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Today in an interview with Autosport, Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen suspects “something isn’t right” with his Ferrari Formula 1 car, after struggling for speed throughout the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.#
Raikkonen felt he had made a breakthrough with the set-up of his F14 T during the previous race in Singapore, where he was matching team-mate Fernando Alonso in qualifying before his session was ended by a software glitch on his Ferrari engine.
But Raikkonen qualified eight tenths adrift of Alonso at Suzuka and also struggled in the wet in Sunday’s race, finishing a lapped 12th as Alonso retired on the opening lap with an electrical issue.
In his interview with Autosport today, Raikkonen said he could not understand why his difficulties handling the Ferrari had returned. Raikkonen stated the following on why his car wasn’t performing like it did in Singapore:-
‘The whole weekend we struggled with the front like crazy. Dry, wet. It’s just completely different than before. Hopefully we will find something that will explain what was going on.’
From what Raikkonen has stated today, it is clear that the car behaved differently in Suzuka last weekend compared to the way it behaved in Singapore a few weeks ago. But it would seem that Raikkonen is perplexed as to why this is the case and is looking into the matter to see what the problem could be.
Further on in his interview with Autosport today, Raikkonen believes that something isn’t right on his car and they need to find out what the problem is. Raikkonen added the following:-
‘In the dry in the first part of the lap with the new tyres it [the car] was just pushing, pushing [into understeer]. Very odd. For two laps intermediates worked and then just grained and I had no front end. Then again [it’s the] same story.
‘For me something isn’t right, but until we see what’s the issue I don’t have an explanation. It just felt very different to any other races. Let’s hope we get that fixed. It was a disappointing weekend.’
It would appear that during the Japanese Grand Prix that Raikkonen believes that there could be something with the car that is pushing their tyres and their performance on the tyres into understeer and it appears to be a reoccurring issue that he keeps coming up for him time and time again.
As Raikkonen has said in his interview today, he can offer no further explanation on the matter and will have to see if he is proven correct and something is found on the car that is hindering his races and his performances during the races. And if Ferrari and Raikkonen are working together as quickly as possible to eradicate this issue and resolve it as quickly as they would like, this could provide Raikkonen with the chance to have a solid last few races of this season and use this data to ensure that this is not repeated for 2015.
But all Raikkonen can do is work together with the Ferrari team, try and find out what the problem is, find a viable solution and hope that this is the end of the matter and Raikkonen’s performances will improve as a result. But it is clear that the issues prevalent on Raikkonen’s car need to be sorted and sorted as quickly as they possibly can if he has any chance of ending the 2014 season with some reasonable performances in the last remaining races.
