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Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen was at the centre of attention on Sunday in Hungary; first as rumours went around that he was being considered for a return to Ferrari for 2013 and then for his stunning performance in the race, where he challenged Lewis Hamilton for victory despite ending the first lap in sixth place.

It was a great performance by Raikkonen at an opportune moment to remind Lotus and others of his value as an F1 driver. Considering that he spent two years on the sidelines and therefore had one year’s less experience of Pirelli tyres than his rivals, he has been remarkably consistent this season. So too has his Lotus team. Although they’ve only recently seemed to be able to qualify well, they have consistently raced well all season, arguably the most constant team of the year in that respect.

And though Romain Grosjean has occasionally been able to use his undoubted speed to get ahead of Raikkonen, the “Iceman” has come through stronger in results and is challenging Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ championship, thanks to scoring an average of 10.5 points per race, including five podiums.

So where did the Raikkonen to Ferrari rumours come from? One Ferrari source was quoted by Mark Hughes in the Sunday Times saying that it would be a good move, although noting that the relationship between Raikkonen and Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo was strained at the time of his departure in 2009. Ferrari paid Raikkonen the best part of €20 million not to drive for them in 2010, which sits very oddly with a possible return in 2013.

Raikkonen seemed happy enough to address the rumour yesterday after the race, “I always said that I didn’t have bad feelings against them,” he answered, “I had a good time with the team. I won my championship there but things probably could have gone a nicer way in the end.

“Life goes on and you never know what happens in the future but I’m happy where I am now and things are going pretty nicely… I don’t come up with the rumours, so perhaps you have to ask the people who write them.”

The Ferrari seat for 2013 is a very complex situation and is being used by a number of people for gain, as it is so fluid, there are no certainties at the moment.

The main question facing all the candidates is, how long would the seat be for? It’s not clear, the rumours around the possibility of Vettel going there in 2014 are supported by well placed sources, even though it’s hard to see the sense of it.

For Raikkonen the thrill is racing and competing to win.

Raikkonen has every reason to feel good about where he is at the moment; the relationship with Lotus and the engineers has clearly bedded in now after half a season and he’s been driving the fastest car on race day for a few races now. Wet qualifyings at Silverstone and Hockenheim have clouded the picture, but he would have won yesterday if the race had been on a place with a straight you can overtake on. Only 48 points behind Alonso in the championship with a car which should go well at all the upcoming tracks, if he can qualify in the top three more often he can mount a challenge.

As for the political situation with Montezemolo, last week the Ferrari president held a rally of his Italia Futura movement, which offers a new way forward for Italy. He stopped short of announcing it would become a party in its own right, which disappointed supporters, but crucially he did promise that Italia Futura would fight the next general election in Italy, so clearly the cogs are turning. He is supported in this by former FOTA secretary general Simone Perillo, who now works as a central co-ordinator of Italia Futura in Rome.

To what extent politics could take Montezemolo away from Ferrari and when, is not clear at this time.

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The influential Italian paper Gazzetta dello Sport has done a mid-season rating of each of the F1 drivers, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso coming out on top, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.

And in a stark assessment of Ferrari’s other driver, Felipe Massa is at the bottom of the table.

The Italian media is very fond of what they call “pagelle”, which are marks out of 10 after every event. It’s a well established part of Italian sports media coverage and has been copied here and there in the UK media and elsewhere.

But in Italy it carries a bit more weight. So it is worth reporting and considering to see whether readers here on JA on F1 agree with their marks.

Alonso comes out with a 10, due to having won three races in an open season, “the merit is above all the Spaniard’s; he has managed to get 101% out of the car, no serious mistake, no below par race, ” says the citation.

Hamilton is second on 8.5, Gazzetta noting that “if he had translated the three poles into three wins it would be a different championship.”


Raikkonen, third on 8, is described as “the most beautiful surprise of the year” for his gutsy comeback, garlanded with podiums and strong points finishes. Interestingly, in 11 races so far these three drivers have yet to appear on the podium together.


In contrast the Gazzetta doesn’t spare Massa’s blushes, “25 points against the 164 of Alonso, who has beaten him 11 times out of 11. A few signs of a revival in recent races but it’s not enough to get him re-signed (for 2013). Perhaps it’s time for a change of scene..”

Here is the full run down:

10 – Alonso
8.5 – Hamilton
8 – Raikkonen
7 – Webber, Vettel, Rosberg, Grosjean
6.5 – Di Resta, Maldonado
6 – Schumacher, Perez, Kobayashi, Hulkenberg, Kovalainen, Glock, De la Rosa, Pic, Petrov,
5.5 – Senna
5 – Button, Vergne, Ricciardo, Karthikeyan
4.5 Massa

What do you think? Do you agree and if not how would you rank the drivers out of ten for their season so far? Leave your comments below.

Pero de verdad creeis q

Pero de verdad creeis que Kimi volveria a FErrari? a vosotros os despiden de vuestro trabajo y encima tiene mania a FErnando y volveriais a vuestro anterior trabajo?

Alonso sale con un 10, por haber ganado tres carreras en una temporada abierta "el mérito es sobre todo del español, tiene conseguido que el 101% del coche, sin grave error, ninguna carrera por debajo de la media "

ay

Este es uno de los mejores comentarios que he leído sobre Senna y Alonso, en la última entrada de James Allen. Está en inglés pero viene a decir que esta temporada de Alonso solo se puede comparar a la de Senna en 1993. Otro forero, más experto todavía, viene a decir que en esta época las exigencias y el nivel general de la competición es mayor y que en su criterio Alonso está por encima de Senna. Según él, los pilotos de esta época serían capaces de competir sin problemas con los mejores de antaño:

"
15. Posted By: Trent
Date: August 17th, 2012 @ 10:56 am

I think we were fortunate to see Senna in 1992-3, a time when he overwhelming did not have the best car. To me, these against-the-odds drives provide the most amazing memories of all; this is the special part of F1.

As you rightly point out, we are seeing the same with Alonso this year. I loved the team radio in Malaysia, Stefano Domenicalli describing (as only Italians can) the ‘most beautiful win’. That’s a feeling we only get when someone has delivered as the underdog. How great it is to witness such moments!

[Reply]

Martin Reply:
August 19th, 2012 at 5:55 am

I agree with you in general, but I do feel that there were some small contributing factors. The McLaren was a great chassis that year with a second best Ford engine, step behind the Benetton version. The Williams active suspension wasn’t known for its great feel, and this contributed to a fair bit of the performance advantage in the dry going away and making the first laps in the race and new tyres quite tricky.

Monaco would have been Schumacher’s win quite quite easily if reliability hadn’t got in the way. The car-engine-driver combo were a step ahead of Senna all weekend. It was a bit like 87 when Mansell should have won.

I think 93 was generally a step up in peformance from Senna. Beating Prost probably meant more to him than Mansell and as the car was closer than in 92, he was able to make a difference. In 92, Berger was closer than in 90 or 91 if I remember correctly.

Personally, I think the standard is higher now than in Piquet-Prost-Senna-Mansell era. As the cars are much closer in performance and passing is more difficult I believe the standards are greater. While Sennas’qualifying record is impressive compared to drivers since, the outcome was much less important. The refueling era and the high reliability gave an era where the drivers had to be at maximum concetration for the entire race, rather than conserving resources. The current cars have too much grip relative to their power, but the error rate is much reduced from Senna’s time. I remember working out that Senna had significant off-track moment/spin, car contact or crash in more than a quarter of his races.

Based on that, you wouldn’t be surprised to read that I rate Alonso ahead of Senna. I think the current level of the sport has pushed the current drivers to be the best we’ve ever seen – they need to be more skilled. I believe the guys at the top now would have coped with the power:grip of the 1980s turbos and pretty much everything else is at a greater level except the gear changing.

Cheers,

Martin
"

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si quereis ver esto en vacaciones

FIA announces Formula E, is it the future of motorsport?

The world of electric motorsport has taken a step closer after the FIA announced that it has awarded the promoter contract for the new Formula E series to a group called Formula E Holdings, involving French company Formulec, former UK science minister and champion of green racing Lord Drayson and GP2 entrant Alejandro Agag. It is also being funded by entrepreneur Enrique Banuelos.

The series will start in 2014 with a race in Rio de Janeiro after some demonstration runs in 2013 and will feature 10 teams each with two drivers. The prototype car, produced by Formulec, will have a Lithium Iron batteries and a maximum speed of 220km/h and will run for 25 minutes between charges. Entrants will be able to use a Formulec car but are also allowed to design and build their own cars to FIA regulations. This leaves room for Toyota, Honda and other interested manufacturers to enter the series.

FIA's Jean Todt ©with Agag (L) and Banuelos ®

The series is interesting in several ways; first it takes some of the heat off F1 being required to be seen as going green, at least for a while.

One of the ideological struggles of the past year or two has been the debate about how far down that road F1 should go with its 2014 new engine formula, with some parties like Renault keen to really push the boundaries and move far away from the gas guzzling V8s used today. Others believe that F1 should remain all about conspicuous consumption, despite the obvious evidence that the world is running out of oil and thus its cost is increasingly unsustainable.

An uneasy compromise has been reached with the V6 1.6 litre turbo engines, which are already being dyno tested by Renault, Mercedes and Ferrari. These will be 30% more efficient than the current units, will have a large proportion of regenerative energy from braking and will run on electric only in the pit lane.

Talk of the new engines not sounding like proper racing engines has dominated the debate, with many parties once again guilty of short-term thinking. The sound will be one of the key things the Formula E promoters must get right from the outset, using synthesised noise.

However the arrival of Formula E allows the FIA to have something to point at to highlight its work in this area and it is a response to pressure from the European Commission chiefs, among others, for the governing body to do more to provide the platform for manufacturers to push innovation in technologies around electric vehicles. Racing has long been proven to be a very effective test bed for the automotive world.

The Formula E races will take place in cities which are leading the sustainable motoring agenda; to maximise the population reach and to underline those cities’ desire to promote environmentally friendly motoring.

FIA president Jean Todt said, “This new competition at the heart of major cities is certain to attract a new audience. We are pleased with this agreement with Formula E Holdings as they bring a very strong experience in motor sport. This spectacular series will offer both entertainment and a new opportunity to share the FIA values and objectives of clean energy, mobility and sustainability with a wider and younger audience as well.”

It will be interesting to see whether the FIA is able to persuade the promoter of F1, Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM, to find a way to showcase Formula E in front of its huge global audience, which would help to spread its influence more quickly, or whether it will have to stand on its own feet.

Will battery powered cars be the future of electric motorsport? I put that question recently to Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, now engaged in work on the future of mobility and transport. He pointed to an experiment in Korea, which he thinks will provide the future model for motorsport.

“The weight of the batteries required to do 15 laps is too much,” he said. “So I think the online vehicle technology, which is a very exciting new technology, only recently developed, for me is the most likely.

“In Seoul, under the tarmac of the road an inch down a primary coil is installed. In your car is a secondary coil. There’s no electricity coming from the primary until your car is over it, so it’s very little energy loss; 93% energy transferred to the secondary coil. And the car is driven on that energy. You have a small, low weight battery in the car and that battery is always fully charged until you drive off the track. Then you use the charge left in the battery.

“I know that sounds like Scalextric. But I think the future of F1 is going to take up these amazing new technologies. ”

It’s a fascinating theory and one we will watch out for. Meanwhile Formula E will start a process of shifting the perception of the way men (and women) race cars and we will see where it leads us.

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