My nickname for the Vettel/Raikkonen combination is team "i had a much better reputation this time last year..." On a serious note i'm not sure you can just excuse kimi for this season. Vettel and Button have been seen to be sensitive to the cars characteristics at points in their careers but they've always at least managed to recover to have a mediocre season. Kimi has a case for being the worst driver of the season. Failing to find any kind of setup to at least minimise his issues over an entire year doesn't bode well. What if its the regulations he doesn't like?
I might get shouted down but even when he was at Lotus Kimi wasn't perfect. One of the main reasons he failed to mount a serious title challenge there was because he consistently failed to get out of Q2 (in a car regularly capable of podium finishes). Add in his previous issues with Ferrari and uncertain cars and I really don't know what people expected from him this year.
I don't think that was all him tbf, the Lotus was very light on it's tyres and it suffered in Quali to get heat into them. Another interesting point with Kimi, Hasn't his race engineer changed twice (or at least the Radio guy?), he would probably benefit from somebody who knows what he wants, wasn't his engineer in his title year Andrea Stella? (now Alonso's), maybe he'll get him back. Won't solve things but i reckon it'd be a help. That said, car good or not, even during his time at Lotus i don't think he's the same driver he was at McLaren (or even at spells in his first time at Ferrari). At his best, his pace was about as good as i've ever seen from a driver. Not once since he returned has he stuck in a lap where i thought "wow". I do feel like he has lost that killer tenth of a second over the lap that the great drivers can pluck from nowhere, Hamilton for example can, Vettel (when the car is there) can.
Nice to see Hamilton sticking up for Jenson. http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/nov/06/lewis-hamilton-jenson-button-f1-mclaren
Grosjean is set to confirm his plans this weekend, Gutierrez looks to be out. Meanwhile, the procedure by which drivers have to unlap themselves is to be revised to minimise safety car delays (presumably that will accompany the "virtual safety car").
100% Agreed, now it's just Fernando has had enough of wasting his life there and Kimi is waiting for a custom built car to at least give him a last hurrah in what is most likely going to be his last season. You are right ranking them like that, I guess they will favour Kimi first. If all goes to pot they will focus on Vettel who is going to be a long term Ferrari driver I presume.
If there are no ways around his problems, and it is the fundamental regulations of the sport. I'd call it a day. Good point.
This was evident in Singapore when he couldn't slap it on the front row, I reckon in his younger days he would have done it.
this just posted up on bbc practice link: [h=3]BREAKING NEWS[/h] Posted at12:52The Marussia F1 team have folded, and will not compete at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Well I'm glad the sport rallied to make sure that 200 jobs weren't lost right in the run up to the Christmas period. Feeling really disappointed with the whole lot of em right now.
I actually thought he was crap at Lotus as he is now, it was as good as the Ferrari in general, if not better (especially the last half of '13) and he still couldn't get anything but a lucky win in Abu Dhabi and a few podiums. Grosjean completely destroyed him once their car was the same last season (remember that Kimi had all the upgrades first, hence why he was "quicker") and I think other than his Mclaren seasons he's been extremely overrated his whole career
Eh? He won in Abu Dhabi ('12) and Australia, and in '13 he had 6 second places and one third. Grosjean picked up a lot of pace when them moved to the LWB spec which was on paper faster because it worked their rear diffuser harder, which shifter the balance away from the nose. Even then (given we can't count the last 2 races he didn't feature in after he went off for surgery/strike due to not getting paid), Grosjean only finished ahead their last 3 races, one of which Kimi was put out on the first lap. He certainly did take a huge dip in form late in 13, but that did also coincide with the lwb car so it's a fair assumption that was why. He hated the lwb so much he switched back to the "Slower" swb for Abu Dhabi, we just never got to see if that solved matters because he was punted off in 3 corners.
I feel certain Jenson will leave but not necessarily because Mclaren want him too more because Alonso is demanding number 1 status which won't suit Jenson and Mclaren know asking an ex champ to be number 2 is not acceptable for driver and fans alike.
Looking at how agressively Magnussens been forcing Jenson wide everytime he tries to pass him, im not sure he'll make a great no2 either (though perhaps he'll be more grateful for the seat). Personally i think Jensons days were numbered the moment Ron took over. He's a relic of the Whitmarsh era. There's been a lot of sackings at McLaren and i think Dennis just wants to tear it all down and build from scratch again. It was always a case of them waiting to see if an alternative came onto the market and one has.
I find that very ironic considering Ron was very vocal in 2012 about Lewis not being "realistic" given the financial changes in the economy. If I was Lewis I would be pissed, but then again he will have achieved another WDC!
Weren't we expecting some announcements re. drives for next season this last weekend? Maybe I wasn't paying attention but I don't recall any. Grosjean, for example?
Next time we hear about moves will be near testing I reckon, and I am not sure Bando... probably Kimi's to Ferrari again or Lewis to Mercedes?
