Räikkönen's risky strategy hit him on the fingers

Kimi Räikkönen year model 2012 can surprise in a new way. Not even the complete downfall in China GP got the Finn upset

The crushing drop from 2nd postion to far away from point-positions didn't get Räikkönen irritated, nor did he start to curse swear words after he got out of the car.

The driver seemed to be completely okay with the situation. The goal was to get the best result of the season, he was offered a place on the podium even after poorly timed pit stops, but now the calculated risk hit on his own nails.

– The strategy had only two options. We tried with more risk, thought it would pay off because it was in theory the fastest for this race. It just didn't work now since the tyres didn't last in the final games. They were completely gone, Räikkönen said.

Räikkönen did his everything to keep the pace reasonable during the 28 laps, but 10 laps before the finish the reaper came - or rather 12 reapers came.

When Räikkönen's Lotus was overtaken by Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull the car went off the driving line and was after that like on a black ice. Completely worn out medium tyres didn't work anymore and Räikkönen was a helpless prey for the chasers just like a bird who can't fly is for hunters.

– Everything went okay until those last laps. We had a good pace and the possibility to a good result. Then the tyres just failed and it was impossible to keep up the same rhythm.

– Once Vettel went past the downhill took off. I was on pieces of rubber and couldn't control the car at all. I just tried to stay on the track. I guess I lost about 10 positions during one lap when I couldn't do anything to stop it, Räikkönen sighed.

Räikkönen got a good start from 4th position and the E20 -car proved out to be faster than it had been all weekend. However two pitstops went slightly wrong and Räikkönen lost his position during both of them.

– Then I got stuck behind Felipe Massa. I was much faster than he was but I just couldn't get past, because Ferrari was stronger in exactly that place where I needed to get close enough to overtake him.

– All and all it doesn't matter if I would have got past earlier or not, because the tyres wore out and the result would have been the same. But at least I would have been more ahead of the other bunch behind me, than I was now when everybody caught up with me, Räikkönen said.

Turun Sanomat

HEIKKI KULTA

Courtesy: Nicole

Räikkönen knew the risks of his strategy

Kimi Räikkönen's goal in China GP was to get the best result of the season. It went wrong: Räikkönen's gutty fight for podium positions peeled off together with his tyres and Kimi ended having his worst result in China GP - 14.th.

Three years ago Räikkönen was 10th with Ferrari. In 2006 in McLaren he had to retire from 2nd position.

Räikkönen scored 16 points to Lotus in the two opening races. Now his team mate Romain Grosjean finished the race for the first time and scored the team 8 points with his 6th position.

– We tried to master a faster strategy with two pitstops and it looked good until the 10 last laps. In the end the performance ability of the tyres vanished and that was that. I got stuck behind Felipe Massa for a long time and couldn't get past him, because I wasn't fast enough in the right places to make an attempt. Whatever. Even though I would have overtaken him it wouldn't had changed the end result much.

– We had a good pace in the race, we tried a different strategy but it didn't pay off. That's how simple it just is, Räikkönen was irritated.

Grosjean got his career's first WC-points in his 10th GP.

– This was a really good race. I enjoyed it tremendously. Unfortunately I made a small mistake when fighting with Webber, but overall this was a good performance. The car felt fantastic. The team did a brilliant job when trying to improve it from Friday. I'm especially happy that I finished the race and scored good points home, Grosjean shined.

– It feels really good when you can battle with McLaren and Red Bull. I'm happy that my season actually began from here. We had huge expectations in Melbourne and after a few setbacks we can now focus higher. There's always room to improve and we can aim to the top 5 and score points from there. We take step by step forward with confidence, Grosjean said.

Eric Boullier is frustrated since they missed out on the podium positions that were so close.

– We are so close in achieving good results and then something happens. This is frustrating. Now we had during the last 12 laps one car 2nd and the other one 5th after pitstops. Unfortunately our strategy was a little too aggressive.

– When we saw that a few cars made 3 pitstops, it was clear that we had chances to get to the podium. However we didn't foresee that the tyre consumption would be so hard. The strategy paid off with Romain, but it didn't pay off with Kimi.

– What is positive here is that we still showed a good speed in both qualification and race and that we could fight for the podium positions together with Kimi, Boullier said.

Turun Sanomat

HEIKKI KULTA

Courtesy: Nicole

Video: BBC - Hungarian GP - Jenson Button delighted strategy paid off in Hungary

Jenson Button talks to Jake Humphrey, Martin Brundle and Eddie Jordan after a his victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Button was competing in his 200th race in Formula 1 and won after starting third on the grid and coming out on top after a battle with McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton



Source: SixtyBuckss

Q&A with Jenson Button after Istanbul

Jenson Button says he'll put Turkey "down to experience and move on" after he lost out due to his three-stop strategy...

Q: Turkey was a race where you seemed to hold all the right cards yet couldn't play them at the right times...
JB: "Yeah, pretty much. I think, like everyone else, we went into the race believing that a three-stopper was the best strategy. And while it quickly became quite apparent that most people were being pushed into a four-stopper, I looked after the tyres in that first stint, managed to gain a few laps on the cars around me and still looked set to make a three-stop strategy work.

"I think we were on course for a decent result, but I suffered a bit when, in the team's attempt to get me into clear air, I was boxed a bit too soon into the tyres' life. Plus, I was released into traffic and then those earlier-than-necessary stops left me with a bit of a final stint, which meant that I really struggled for pace on tyres that were really past their best."

Q: And what do you draw from that?
JB: "It's disappointing because, from the cockpit, I didn't really do anything wrong - I drove a clean, strong race and looked after the tyres, but I suffered a bit as a result of that. As we've seen in the first three races, all the teams and drivers are on a steep learning curve with these tyres and we just have to notch this one down to experience and move on. I think we'll all learn something from Sunday and, hopefully, we can put it to good use as soon as possible.

"Besides, we didn't really have the pace in the car, to challenge for victory on Sunday. When you have the car beneath you that has good pace, it does make your strategy easier: when you're forced to push, you sometimes have to make a marginal call, or try to make a less-than-perfect strategy work. We never said it was easy, and it's good that we feel confident enough to make risky calls. I'll be heading into the next two races feeling more confident that we'll be back to our usual position up at the front."

Q: It looked like the team's performance took a knock at Turkey - do you think you'll bounce back in Spain and Monaco?
JB: "For Turkey, we'd planned to introduce a couple of useful upgrades, but for several reasons, we weren't able to get them onto the car. As we've said before, the championship battle is basically a development race, and we stumbled a little bit in Turkey because the progress that we'd anticipated making wasn't quite there.

"But I know how this team reacts - they won't have liked having fallen off the bubble in Turkey, and we feel pretty confident that we'll be able to get the pace and reliability from some of our planned upgrades, so I'm optimistic that we'll have those components back on the car for Barcelona.

"We're always developing new solutions, too, and I know that the designers are pushing hard on all fronts to make sure we're in a position to win more races."

Source: jensonbutton.com

Button: Strategy was wrong

Jenson Button: It's a pity to finish so far back after everything in the first stint seemed to go so well. Strategy-wise, I don't think we got it right today

Jenson Button has said his strategy was to blame after only finishing sixth in today's Turkish Grand Prix.

Button, who opted to three-stop, was running fourth in the closing stages, but on worn tyres he was powerless to fight off his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who both four-stopped, and he eventually finished more than 10 seconds behind the latter.

“It's a pity to finish so far back after everything in the first stint seemed to go so well,” Button lamented. “Strategy-wise, I don't think we got it right today.

“My battle with Lewis [early on] was great fun and there was a lot of excitement on the track, but I was disappointed to finish where I did: the car felt very good but we just went the wrong way on strategy.

“I think most people probably started the race aiming for a three-stopper, but because many of them damaged their tyres in the first stint, they changed their approach. We didn't, and I was able to put a couple of laps on everyone and my tyres still felt pretty good – but I felt the next two stops were earlier than the tyres could have done, which is disappointing.

“We didn't leave the stops late enough – the tyres were still good at the end of every stop, so we should have stayed out longer because it just made the last stint extremely difficult.

“During the final stint, I was trying to get the best out of the car but it's so hard because the difference in pace between a fresh and used set of tyres is so great.”

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh meanwhile concurred it was a mistake to three-stop: “Jenson was the quickest of the three-stoppers, but with hindsight it probably wasn't the optimal strategy, and consequently he struggled a bit – through no fault of his own.”

Source: Crash.net

Mark Webber's Winning Strategy

Source: GrandPrixGirls