From HomeOfSport.com
A theory has been floated as to why world champion Kimi Räikkönen had such a poor Monaco grand prix last weekend.
After qualifying behind his teammate Felipe Massa for the fifth time
so far in 2008, the former world championship leader made two driving
errors and was not on the pace.
Keke Rosberg, the 1982 world champion who is now a broadcast
commentator for German TV, speculates that his Finnish compatriot was
distracted by his off-track activities at the Principality.
"His eternal back-and-forth between the ship and the hotel room
seemed not to be without consequence," Rosberg, 59, suggested to the
German magazine Sport Bild.
At Monaco last weekend, Räikkönen’s managers David and Steve
Robertson offered to customers a spot on a luxury boat, with the 5000
euro per-head fee guaranteeing several personal appearances by the
famous Ferrari driver.
On the other side of town, however, was Räikkönen’s hotel –
‘Columbus’, which is owned by his former McLaren teammate David
Coulthard.
Sport Bild claims that throughout the weekend, Räikkönen, 28, was
"constantly" buzzing between the boat and his hotel on a scooter.
Reportedly, Räikkönen got over his Monaco disappointment by taking in the Kiss concert in Helsinki this week.
It seems the race wasn’t the only thing that exhausted Kimi in Monaco! It’s funny to hear that Kimi was a busy bee for a change, he’s usually quite lazy out of the car apparently. His sense of humour was also on a high level in Monaco – it’s said on the Official forum that during an interview on Thursday Kimi was asked about Schumacher and he said:
"Michael is here? I haven´t seen him yet. On which stand he is sitting?"
Reporter- "Why stand?"
"So I can wave!"
Italian Press Go Hard On Kimi
Source: GMM
The Italian press was merciless in its critique of reigning world
champion Kimi Raikkonen as the Finn lost his championship lead with a
poor race at Monaco.
"Raikkonen: slow and dizzy. In some races he is simply not there," the respected sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote.
After
qualifying behind his teammate Felipe Massa on the streets of Monte
Carlo, Raikkonen scored no points last Sunday after two driving errors
and a general lack of pace.
The newspaper Liberta surmised that "only Felipe Massa saved Maranello’s honour".
"Kimi, what was that?" the Roman publication, l’Unita, also wondered. I remember similar kind of words around about this time last year from Italy and the tifosi, but soon they took back their words after Kimi won back-to-back races at France and Silverstone. Hopefully they’ll eat their words once again!
FUCK ISRAEL 
I’m sure they will have to eat humble pie before long, but not necessarily for Canada. This is from an interesting blog on the Times site: "The Monaco street circuit is an anomaly on the F1 calendar, it throws
up unusual results due to the unique nature of the circuit. Success at
Monaco doesn’t always translate into success elsewhere. In that sense
it’s not unlike Melbourne – another fairly unique track which tends to
obscure the true performance of teams and drivers. Most other F1 venues
feature "normal" race tracks which don’t throw up this kind of
irregularity. Is it pure coincidence that the two races McLaren have
won this year were Melbourne (where Ferrari also turned in an unusually
bad performance) and Monaco, while Ferrari have won on the more
"standard" tracks?"So with Canada also being a street circuit, it could be of some concern if this guy is right. But then, apart from the new Valencia race (which I cannot wait for!) all the others are standard tracks that should favour Ferrari and Kimi, especially somewhere like Silverstone which I’d imagine he knows like the back of his hand from the McLaren years.Bit confused about the Monaco story. Hadn’t Kimi hired a very large yacht for his f&f? Yet he was staying in the Columbus? If so, no wonder he was all over the place between hotel, with family, and entertaining guests! As you said, no chance of being lazy last weekend then!!!Oh, and I loved the Schumacher reference! Shame more people don’t seem to recognise his sense of humour!! Great work as usual!
LikeLike
Kimi hired a yacht for his family and friends and paying guests. But he stayed in the hotel, yeah. Which is why it’s funny that he couldn’t stay away from the boat lol should have stayed there then!I think McLaren will be strong in Canada as they were last year. Plus Hammie won his maiden race there. I guess it’l be similar to Monaco, Ferrari will be competitive but will it be enough? Even more, will they work better this time? Hopefully. I have no doubts at all about the later races as you said, but it will be more difficult as Felipe is looking stronger than last year too.
LikeLike
Just had to mention Jeremy Clartkson’s column in The Sun today. Clarkson is by no means a fan of F1, yet even he can see what none of the rest of the British media are prepared to:"Anyone who thinks Lewis Hamilton’s win at last weekend’s Monaco GP means he is now on course for the world championship is in for a bitter disappointment.Monaco always throws up wonky results, especially when it’s raining. But the fact of the matter is this. Everywhere else, the Ferraris are faster than Lewis’s McLaren."I’m just hoping Montreal is not going to be another race to forget for Kimi like Monaco was, and even if he can’t win, that he can bag some decent points. But, as you said, it is harder for him this year with Felipe likely to push him all the way to the end, whereas Lewis seems to have the perfect teammate in Heikki, as he is now really too far adrift to mount a serious challenge, but someone good enough to work as a backup man. Roll on the ‘standard’ racetracks I say!!!
LikeLike
Cheers for sharing that with us Nicki, I love watching Top Gear and Jeremy’s a good laugh especally when he talks about F1, but it doesn’t surprise me that he states the simple truth again! Ferrari left Monaco with something to smile about and that was their pace. They improved considerably from last year and that’s a serious problem for McLaren. It’s just a shame that Ferrari weren’t prepared well enough for and during the race.The ‘normal’ circuits as Kimi likes to call them will be a problem for McLaren, all Ferrari need to worry about is their brains during the race when something occurs which could manipulate their strategies. Otherwise, they’ll be the team to beat throughout the remainder of this season again.
LikeLike