The Emperor

Kimi did not have any specific problems


Ferrari has urged Kimi Raikkonen to improve after the Finn's disappointing race in Bahrain.

Some observers were surprised when the highly rated 27-year-old lagged the leaders at the safety car restart in Sakhir, after Raikkonen also made a poor getaway when the red lights went out and was outpaced all weekend by teammate Felipe Massa.

"I have to say that he has to think of a better way of managing this part of the job," Ferrari's technical director Mario Almondo, referring to the botched restart, told reporters.

The Italian also confirmed to La Gazzetta dello Sport that Raikkonen did not have "any specific technical problems" in Bahrain, while Massa won.

The Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport, meanwhile, summed up Raikkonen's weekend by concluding that the Finn did neither "well nor particularly badly" at Sakhir.

Kimi, however, was reportedly critical of his race strategy on Sunday, reckoning that the Ferrari pitwall should have given him a shorter middle stint to ensure he got past Fernando Alonso in the pits.


He said : "Hopefully in the next test we can find something which is a bit better for me."

Ferrari's sporting director Stefano Domenicali defended Raikkonen, arguing that a team could not be unhappy with a driver that is jointly leading the drivers' championship. "He is new at Ferrari and he is still developing with us," Domenicali said of Kimi. "I think he is very happy with us and we are very happy with him."

Ferrari has an upcoming aerodynamic test at Vairano before the Italian squad joins the group action at the pre-Spanish Grand Prix test.

Source GMM
© CAPSIS International

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BMW_Dude

I think they knew the type of person Kimi was before they hired him, I'm sure they will be able to get on with him. Saying things like this in public will make matters worse!

kere

It's been three races with a new car, team and tires. Let's give Kimi, and Alonso, few more months to show their real speed. If I've understood right Kimi will have a new suspension in the next test(?), maybe we can see some improvement after that in Kimis pace.

Beemer B773ER

Eventhough he's new to the team and new the car, I have to question where his head was at when he screwed that restart??

I was amazed at how much of a gap he gave the top two. At first I was thinking it was the 'really slow down before hitting the gas' tactic to offset Alonso, but he blew any chance he had of putting the heat on Hamilton for second place.

Another question, what is there to explain Alonso's 5th placing? Great that it was a major BMW break-through, but Alonso was off the pace the whole race.

ADGvast

The speed of Alonso was slow in his 2nd set of tires but he can keep up and close the gap with his 3rd set (maybe caused by the slow traffic)... is the 2nd set of tires caused his position?

Alfie

Bah. He's done better than Massa so far. And he's in a new team so I'd wait with the critisism. Although, he could've done a better start in Bahrain, and he admitted it himself as well.

Bartek Sikorski

Raikkonen: we could have done better.

- ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTERDespite leaving Bahrain as joint leader of the drivers’ championship, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen believes he could have improved on his start to the 2007 season. Raikkonen, who came home third at Sakhir on Sunday, shares the top of the standings with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and world champion Fernando Alonso.

“We picked up a lot of points, but we could have done even better,” Raikkonen told Ferrari’s official website. “We were unable to get as much out of the car as we would have liked. The Bahrain weekend was difficult: the car was not quite the way I wanted and we did not do everything perfectly.”

Unlike team mate Felipe Massa - who scored his second pole of the season in Bahrain - Raikkonen struggled for qualifying pace, as he had done a week earlier in Malaysia. In each of the three qualifying phases he was over half a second down on Massa and the Finn believes he must improve his Saturday performance if his title hopes are to maintain momentum.

“I would say it can't be denied that the main problem is in qualifying,” he admitted. “Our race pace is good and we can go up against anyone but over the single lap we are not there yet. And if you are not up with the front runners right from the start then you can say goodbye to the chance of winning."

Indeed, Raikkonen is convinced that without his qualifying woes, he could have repeated his victory in the Australian season opener at both of the following two rounds. Now he is focused on improving things ahead of the start of the European campaign.

“Twenty two points are a good amount, as I said before, but I think I could have got all the available points. I am sure we can be stronger if we manage to optimise the performance of the car and I hope we start doing (that) at the next test session.”

Raikkonen, currently resting at home in Switzerland, will join Ferrari at the multi-team test session at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya at the end of the month, ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix on May 11-13.

Mikael

Exactly!