"Kimi is back - is Lotus ready?" by Jukka Mildh
Kimi is back - is Lotus ready?
19.3.2012
YLE, Jukka Mildh
Was it a surprise that Kimi Räikkönen drove brilliantly in Australia? No. After a few years' F1-break he has the right attitude and a promising car. Was it a surprise that Lotus was competitive? No. The tests showed that the concept is working.
However Lotus had chances to get more out of the opening race. What next? Kimi will quickly redeem all expectations to himself and to others. After that his expectations will be focused only on the team.
Australia GP might have left you with a picture that as far as it comes to the lead, everything is the same. Red Bull and McLaren are beyond reach, but I dare to say at this stage already that the setting is the opposite when thinking of last season; McLaren is One, Red Bull is Two.
Yet it's dangerous to draw conclusions based upon only one race. Still I will do it and here are my justifications.
Lewis Hamilton's quali-lap. I watched it several times. It was like watching Sebastian Vettel's qualifications from last year. Hamilton was visibly confident with his car and was able to take it to the extremes in each curve and braking. And it even looked like it happened easily. And that's not everything. Jenson Button might not be an expert in qualifications, still his time was only one tenth of his team mate's top time. Both drivers in the front row without any visible problems. Perfect.
In the race Red Bull was the same whether the fuel tank was filled or empty. Whereas Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber had to take their cars to the risk-limits during almost the whole race, McLaren-drivers looked to be driving more safer.
The re-start due to SC told everything needed. Vettel is an expert on re-starts but Button ran out of his reach. Not just in the starting acceleration but also during the rest of the race. If everything would be well in Red Bull, then Vettel would have reached him.
They talk about McLaren's beauty. It is beautiful when compared to other cars. Sovereignly. But the beauty also shows in the speed. McLaren has really got every piece to fall in place before the season begun. They haven't compromised the level of quality, not even when it comes to the outlook. Hence they haven't fallen for compromises.
***
Also the driver-situation at McLaren is better than it was last year. Button speaks out loud about how good his position in the team is. When Hamilton used a huge amount of time to prepare himself by clearing up his head, Button has been able to concentrate even better on what is important: taken care of himself and giving more input to the team and the car. After the race he said that he feels at home in the car. This tells me the WDC from 2009 has been able to make those changes and settings to the car that he feels are important, better than last year.
Here we come to the position that Button mentioned. Last season Hamilton became a huge question mark during the season, even to his own team, and at the same time Button improved. We should remember from last year that Button's strenght is that he was able to build a strong team of engineers around him. Now they have been able to build even more based upon that.
Hamilton drove a brilliant qualification but he is still squeezing too forcefully during the race. The tyres won't last now either. However Hamilton is on a better track than he was last year. That makes McLaren even stronger.
***
My congratulations to Kimi. I didn't doubt for one moment that his comeback to the tracks wouldn't succeed, but he has done it with style. His attitude is clearly more positive than it was when he left Ferrari. His laidbackness even shows from his being. They gave Kimi a good car to use and he took everything out of it in a wise manner. But definitely not by floating.
What is great in this situation is that the F1-world has really welcomed him with open arms. Italy's tv for example is sending a special program about Kimi Räikkönen in their F1-broadcasting. After the comeback the appreciation for Kimi has grown especially in Italy, because the people in Italy know in which kind of a sad manner his story with Ferrari ended. I'm sure that the same applies to many other F1-countries.
However I'm still a realist and I believe that Kimi is also. It's still up to so many things to get things to really start working. With this I mean achieving the steady position in the top 8. Let's start from something at least. Talking about top 6 would be a big leap based upon only one race.
Because Ferrari is struggling in the swamp, Lotus uses Mercedes GP as their measuring stick. The Mercs' weakness is still the actual race. The car just doesn't start to work in a long race. But now that the cars' development work hasn't still taken off, they should at least have a top class reliability. Merc hasn't but Lotus seems to work flawlessly and it seems to be evenly competitive during a race. And on top of that with both tyre compounds.
***
When it comes to Kimi himself, he now has to find the last edge from his own performance. Small factors like communicating with the team have to fall in place. One can't practice team-work in special situations during the GP-weekend in winter testing. Yet Kimi already foresaw the development in this area when making the contract, by choosing a familiar race engineer from his McLaren-times for himself.
Kimi complained that they didn't get everything done the way they had planned for Australia GP, he had less time on track than calculated and the steering system also required some fine-tuning. The last factor might seem like an unimportant small thing, but during the years he has learned to know what he wants and he makes his demands according to that. In an ideal situation they would get rid of all these small problems before the season would begin. Now it didn't happen.
Lotus isn't yet on the top level when it comes to preparement. Now it looks like the team lost four days in the tests. Lotus-team's organization will be put under a real trial, because from now on the decisive factor is who can develop their car best while the race pressure gets more strained. This is also central for Kimi's success.
The comeback to the tracks succeeded excellently. It's no reason to dispute that the beginning wouldn't also promise good for the upcoming races. But Renault came in 3rd last year in Australia. However when the season proceeded the performance level started to drop.
Kimi will have his sword sharpened after Malaysia at the latest. After that he starts to put pressure on the team on a completely new level.
Lotus better be ready by then.
Jukka Mildh
Fonte: www.yle.fi/Tradução para o Inglês: Nicole
Excelente texto. Gostei demais da análise feita por Jukka Mildh sobre as McLaren e sua dupla de pilotos, Vettel, a corrida de estreia, sobre a Lotus, a Mercedes e é claro, sobre Kimi. Muito bom mesmo! Também estou com os pés no chão e vou continuar assim, não quero ficar sonhando com coisas impossíveis. Será um GP de cada vez, como falei para vocês no podcast que fizemos no começo do ano.
O mais difícil de acreditar em tudo isto que li, é ver que a F1 está recebendo Kimi de braços abertos. Não porque não acho que seja possível (claro que é, a Lotus e algumas pessoas do meio e sei que realmente ficaram felizes), mas a forma como ele saiu foi tão triste que sempre afetará minha impressão da F1 de agora em diante.
O mais surpreendente é saber que agora a Itália está percebendo o Iceman com olhos mais bondosos. Para mim, não adianta nada fazer programas e elogiar, a forma como eles maltrataram Kimi eu jamais vou esquecer.
Sobre a Lotus e Kimi, tem tudo para dar certo e de verdade, espero que dê, mas como eu disse, um GP de cada vez. Assim eu tombos mais altos e machucados mais graves! rsrsrs...
Beijinhos, Ludy
19.3.2012
YLE, Jukka Mildh
Was it a surprise that Kimi Räikkönen drove brilliantly in Australia? No. After a few years' F1-break he has the right attitude and a promising car. Was it a surprise that Lotus was competitive? No. The tests showed that the concept is working.
However Lotus had chances to get more out of the opening race. What next? Kimi will quickly redeem all expectations to himself and to others. After that his expectations will be focused only on the team.
Australia GP might have left you with a picture that as far as it comes to the lead, everything is the same. Red Bull and McLaren are beyond reach, but I dare to say at this stage already that the setting is the opposite when thinking of last season; McLaren is One, Red Bull is Two.
Yet it's dangerous to draw conclusions based upon only one race. Still I will do it and here are my justifications.
Lewis Hamilton's quali-lap. I watched it several times. It was like watching Sebastian Vettel's qualifications from last year. Hamilton was visibly confident with his car and was able to take it to the extremes in each curve and braking. And it even looked like it happened easily. And that's not everything. Jenson Button might not be an expert in qualifications, still his time was only one tenth of his team mate's top time. Both drivers in the front row without any visible problems. Perfect.
In the race Red Bull was the same whether the fuel tank was filled or empty. Whereas Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber had to take their cars to the risk-limits during almost the whole race, McLaren-drivers looked to be driving more safer.
The re-start due to SC told everything needed. Vettel is an expert on re-starts but Button ran out of his reach. Not just in the starting acceleration but also during the rest of the race. If everything would be well in Red Bull, then Vettel would have reached him.
They talk about McLaren's beauty. It is beautiful when compared to other cars. Sovereignly. But the beauty also shows in the speed. McLaren has really got every piece to fall in place before the season begun. They haven't compromised the level of quality, not even when it comes to the outlook. Hence they haven't fallen for compromises.
***
Also the driver-situation at McLaren is better than it was last year. Button speaks out loud about how good his position in the team is. When Hamilton used a huge amount of time to prepare himself by clearing up his head, Button has been able to concentrate even better on what is important: taken care of himself and giving more input to the team and the car. After the race he said that he feels at home in the car. This tells me the WDC from 2009 has been able to make those changes and settings to the car that he feels are important, better than last year.
Here we come to the position that Button mentioned. Last season Hamilton became a huge question mark during the season, even to his own team, and at the same time Button improved. We should remember from last year that Button's strenght is that he was able to build a strong team of engineers around him. Now they have been able to build even more based upon that.
Hamilton drove a brilliant qualification but he is still squeezing too forcefully during the race. The tyres won't last now either. However Hamilton is on a better track than he was last year. That makes McLaren even stronger.
***
My congratulations to Kimi. I didn't doubt for one moment that his comeback to the tracks wouldn't succeed, but he has done it with style. His attitude is clearly more positive than it was when he left Ferrari. His laidbackness even shows from his being. They gave Kimi a good car to use and he took everything out of it in a wise manner. But definitely not by floating.
What is great in this situation is that the F1-world has really welcomed him with open arms. Italy's tv for example is sending a special program about Kimi Räikkönen in their F1-broadcasting. After the comeback the appreciation for Kimi has grown especially in Italy, because the people in Italy know in which kind of a sad manner his story with Ferrari ended. I'm sure that the same applies to many other F1-countries.
However I'm still a realist and I believe that Kimi is also. It's still up to so many things to get things to really start working. With this I mean achieving the steady position in the top 8. Let's start from something at least. Talking about top 6 would be a big leap based upon only one race.
Because Ferrari is struggling in the swamp, Lotus uses Mercedes GP as their measuring stick. The Mercs' weakness is still the actual race. The car just doesn't start to work in a long race. But now that the cars' development work hasn't still taken off, they should at least have a top class reliability. Merc hasn't but Lotus seems to work flawlessly and it seems to be evenly competitive during a race. And on top of that with both tyre compounds.
***
When it comes to Kimi himself, he now has to find the last edge from his own performance. Small factors like communicating with the team have to fall in place. One can't practice team-work in special situations during the GP-weekend in winter testing. Yet Kimi already foresaw the development in this area when making the contract, by choosing a familiar race engineer from his McLaren-times for himself.
Kimi complained that they didn't get everything done the way they had planned for Australia GP, he had less time on track than calculated and the steering system also required some fine-tuning. The last factor might seem like an unimportant small thing, but during the years he has learned to know what he wants and he makes his demands according to that. In an ideal situation they would get rid of all these small problems before the season would begin. Now it didn't happen.
Lotus isn't yet on the top level when it comes to preparement. Now it looks like the team lost four days in the tests. Lotus-team's organization will be put under a real trial, because from now on the decisive factor is who can develop their car best while the race pressure gets more strained. This is also central for Kimi's success.
The comeback to the tracks succeeded excellently. It's no reason to dispute that the beginning wouldn't also promise good for the upcoming races. But Renault came in 3rd last year in Australia. However when the season proceeded the performance level started to drop.
Kimi will have his sword sharpened after Malaysia at the latest. After that he starts to put pressure on the team on a completely new level.
Lotus better be ready by then.
Jukka Mildh
Fonte: www.yle.fi/Tradução para o Inglês: Nicole
Excelente texto. Gostei demais da análise feita por Jukka Mildh sobre as McLaren e sua dupla de pilotos, Vettel, a corrida de estreia, sobre a Lotus, a Mercedes e é claro, sobre Kimi. Muito bom mesmo! Também estou com os pés no chão e vou continuar assim, não quero ficar sonhando com coisas impossíveis. Será um GP de cada vez, como falei para vocês no podcast que fizemos no começo do ano.
O mais difícil de acreditar em tudo isto que li, é ver que a F1 está recebendo Kimi de braços abertos. Não porque não acho que seja possível (claro que é, a Lotus e algumas pessoas do meio e sei que realmente ficaram felizes), mas a forma como ele saiu foi tão triste que sempre afetará minha impressão da F1 de agora em diante.
O mais surpreendente é saber que agora a Itália está percebendo o Iceman com olhos mais bondosos. Para mim, não adianta nada fazer programas e elogiar, a forma como eles maltrataram Kimi eu jamais vou esquecer.
Sobre a Lotus e Kimi, tem tudo para dar certo e de verdade, espero que dê, mas como eu disse, um GP de cada vez. Assim eu tombos mais altos e machucados mais graves! rsrsrs...
Beijinhos, Ludy
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