Jean Todt and his red overalled team Ferrari have ruled out imposing any early team orders on FelipeMassa and Kimi Raikkonen in a bid to increase their chances of beating
McLaren to the world championship this year.
The Maranello team’s two drivers are separated by just one point in
the title chase and their well-matched speed makes it likely that they
will be taking points off each other for the rest of the season.
With the fight for the championship so close, such freedom to race
until one of them is mathematically out of the title hunt means the
team run the risk of just missing out on the crown by sharing the
points out too much.
But Ferrari team principal Jean Todt insists that Raikkonen and Massa will be left completely free to compete with each other.
When asked whether or not he would consider a change of tactics to
favour one driver and maximize his points scoring chances, Todt said:
"No. It will be something that will be inappropriate with drivers like
Felipe and Kimi, doing such a good job, after 12 Grands Prix with just
one point difference.
"Most of them had problems because of some mistakes that we did.
They made some mistakes, but that is normal. We are human beings, and
at the moment there is not any plan to make any kind of strategy
between one or the other one."
After seeing Massa close down Lewis Hamilton’s title advantage to 15
points with five races to go, and Ferrari now just 11 points behind
McLaren in the constructors’ championship pending an FIA Court of
Appeal hearing, Todt believes the title fight is on.
"We feel it is still open. It will be tough, but it is always tough.
And as I always said, we will try the best until the end and I believe
we still can carry this on."
After the race, some fans were speculating whether Ferrari had told Kimi to cool off Massa’s tail to maintain current position of the 1-2. The only reason they would do this is if they had doubts that Massa would have been pressurized too much and therefore commit errors and even crash out. I mean, what would be the reason otherwise? It’s a huge track with tarmac run offs that go on for a mile and Davidson’s crash on Friday was bizarre itself as the barriers are so far away from the track. But I don’t believe Ferrari did say anything to their drivers about their positions. Kimi closed the gap to Massa considerably quick before the last pitstops and Massa locked his wheel, however Kimi fell back once they came to backmarkers and that was that.
We saw at Hungary how difficult it was to get near McLaren for the win, although strategy seemed to have cost the team victory there. At Turkey, Kimi was following his own shadow; Massa has an identical car and that’s even harder to pass. Once Kimi said the race was boring, yet again, I had no doubt that he did his job and he really couldn’t do anything more.
The thing I loved most though was according to TS, Kimi asked the team on the radio ‘Who’s got the fastest lap’ and they replied ‘Felipe’, and Kimi put down the throttle and made his mark. He showed he is the fastest driver on the grid, half a second faster than Massa’s time.
Matt Bishop, editor of F1 Racing magazine and also autosport.com contributer spoke this about Kimi:
"…but talking about Kimi, yes I laughed at those remarks…I was
getting a bit bored.. Lets just think for a second, he’s cornering at
180 MPH, he’s on the straight at 200 MPH, it’s incredible hot, he’s
been doing it for 100 minutes, he’s absolutely flat out, pouring with
sweat …and he does sweat a lot, he takes his helmet off and he looks
hot and bothered and red faced, but in there he’s extraordinary bored,
apparently very very bored and what did he do, and was very very clear
as you said very clear; he couldn’t overtake so what did he do… he
backed off to get himself some clear air and then that lap that fastest
lap, the penultimate lap of the race… absolutely extraordinary just
sticking in the 27s there. I mean I always say about Kimi Raikkonen; If
I ever forget the reasons why I fell in love with this sport when I was
ten years old I only have to go and stand track side and watch Kimi on
the limit and I’m reminded all over again it’s absolutely marvelous"
You can download and listen to the MP3 of where this quote is from here.
FUCK ISRAEL 