very much a mixed bag. Webber is great but they’ve obviously tried to create the new Jake Humphrey in Steve Jones and he isn’t the best.

      All the dubstep could take a break too.

      Ben Edwards just no.

      Susie Wolff has zero personality.

      Eddie Jordan is Eddie Jordan.

      But most annoyingly in their first live race fair play for no adverts during the race but having one immediately as the drivers exited their cars robbed us of the debrief room tension which has revealed so much in recent years.

      Overall 6/10

  2. You could just as easily say Raikkonen’s poor start kept him out of the incident at turn one. Ferrari didn’t look like they had the pace of Rosberg today.

    1. I also think so, but if Ferrari can push another 0.3s they can beat Mercedes ..just 0.1s per sector I believe they can do it in the next few races.

    2. i agree; i am and i have been a Kimi fan since he came in F1; although then he was battling my favorite reds.
      But winning was a bit too far away in this race.

    3. I’ve been saying since melbourne that Sahkir was not the track to see Ferrari topple Mercedes, too power sensitive. I have to agree with Arrivabene though, Ferrari’s and RBR’s chassis are definitely better than Merc’s. Something new for this season. RBR might have been on par with Merc for the past 2 seasons but now even Ferrari has upped the ante. Watching the onboards, you can see both RBR and Ferrari are able to run the corners tight to the kerbs, their cars seem more settled on the faster turns, the mercs look light responsive but twitchy on faster corners, over the race distance it may result in better tyre management by Ferrari and RBR. I make the bold statement that in Shanghai Ferrari or RBR is going to be on pole.

      1. In my opinion Ferrari’s aero is superior in low speed corners, Merc in high speed. I don’t see bigger chances for Ferrari in China, quite the contrary. Aero approach should be a result of thorough analysis of all race tracks in the championship with the aim of searching an optimal solution. Ferrari missed that in my opinion, Dirk seems to be a ‘little bit’ stuck on that one. However, they should win in Monaco, Hungaroring, Singapore…, unless the force awakens. The force is RBR, of course.

  3. Quote from Bernie in the daily mail article (yes, it’s the daily mail but if the quote is honest then my point is valid).

    “‘What interest do drivers have apart from taking money out of the sport?’ he said. ‘I’ve never seen one put a single dollar in. You go for dinner with them and they don’t even pay the bill. They shouldn’t even be allowed to talk. They should get in the car and drive it.”

    As opposed to Bernie who doesn’t want to take money out of the sport, and Bernie doesn’t have £€$4 billion lying around to pay for dinner. They shouldn’t be allowed to fulfill media obligations either, or add personality to the paddock. And if their only interest is taking money from the sport, why should they be allowed get in the car and drive it? It doesn’t make any sense.

    1. @strontium
      Bernie is making himself completely irrelevant. He has gone from being like the crazy uncle curmudgeonly owner of F1 who makes sense at times and is merely tolerated the rest of the time, to being a mean, vicious, heartless, cruel, childish, senseless and destructive person who has no business managing a sports business of this level or even being in charge of a bingo game. He should be removed immediately.

      1. megalomaniac

        That’s the word I was searching for. Bernie Ecclestone, megalomaniac.

        1. I always thought Bernie played the emperor in Star Wars.

      2. Old man yells at clouds.

        I think Bernie is seriously starting to lose his grip on reality. Let’s ask him how much FOM would make without any drivers on the grid.

    2. And the Nobel Prize for hypocrisy goes to ……. Bernie Ecclestone who, having taken $billions out of F1 lambastes the drivers for having opinions without (according to him) having put a penny into the sport.

    3. “You go for dinner with them and they don’t even pay the bill. They shouldn’t even be allowed to talk.”

      Well, Bernie, WE do pay the bill. Literally. We pay for tickets, subscriptions, apps, merch, advertised Rolexes, etc. By your logic we should be allowed to talk. Are you ready to listen to US? I don’t think so. You only want to listen to yourself and the yes people around you.

      1. COTD for sure, but Bernies logic defies any scientific definition.

    4. ColdFly F1 (@)
      4th April 2016, 6:20

      Maybe some drivers can’t pay for dinner as they have to spend all the money supporting the teams (which are being starved by Bernie).

      Fun Fact: Bernie made those comments from the hospitality area. I doubt he had to pay.

      1. @coldfly. and even if he did pay he would claim it back on expenses and the bill would eventually be deducted from the share of revenue paid to the teams, some of whom are paid for by the drivers.

    5. Taking money out of the sport?
      That’s a massive disrespect to Haryanto and the other pay drivers!

      1. hahaha you’re right, from now desicions will be taken by 3 people: Ecclestone, Haryanto and Gutierrez.

    6. The only race Bernie seems to winning now is the one with himself to the bottom.

    7. Not current drivers, but Jackie Stewart and Alain Prost had their own teams at one point. Then as others have said there are the pay drivers, who have had to find millions to invest in their teams.

      A number of the drivers also support up and coming drivers working through the feeder formulas covering all levels…

      So Bernie, I guess you’re right… The drivers are only interested in money and not at all interested in the future of F1….

    8. For drivers, being an F1 driver is a dream. A life goal. The biggest achievement in their entire careers as racing drivers. For the most part, they have sacrificed part of their childhood and teenage years in order to have a shot at being an F1 driver, as small as that chance might be. Their families (or themselves) have invested money in the smaller categories, in karts and entry open-wheeler series, in order to progress their careers.

      What is F1 for Bernie? What is F1 for CVC? What is F1 for the FIA? What is F1 for Mercedes? What is F1 for Renault? What is F1 for Red Bull? What is F1 for Ferrari?

      I’d say the drivers have a bigger interest of the sport doing well than any of those entities (I’m not talking about the people working for them, who may be even bigger F1 fanatics than the drivers).

    9. Do fans come to watch Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Seb Vettel, Max Verstappen etc. or do they come to see Bernie Eccleston?

      Did Bernie break ribs after being hurtled off the track at 150mph or was that Fernando Alonso?

      Whoever is running the sport seems to be running it on the basis of a power struggle with no consideration for what will actually improve the sport. This is clear from the nonsense around qualy.

      So Bernie’s message to the drivers (and teams) is shut up and let us ruin the sport through our egotistical squabbling.

  4. There’s a rumor on Reddit that Sauber have run out of money and possibly won’t even last for Chinese GP. Any news regarding that?

    1. @huhhii I hope it’s true to be honest. Should I say that out loud?

      I think most people have become quite apathetic to Sauber over the last few years. They just don’t seem to have the same spirit now as before. Peter can be hardly seen. No more young exciting driver line-ups.
      Some severe mismanagement. Constant financial issues. Lots of complaints about the financial stuff. A previous dull grey livery. And recent poor performance means I’m just a bit sick of them.

      Annnd, it paves the way for an Alfa return. All good news in my books.

      1. I would be extremely sad to see Sauber go tbh. Such a historic team, taken away like this, it breaks me a little, kinda how Minardi and Jordan phased out of existence really.

        I would rather have Alfa Romeo exist next to Sauber than have Alfa Romeo replace Sauber.

        1. @revenger210 I know what you mean. But I haven’t been watching for as long as they’ve been around so I don’t have that lasting attachment I guess.

          They’ve lodged the EU complaint. It might come too late to help them but hopefully it results in setting things up for the next generation.

        2. @revenger210 But Minardi and Jordan at least finished their seasons in 2005. They didn’t cease to exist, but got re-branded. Surely Minardi isn’t the same as Toro Rosso, but at least the workers of Minardi kept their job, even if the spirit of the original team was gone. We even lost Sauber that year but luckily they returned.

          I think losing Sauber in the middle of season without certainty of future buyer would be more cruel for the sport and for the fans. I agree with @mickey18 that Sauber has lost some of its appeal during the last few years but they have fantastic heritage and it’d great shame to see them gone forever.

      2. Best outcome would be for the team to be bought by new investors who have a more sensible way of running it than Kaltenborn. Let’s hope all the engineers, mechanics etc, get to keep their jobs.

      3. i would be sad. losing team is not fun for anyone, and when we finally got a swede (he is getting better and better) its frustrating to see him get dropped. Monisha probably took a big cut from the budget to pay the sueing drivers. l

        we could hope VW buys the team or Toyota.

        Sauber is one wonderful team that has got us some really great drivers. (and many bad)

    2. At least this would mean Manor keeps its tenth place in the championship, which is apparently enough for them to survive.

  5. “You go for dinner with them and they don’t even pay the bill. They shouldn’t even be allowed to talk.” – Bernie Ecclestone

    Incredible really. What is wrong with this man? It’s unbelievable the way he chides the drivers.

    1. The guy is insane. After this weekend I’m taking some time off F1 until there is new management. The whole culture is terrible and when the boss has no respect for people in the sport he leads, I have no interest in validating his arrogance.

      1. You are taking a break till Bernie passes? That’s gonna be a loooong break.. He is like Mr Burns from the Simpsons. Just doesn’t go away.. ever!

    2. Alonso certainly paid for his meal, and enough F1 coverage to pay for Bernie’s too. Bianchi paid the ultimate price.

      Can u imagine if Bernie was as talented these drivers? We’d have feeder series in every market, cars covered with sponsorship, a full grid, and crowded stands.

  6. Ol’ Bernie would make the perfect running mate for Trump.

    1. Murdoch.

      BE said he was delighted that F1 had gone exclusively to Sky, thereby excluding all those US fans who are not prepared to pay Uncle Rupert’s prices. Huh. He’s just hanging on because there’s nowhere else for him to go.

      1. Er… Sky doesn’t broadcast in the US. Also, F1 is shown on NBC, which isn’t part of Rupert Murdoch’s empire anyway.

  7. Alex Wurz should just invite Bernie to a dinner and pay the bill.

    1. I bet it drives Bernie insane that he cannot do anything to Wurz apart from telling him to shut up like in kindergarten.

      1. Probably a very good reason for him not being a current driver.

    2. Or put pay driver as GPDA’s Chairman. Haryanto, maybe?

    3. Would happily pay a dinner for Bernie, if it would give me the chance of telling the old fart a few thruths – it wouldn’t be pretty, for sure;-)

  8. Neil (@neilosjames)
    4th April 2016, 7:37

    God knows what Bernie’s up to this time. Most of his ‘hey look at me, I’m being controversial’ comments have at least a small bit of sense hidden away inside them, but I can’t see that in this set. Maybe trying to take attention away from the qualifying mess.

    Or… maybe it was a dig at CVC. “What interest do drivers have apart from taking money out of the sport?” makes no sense at all, but if you swap ‘drivers’ for ‘CVC’ it makes all the sense in the world.

  9. Bernie’s Version :
    “‘What interest do drivers have apart from taking money out of the sport?’ he said. ‘I’ve never seen one put a single dollar in. You go for dinner with them and they don’t even pay the bill. They shouldn’t even be allowed to talk. They should get in the car and drive it.”
    Fans Version:
    “‘What interest do bernie have apart from taking money out of the sport?’ fans said. ‘We’ve never seen him put a single dollar in. You go for rules idiotic and then take what is working and easy to understand. They shouldn’t even be allowed to race in such. Bernie should get out of paddock and call it a day.”

  10. Is Bernie losing his charm? That’s always been a key weapon for him. Now he’s going up against the heroes of the sport, with his inner nastiness coming to the surface. It tends to happen IMO that when people get old their real nature is revealed. I don’t think CVC will like this.

    It’s as though Bernie’s trying to sabotage the sale of F1, because he knows the new owners will probably get rid of him.

    1. @lockup: Its the “grumpy old man” syndrome unfolding at its worst.

    2. Perhaps he’s just frustrated, poor thing. The quality of racing isn’t great and Mercedes are deservedly ahead of the other teams. The new qualifying system has been a disaster and the drivers and team bosses are openly saying that the suggested replacement formats are hopeless. Toto Wolff has called (jokingly) for a crucifixion in the paddock. The drivers have written a letter of complaint and released it to the media. Fans have the ability to use social media to vent off when there’s things happening that they don’t like.

      Bernie likes being in control. He isn’t currently, and it shows.

  11. Bernie is showing more and more signs of his senility. Just last year he said that F1 needs more drivers like LW, that LW is great for the sport and hes a great champion. Few years later, cant remember to whom, i think it was Vettel, he said that F1 needs more drivers like him, outspoken and full of controversy, that the rest are like figurines that dont have their own head. Now he is saying that drivers shoudnt be even allowed to talk because all they do is taking money out of the sport whilst not allowing any sort of exception to Monza despite the fact that Monza doesnt get any goverment donations. He sells everything there is to sell and makes unimaginable cash on it and has the guts to say things like this.
    In 2014 when both Caterham and Marussia were likely to bankrupt. On the same paddock on the same day he said to one journalist that they need to find a way how to help them, and 15 metres further on the same paddock he said Why should they help its the teams problem that they cant manage their money to another journalist.

    This man is the main reason why i am very close on giving up on F1 and getting into something more exciting and less politics affected. Please somebody make him retire already.

  12. Is it possible that Bernie is actually ill?

  13. Some thoughts on qualifying: I think it’s all puppetry. The FIA came up with some new regulations, they get approved and in Australia it turns out it doesn’t work as intended. Here’s where Ecclestone comes in. He ask the teams to vote via email, and naturally a couple of teams don’t approve of reinstating the 2015 qualifying regulations, so we’re stuck with what we had. In Bahrain, the FIA, Ecclestone and teams spend 90 minutes finding a solution, fail to find a solution, and now they will have another email vote on Thursday. Again, there won’t be a unanimous decision, so again we’re stuck with this qualifying system for China.

    On the surface, I guess the main problem is that F1 is trying to fix a broken system under the rules and regulations of a broken system. Think of it as establishing democracy in an authoritarian state – it’s never going to happen. But beyond that, I think Ecclestone is exploiting the broken system. I’m convinced that, with talks of selling Formula 1 to some vague joint venture, Ecclestone is purposefully causing chaos. He wants CVC to think they should sell F1 as quickly as possible, before things start escalating and fans worldwide start tuning out. I don’t believe Ecclestone caused the qualifying madness, but the timing is pretty convenient for him.

    1. He was the one who wanted to change the qualifying format because he wanted to supposedly make it harder for teams like Merc to dominate from the front.
      So yeah, it all started with him.

  14. Baku start time change.. very good :D

    Other than that… LOL How can Kimi Raikonen mess up so many starts? “Clutch slipped from finger”… come on. Do they not practice starts? Place him in 2014 car with new clutch and practice starts in Maranello all day long. They have the track there, why not use it?

    For god’s sake.

    Last year in Monza.. forgot to put car in gear for start…

    Now potentially Victory was not there for him, Rosberg had much pace in hand easily… But for sure he lost all chance of fighting for victory right there. Its not like their car has 1s pace advantage to come back after a massive start fail…

    1. And Hamilton? He’s a superb racer but still has got a bad start two races in a row. Nobody is perfect.

      1. Well hamilton is struggling to put the power down, and this time to react in time… But Kimi is struggling to keep finger on the clutch…

  15. Anyone who claims you can get to F1 without putting serious money in is having a laugh. If racing didn’t take money, I’d be karting next weekend at Phillip Island. Drivers and their families put a lot of money in.

  16. It seems that the way a driver starts the formation lap has a bearing on the available power at the race start.

    If the auxiliary power is at full potential while sitting on the grid prior to formation lap, any exuberance at the start of formation lap will drain some of the potential that has been stored in the batteries. Therefore, when the race starts those that were easy on the throttle at the launch of the formation lap will have greater potential when the race gets underway.

    Watching closely as Ham and Nico got underway at formation shows a snappy getaway by Ham and a lazy one by Rosberg.

    At race start, they both start to move at the same time (eliminates reaction time as a factor) but Rosberg’s acceleration is way above Lewis’ once they get underway.

    Could it be that moderation prior to the actual launch has a bearing on the race start?

    1. No, at least not in the way you think. While it is true that it is virtually impossible to benefit from fully charged batteries in consecutive competitive laps, as the recuperation is less effective than the depletion, this has no bearing on the formation lap and subsequent race start. The cars hardly use their ERS on the formation lap, but they do brake hard to warm up their brakes, which helps charge the ERS-K. Also, it is not possible to use up all available battery charge at the start, since the power outut is limited. Even if the battery were almost completely uncharged, this wouldn’t affect the getaway. This would only get into play after several seconds of depletion, and the consequences wouldn’t be a somewhat slower acceleration, but a catastrophic loss of power. Plus, things would only get worse from there, and you’d be a sitting duck on the next straight. We’re not talking about losing 10 meters or so to your team mate, but about getting overtaken left and right and dropping out of the top 10 after half a lap or so.
      So that’s definitey a No to the battery theory.

      It is however possible to compromise your race start by managing your formation lap badly. Overheating your clutch so that it doesn’t work perfectly isn’t unheard of. It seems that Rosberg did this in Spa last year.
      Another possibility is overheating your car. This also happened to Rosberg last year, under somewhat controversial circumstances: Hamilton made an extremely slow formation lap, leaving Rosberg sitting on the grid for a small eternity, his engine temperature rising steadily. After the initial getaway, his engine automatially switched to a less aggressive setting to prevent further overheating, which allowed Hamilton to catch up and make a move on Rosberg.

      1. Thanks. I stand corrected

        1. @ NOPE

          After reading F1 explanation, it boils down to the fact that there is a limited amount of energy stored in the ES. It also states that no more than 2MJ of energy can be harvested during a lap. The energy can be expended for
          a limited amount of seconds during the lap at a rate of 4MJ for several seconds.

          Considering the fact that an engine revving at a maximum of 15000RPM has its torque biased towards the higher
          portions of its RPMs, it stands to reason that getting underway will favour the electrical portion of the available power because at the bottom of the revs there is almost no torque from the gasoline unit.

          In other words, electric torque applied to the wheels at start is immediately available whereas gasoline engine power will increase as the revs go up towards the higher end. Which explains why Rosberg accelerates faster at the outset but is almost caught up by Hamilton at the end of the run.

          ES stores a limited amount of power and in the long run to the first corner gets depleted.

          So I will disagree with “Nope” on his analysis.

  17. Just a day after the Rosberg-story in COTD, and there´s a quite different story about him all over the german media. Apparently he has a driver contract with Ambitious Group Ltd., who in turn have been paid by Merc. Ambitious Group Ltd. is a firm without any employees or space (other than a mailbox), and is owned by two other firms (“Magnus Nominees Limited” and “Fidelis Nominee Limited”) who consist of nothing but a mailbox each. All in all, obviously none of these firms pay taxes.

    Sources (all in german at this point):
    https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/panamapapers-163.html
    http://www.focus.de/sport/formel1/panama-papers-formel-1-star-nico-rosberg-verwickelt_id_5406688.html
    http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article154000162/Tausende-Deutsche-sollen-Briefkastenfirmen-genutzt-haben.html

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