F1 Racing Magazine November 2013
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Kimi vs Fernando
Regardless of who is ultimately quicker,next year Kimi Räikkönen could really push Fernando Alonso's buttons.So will running two "equal number ones" actually give Ferrari what they want?
As with all great rivalries,the players are poles apart.First,there's your Spanish bandolero who‘ll keep smiling even as he inserts the knife. He's grown upthe hard way — from nowhere in Spain (in a motorsport context) - to the centre of the F1 universe. He's lived and won with Flavio; he‘s still got a bunch of secrets about that year at McLaren; and, although, like the rest of them, he’s trying not to count how many wins Sebastian Vettel now has to his name, he's still the racing driver's racing driver.The guy who best does the job on Sunday. The driver who can pick up a car by its Pirellis and carry it around on his back.He dismisses, though, invitations to meet with said Pirelli engineers;he runs a ship of which you’re either a part or you are not. If you‘re not abjectly for him, say “buenos dias" to him at your peril.When he blanks you he blanks you, mouth turned down at the edges, eyes glazed.He colours, therefore, about 70 per cent of the 2013 Ferrari garage.
Of course he's delivered. Didn’t he almost win the 2012 championship with a burro of a car? Didn‘t he
perform miracles when everyone else was bleating about Coanda effect and blown diffusers?Who could blame him for expecting Ferrari finally to get it right in 2013?Isn't that the point about Ferrari? You drive for them,you put up with them, but, eventually, some time within a three-year period, when they've thrown enough money and people at the car to build a winner — eventually you're supposed to be given the car you need. Isn't that what happened to Kimi back in 2007? Isn't that how it was supposed to be this time?
And then there’s your Kimi, for whom it was good when Ferrari made that approach at Silverstone.He can't be bothered with grudges and things.Too complicated.Too-time consuming.Too energy-draining.Even so,that last trudge up the steps to the hotel in Abu Dhabi in '09 was something he‘ll probably never forget. Ferrari didn't want him for 2010 and that had killed his motivation.
Then, after a while, he knew that he couldn't do without it. And some of the teams out there seemed to be interested.That was nice.Not Ferrari.Not McLaren.Not Red Bull. They either didn’t want him or they were full.Williams seemed serious, though.And so did Lotus.It was sad about Robert. But what could he do?The offer was there. He took it.
He enjoyed it. He could perhaps have done a bit better in qualifying but he was happy with the race days and he was happy with the guys.For what they have,the team is impressive.Very organized. Very creative. Winning felt good again. And,unlike McLaren or Ferrari, they didn't ask too much of him away from the car.Just a few TV ads. Just a few fun things.
Then James Allison left. And then came the word from Ferrari.They agreed to just about everything — the big retainer,the scaled-down sponsorship stuff.
Next year? It’s Fernando's team,Fernando’s garage. He,Kimi,will just do his thing. He'll just turn up and drive.He won‘t say much.He won't ask for much.He's not desperate.He won't expect much. He never was a guy to be out there,demanding this or that.He’ll just relax and enjoy it. At first it's me, me, me. Later on it's okay — no problem. And usually it comes back your way.There'll be plenty of variables on race day. Plenty of engine things and other stuff to play with. It'll probably be the happiest time of his career. You can see it now:the Ferrari is quick in preseason testing, with Fernando setting t he pace. Fernando out qualifies Kimi in the first three races but has,say, a first-comer drama in Melbourne followed by two mechanical glitches in the next two races.Kimi,who has been expecting little and staying quiet,has meanwhile scored a third, a fourth and another third. Suddenly, he is lying a close second in the championship, with Fernando nowhere.
How’s Fernando going to react? Calmly and with aplomb? Or as he reacted at Mclaren,when Lewis Hamilton cramped his style? This is the Latino dynamic fur which Ferrari need to he ready- but inevitably won't be,given their approach to driver management over the past few years.
About the only team member who won't be ruffled,I predict,will be Kimi himself.It's an oxymoron these days to attach the adjective ‘humble’ to ‘racing driver’, hut you won't find a nearer match than with Kimi Matias Räikkönen. And that, I think,gives him enormous strength.
On the other hand, the new Ferrari may not be an instant race-winner,in which case the politics of the Ferrari garage as a whole will be much quieter. Fernando will wring more from a difficult car and thus will send his reply to the management.Now who’s quick? Kimi, for his part, will sit quietly and
live his life.Nothing to lose.Kimi will also offer a stark physical contrast to Fernando's style. He is more linear on the approach to minimum speed than Fernando,which means he is earlier with his initial hand movements and softer with his initial brake application.
He is also the guy, alongside Jenson Button,who most accurately loads up the outside rear from minimum speed point to exit. Kimi probably needs a better from end than Fernando for any given lap time below the delta-but he can do more with the rear on the exit phase once he has got the car rotated.Fernando,by comparison,can manipulate a front end to do virtually anything he chooses, so supple and rapid are his initial hand and foot movements. This level of car control inevitably leads to a few excess energy spikes from mid-corner to exit, but when the car is below par that's a small price to pay. In a less-than-perfect car, as I say, Fernando is probably unbeatable — although the jury’s out on Seb Vettel:we haven’! seen enough of him in mediocre machinery to make any sort of meaningful comment.Who knows at this stage how the new Pirelli/turbo/traction/tyre-management equation will work? Certainly not Pirelli nor the F1 engineers.What we do know is that Kimi will be the yardstick in this department, even if he doesn't have Fernando’s ability,as we say,to juggle steering, brake and throttle inputs — and not necessarily in that order — in the first phase of the turns. If rear-tyre management, and linear-power management, become the issues of 2014, Kimi will be dancing with his eyes shut.He was born to solve these problems. Kimi isn't as quick as Fernando overall — to my eye he's approximately 0.1, maybe 0.2 seconds, slower on a Q3 lap than he was in the McLaren days — but he’s very capable of outpointing Fernando over a 20-race season;and that is the problem — or the magic,depending upon how you see it.
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For those of you who say, “Yes, but what about Ferrari? Shouldn‘t the team have the two best drivers they can possibly hire? Shouldn't the boys on the shop floor be entitled to a little more bonus money?” I would say this: get a life.If there‘s one driver Femando Alonso doesn't want to see winning the world championship next year it is Kimi Räikkönen — and a force as powerful as Alonso can be as intemally damaging as it can be extemally all«consuming.Meanwhile, the reverse is not true: Kimi,as I say,will just take things as they come to the underlying theme of low-ish expectations and a good,basic feel for the racing life.And if things look as though they are going Kimi‘s way — through force of circumstance, or because Kimi is doing a better job — then Fernando will be exactly the driver he became at McLaren:I don’t like the brakes. Change the brakes. This engineer is for me.This one’s against me. They’re all favouring Lewis/Kimi.I’m being forgotten.I'll hold him up in qualifying. Etc, etc...
And while that in itself may be good news for the scandal writers,and could do something for the
TV ratings,it won‘t be good for Ferrari.It's the sort of wrangling that lets devilishly clever people like Adrian Newey, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dive through holes and seize championship initiatives.
Ultimately, it's disarmingly simple — and it goes right back to the days of Emerson Fittipaldi. Pair him with Dave Walker and you're going to see Emerson at his most confident — at his most polished.Put a Ronnie Peterson alongside him and... Jackie Stewart is going to win another world championship with Tyrrell. Does anyone really remember — or care — that Lotus won the constructors’ championship in 1973, or that Williams-Honda won it in 1986? If you‘ve got a Seb Vettel in one car, in other words, you don’t need a Mark Webber, let alone a Kimi Räikkönen,in the other.That’s why Adrian Newey has opted for Daniel Riccianio. No more Turkeys — no more
Malaysias.Likewise, you don't need a Kimi if you’ve got a Fernando Alonso.
Interesting, isn't it? At a time when Red Bull have chosen to go the VET-RIC route,and to benefit from the orderly Seb-focus that comes with it, Ferrari have selected the same moment to throw away their workable ALO-MAS combination and replace it with ALO-RAI.You'd think, given the way Adrian and Red Bull have dominated F1 for the past four seasons — and the way Michael racked up all those titles at Ferrari - that everyone else would have taken note.
Not at all. They continue to believe that running two equal number ones is the sum of all answers. Actually,it’s the sum of all fears.The last thing that any self-respecting, world-championship-contending driver cares about regardless of what they may say in public is the constructors’ championship.That's for rookies to dream about. That's for number twos to get excited about when it's time for the annual team photograph. It's not about the money,either:Ferrari will earn more in sponsorship and merchandising from winning a drivers‘ championship than they will ever win in prize money from the constructors‘ title (minus the drivers’). Everybody knows that.
They say, then, that Ferrari’s new combo is ‘stronger’ than Red Bull's.It is — but only if one of the two Ferraris retires in every race.If they‘re both out there, hunting, the last thing Fernando (and, by default, Ferrari) needs is a Kimi,remorselessly catching him at 0.3 seconds per lap with five laps of the stint still to run.
“Fernando. Kimi is on a different strategy.
Give way. Give way please."
“Femando. Acknowledge. Kimi is on
a different strategy,”
“Femando..."
“Kimi. Hold station.“
“Fernando. Box. Acknowledge."
“Femando. Acknowledge please. Box”
“Kimi. Box.”
“Why box? Tyres are still good."
“Box, Kimi. Box...."
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