While getting re-acquainted with life at Ferrari, Raikkonen took some time to chat about how he’s adjusting to the changes and getting to know the new team members. And yes, the man had quite a bit to say 😉
Tag: ferrari
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Video: Kimi Raikkonen talks about the fans
Kimi Raikkonen’s first three “official” days of Kimi Raikkonen’s second stint with Ferrari proved useful for him to familiarise himself with the technical aspects that go in to making up part of a driver’s job wherever he is. In addition, it was also a chance for him to re-immerse himself in the special atmosphere at Ferrari and talk a little about his (and their) fans.
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Caterham Announce Kobayashi & Ericsson
Caterham CEO Tony Fernandes announced earlier today that Kamui Kobayashi and rookie Marcus Ericsson will complete their driver line-up in 2014.
Japan’s Kobayashi returns to Formula 1 after a year’s racing for Ferrari in the World Endurance Championship. Kobayashi made a sensational Formula 1 debut as a stand-in driver for Toyota during the 2009 season which followed with a stint of racing with Sauber from 2010-12.
Kobayashi was quoted as saying that it “was great” to be back in Formula 1 with the Caterham team. “Throughout all our discussions I’ve been very impressed with where they want to take the team, and how much investment has been made already to help them achieve their goals,” Kobayashi told AUTOSPORT.
Marcus Ericsson graduates from GP2 to partner Kobayashi at Caterham for 2014.
“This is a very proud day for me and everyone has helped make my F1 dream come true. I’ll be making the step up to F1 with Caterham in 2014 and I’m already excited about the season ahead, and the first race in Australia in particular,” Ericsson shared with AUTOSPORT.
2013 Caterham driver Giedo van der Garde has inked a deal with Sauber as the team’s test and reserve driver.
Image courtesy of @tedkravitz via Twitter
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Michael Schumacher ‘hurt in skiiing accident’
Reports have been making the rounds that former F1 driver Michael Schumacher has been taken to hospital with a head injury.
The accident allegedly happened while the 44-year-old seven time world champion was skiing in the French resort of Meribel in the popular Three Valleys ski area.
“I do not know the severity of the injury,” the director of the ski station told French radio station RMC. The police are currently conducting their investigation into the origins of the fall.”
He added: “We do not know yet if it happened on a piste or off-piste.”
Michael Schumacher retired from Formula 1 for a second time at the conclusion on the 2012 season.
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Eddie Irvine brands double points rule as “insanity”
Former Formula One driver Eddie Irvine has branded the idea of double points for the season finale as “insanity” and vows he won’t be watching another race “until the rule is kicked out”.
Irvine, who drove for Jordan, Ferrari and Jaguar during his decade-long career, is not one to be shy of giving an opinion and has already voiced his displeasure with additions such as DRS to the sport.
Now, in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Irvine has lashed out at the new regulation changes in the sport, more specifically at the new double points rule which will see drivers receiving double points for the final race in Abu Dhabi at the end of the 2014 season.
“I think Formula One has lost its way,” he told Belfast Telegraph.
“This latest rule of double points for the last race is insanity. That actually made me realise I am not going to watch another race until that rule gets kicked out. That is just embarrassing. It really is. They should be ashamed of themselves.”
“I just think the people involved in these decisions have lost the plot. They have no understanding of reality and the people who are in there have been in too long. They have blown up the history of the sport by changing the points, changing the qualifying and now double points for the final race!”
“It’s ridiculous, I’ve never heard such a joke in all my life. Talk about tinsel town bullshit!”
Irvine also had a few things to say about Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
When asked whether he thought that Vettel is on the same level as his former team mate and seven time world champion, Michael Schumacher, Irvine seemed to think that Vettel is proving nothing by staying at Red Bull.
“Vettel’s record is amazing, though he has kept the best car pretty much every year which Michael didn’t have. The one thing about Michael was when he won his first two championships he felt ‘this is boring, I’m going to go to Ferrari and re-build Ferrari’ and that was very admirable. He struggled there for four years before he won another championship. Vettel just staying at Red Bull winning trophies is boring. I don’t see what he’s trying to prove. Okay, he’s going to collect a lot of championships, but you know what, who cares?”
Irvine didn’t hold back about Hamilton either, saying that he’d “lost the plot a little bit because he went too showbiz.”
He continued, “His entry into Formula One was fantastic and his talent was amazing. Then he wanted to be a movie star or a rapper or something else. People want their sports stars to be 100% committed to being sports stars. I think he is coming back from that now and it would be nice if he could challenge Vettel. Lewis and Fernando Alonso are the two guys capable of taking Vettel on if their cars are up to it. Unfortunately, they aren’t at the moment.”
Irvine put a final little dig in at the current state of Formula One saying that he much prefers watching the Discovery Channel and doesn’t keep in touch with anyone other than Kimi Raikkon who “rings me the odd time when he’s drunk!”
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Spagnolo Confirmed as Raikkonen’s Engineer for 2014
Ferrari, on Tuesday, confirmed Antonio Spagnolo as Kimi Raikkonen’s race engineer for 2014.
Spagnolo joined Ferrari in 2005 from Minardi and worked on Alonso’s engineering team for the 2013 campaign. From 2014 he will sit Alongside Stefano Domenicali and Andrea Stella on the pit wall and suggesting race instructions to Raikkonen over the radio.
This will be Raikkonen’s third race engineer at Ferrari after Chris Dyer in 2007 and Andrea Stella in 2008.
Raikkonen will have his first run in a Ferrari at the first pre-season test at Jerez on 28 January.
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Ferrari “back at the cutting edge” of F1 says James Allison
Ferrari technical director James Allison says that the team’s recent investment in its wind tunnel and aerodynamic team have returned the team to the “cutting edge” of Formula One.
“Aerodynamics remains the lifeblood of a modern Formula 1 car,” he told the Ferrari website. “It’s impossible to be competitive without having the right tools and adequate resources: now we can say we have moved on from being maybe the fourth or fifth team in terms of the tools we have, to once again being at the cutting edge and everything is in place to open up a new Ferrari era.”
Next season we will see massive changes in engine and other technical regulations with turbo V6s replacing the V8s and greater emphasis on energy recovery. Allison told the Ferrari website that he believed this would shift the focus away from aerodynamics a little.
“It’s true that the influence of the power unit on overall performance of the car will be much greater than in the recent past. From when, in 2007, the freeze on engine development took hold and performance levels converged, it’s clear that its influence on the pecking order got ever smaller, while aerodynamics grew in importance,” he said. “In the years leading up to that point, that wasn’t the case: I can well remember how important the engine was in terms of Ferrari’s successes in the first half of the Noughties. Now we will witness a re-balancing, although aerodynamics will still be a key factor.”
Allison joined Ferrari in September having left Lotus earlier this year but insists he has not been focusing on next year’s car. Instead he has been working on instead ensuring that the team was equipped with the right tools, and the best people for the year ahead.
“I definitely haven’t spent time going into the details of the design of the new car, as it wouldn’t make any sense at this stage,” he said. “Rather, I concentrated on trying to direct adequate resources and on putting the best people in the right places to optimise attention to detail.”
“Actually, when you tackle a regulation change like this one, it’s not something you only start thinking about six months beforehand. When I arrived in Maranello, work on the project had been on going for two years. I tried to immerse myself in its philosophy and adapt to the team as quickly as possible,” he continued. “Having said that, what you could call my active role in the design of the car involves working identifying the areas on which maybe we should push harder and concentrate more effort.”
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Full driver line-up for Bahrain tyre test confirmed
The full driver line-up for this week’s Pirelli tyre test in Bahrain has been confirmed.
The three day tyre test is set to get underway on Tuesday and end on Thursday and will see teams testing using their 2013 cars. All 11 teams were invited to the tyre test but only six agreed to participate. McLaren and Force India however later decided to withdraw. Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and Toro Rosso will be on track to put Pirelli’s 2014 tyres through their paces. The running plans however, will be dictated by Pirelli as they gather data for next season.World champions Red Bull, will be making use of test driver Sebastien Buemi while Toro Rosso will give Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat one and a half days of running each.
Ferrari confirmed that they will be using their development driver Pedro De la Rosa for two days and that Marussia driver Jules Bianchi will take part in one day of the tyre test.
Mercedes were last to confirm their driver line-up and will be using only Nico Rosberg for the tyre test.
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Pirelli confirm four teams for Bahrain tyre test
Pirelli have confirmed that four teams will take part in the Bahrain tyre test next week.
Following confirmation that both McLaren and Force India have withdrawn from the test because of the short timeframe between the test and the FIA’s confirmation that it may go ahead.
The FIA gave the tyre test the go ahead on Monday night, when they also announced major rule changes for 2014 and 2015.
A McLaren spokesperson said simply, “We are not testing in Bahrain next week.”
A Force India spokesperson added, “Given the short notice of this test taking place and the time frames involved, the team will not be attending the test.”
The teams who will now take place in the Bahrain tyre test for Pirelli are Red Bull Racing, Mercedes, Ferrari and Toro Rosso.
The test will run from 17-19 December.
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FIA announces major changes to 2014 regulations
The FIA has announced some major changes to the regulations of the sport including Double points at the final race of the season; Permanent driver numbers; A 5 second penalty for minor infringements and a cost cap in 2015.
Double Points to be awarded at Final Race
In a rather controversial move, the FIA announced that double drivers’ and constructor’s points will be awarded at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi. The change means that 50 points will be allocated to the winner of the final round of 2014, rather than the usual 25.
The FIA have stated that the change was immediately applicable and would “maximise focus on the championship until the end of the campaign”.
There is little doubt that this could most certainly carry the championship through to the final round – if this change had been implemented in previous years, Kimi Raikkonen would have been champion in 2003 instead of Michael Schumacher, and Felipe Massa would have beaten Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Fernando Alonso would have been the 2012 champion instead of Sebastian Vettel.
Permanent Driver Numbers
In a less controversial move, a unanimous agreement was given during a meeting of the F1 Strategy Group and the Formula One Commission in Paris on Monday, to introduce permanent driver numbers.
“Drivers will be asked to choose their race number, between 2 and 99, for the duration of their career in the FIA Formula One World Championship,” said the FIA statement. “Number 1 will be reserved for the current World Champion, should he choose to use it.”
Should more than one driver chose the same number, priority will be given to the driver who finished highest in the previous year’s championship.
Five Second Penalty
The principle of a five-second penalty for minor infringements was also accepted for the 2014 season. Teams will still meet to discuss how it should be applied before the penalty system is implemented at the start of the season.
Global Cost Cap for 2015
The principle of a global cost cap has been adopted and the limit will be applied from January 2015.
A working group will be established within the coming days comprising of the FIA, representatives of the Commercial Rights Holder and Team representatives. The objective of this working group will be to have regulations approved by the end of June 2014.
Pirelli December tyre test
The FIA has also approved the Pirelli tyre test which will be staged next week in Bahrain. Six teams have agreed to take part – Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Force India and Toro Rosso.
Immediate Effect
The FIA stated that these “changes are immediately applicable, given the mandate assigned to the FIA President at the last World Motor Sport Council meeting, held on 4 December in Paris”.