2008 Grand Prix of Europe – Engine Blow For Kimi *Please do read everything below!*

| Sunday, Race Day –  Massa Wins From Pole An Anti-Climatic Valencia GP

Felipe Massa took a dominant victory in the first European Grand Prix at Valencia, beating championship leader Lewis Hamilton into second place.

But a question mark is hanging over Massa’s win, with the stewards set to carry on a post-race investigation into a controversial pitlane incident that saw the Brazilian nearly collide with Force India’s Adrian Sutil as they rejoined after their second stops.

It was one of two dramatic pitlane moments that marred Ferrari’s afternoon, as Massa’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen pulled away prematurely at his last stop and hit a member of the team’s pit crew, who has been taken to the medical centre for further checks.

Behind Massa, Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Robert Kubica (BMW) completed the podium ahead of Hamilton’s teammate Heikki Kovalainen, with Raikkonen ultimately stopping with an apparent engine failure…(read full race report here)

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  1h35:32.339
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +     5.611
 3.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +    37.353
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    39.703
 5.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +    50.684
 6.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +    52.625
 7.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +  1:07.990
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +  1:11.457
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +  1:22.177
10.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1:29.794
11.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +  1:32.717
12.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Button        Honda                 (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap
15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Barrichello   Honda                 (B)  +     1 lap
17.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:38.708

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)    46
Sutil         Force India-Ferrari   (B)    42
Alonso        Renault               (B)    1

First of all I give a massive grin and big hugs to my fellow Raikkos. There’s no need for the full low down on what happened as I’m sure most of you have gathered it all by now. I apologise for the delay on this review (as I woke up at midday after a long journey home last night from a wedding) but the reason I grin is because of the saying ‘shit happens’. What happened yesterday was totally shit, please excuse my language but I’m aware that far worse profanity were screamed throughout the vast Kimi community in the past 24 hours. Not only on Kimi’s side of the story but the race itself. There we were, with that 3 week break and looking so forward to having a great race at this new circuit. What fools! Alas, it wasn’t the first time we’ve been let down so you can be sure I won’t be so optimistic ever again. I feel like an fool for being so confident after Saturday for Kimi. As Gandalf says in the Lord of the Rings "Fly, you fools" suits appropriately for the situation now. I also apologise for always being so sure and confident in these tough situations. I get a lot of thanks from you guys, on the forums, even on Facebook. But I feel even I’ve let you down with false hope so I’m sorry. I’ve learnt my lesson now but I guess I’ll still end up being as positive as ever at the end of this post, I can’t help it. We all feel pretty bad (not for ourselves but also for the Ferrari mechanic who was hurt in Kimi’s premature pit stop exit) and no doubt slightely humbled (as it was indeed Kimi’s fault).

Quick important points to make:

• Kimi’s engine which blew up was his second race engine just as Massa’s in Hungary which blew up too. Both were believed to be a bad batch of produced components and eventhough Ferrari claimed no fears for Kimi’s engine, they should have changed it to be safe. Kimi would have had a grid penalty but he would have most likely scored a few points. This was a bad call from the team which has now put Kimi 13 points behind in the title, a further 8 points back than which he was originally. Kimi will begin a new two-race engine for Spa so no penalty is required. FerrariWorld.com have now said:

Initial analysis of the engine fitted to Kimi
Raikkonen’s car, which arrived in Maranello this morning, confirmed the
breakage of a con rod. Currently underway are further checks to try and
understand what provoked the failure, even if it is easy to surmise
that it could be a similar problem to the one that sidelined Felipe,
three laps from the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Furthermore, the
engineers were aware of a potential risk in general terms with the 056
engine fitted to Kimi’s car, which was on its second race, given that
the con rods were part of the same batch used on Felipe’s engine.
Changing the engine on Kimi’s car would have seen the Finn start from
far down the grid at a track where it appeared that overtaking was
impossible, proving it’s not enough to bring Formula 1 to a street
circuit in a fantastic location to produce spectacular racing.

From tomorrow, the team is back on track. Andrea Bertolini will
give the F2008 its first outing at the Monza circuit, using the second
of four "joker" days available to the Formula 1 teams as part of the
testing regulations. Felipe Massa will take over from the Italian on
Wednesday and Thursday, with Kimi Raikkonen bringing this intensive
test session to a close on the track that hosts the Italian Grand Prix
on 14th September.

• The final Ferrari pit-stops for Massa and Kimi were terrible and both were originally thought to be due to the pit-stop lighting automated system (which the team replaced the lollipop man with). Ferrari have been reprimanded and fined 10,000 Euros for Massa’s pit-stop, however Kimi’s pit-stop was his mistake and a common one in the pits by drivers and therefore no penalty is given. The mechanic hurt escaped any serious injury.
• The photos and wallpapers for the European GP weekend will be here as soon as possible so don’t worry and the race videos are posted further below.

The race was well prepared for by everyone, in that hardly any accidents or safety issues arose on this high speed street circuit. But it completely failed in the spectacle category, it was incredibly boring with hardly any battling between the drivers and most of all, no safety car that we expected. It was a huge let down and I’m not just saying it because of Kimi’s race but the let down of which I’m sure the Spanish fans were given when Nakajima hit Alonso out of the race. It was a good race for the teams and drivers to continue showing off their steady improvement, such as Toyota and Vettel. But I repeat, it was such a disgrace to be the first new venue of the season after such anticipation and excitement. It just kept getting worse for Kimi, first the bad start. Grrrr. Then the first round of pit-stops for Massa and Kimi were terribly planned – Massa pitted and came out right infront of Kimi. Grrrr. Then the final pit-stop drama! Grrrrr!!!! Then the engine blow up! GRRRR!!!!! So, Valencia wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for. I mean, okay maybe just one of those negatives would have been enough. But no, it just kept getting worse! I was actually relieved for Kimi to get his butt out of that place and go home. The European Grand Pix proves to still dislike Kimi, no matter where it is, but let’s just hope it never comes to Belgium. And Michael ‘Team Consultant’ Schumacher is doing brilliant at his ‘job’, big thanks to him! He’ll be commended to just Massa Consultant soon, why don’t they just have two cockpits for Massa’s car? Awesome idea! He’ll win the championship for sure then with Schumi right in there, kind of like a co-driver. Perhaps the headphones Schumi wears are just for Massa’s team radio! That’s even better, less distracting. Let’s hope Schumi keeps his butt away from Belgium too, consultant my ass.

Sorry sorry sorry, I’ll put the jokes aside now. Kimi, as it was revealed, had 4 laps more fuel than Felipe in qualifying. That’s a heck of a lot of fuel and no where as I expected (I predicted 2 laps maximum) so it was the first shock of the race. It explained the poor start Kimi had with Kovalainen passing, not helped with being on the dirty side of the track (which I also wrongly assumed was on the pole sitter’s side prior to the change of decision). Massa did pit in the race earlier than expected though, and this shows more than anything that he was under-fuelled and Ferrari wanted to prioritise winning with Felipe. Kimi had a decent strategy however, carrying what we could call ‘normal’ race fuel but this normal race approach doesn’t work because he’s already suffering in qualifying. Also, the cool weather on Saturday actually had a big influence on Kimi’s qualifying and perhaps the reason why it was as much 4 laps extra fuel to help warm the tyres. As our friend Mr Peter White has clarified, Kimi is still faster than Felipe in qualifying when fuel loads are corrected and Mr White has to say this:

…The first thing that has to be said is that Kimi Raikkonen was faster
than Felipe Massa in qualifying once you correct for fuel. More than
half the press corps do not understand the issue and the others cannot
be bothered to think it through. But this was yet another qualifying in
which Kimi started heavier than Massa and therefore ended up behind him
on the grid in spite of having driven faster. As Kimi is suffering a
hugely hostile reaction from the press, and accusations of ‘poor
qualifying performance’ (which has an objective basis but is actually a
rather complex technical issue), I have to say that it is just as well
that he is such a phlegmatic Finn….

Clearly, Kimi has no option – yet – to help overcome his qualifying problem. He can’t go lighter in qualifying because that simply won’t help his tyres heat up, which is why he insists (and we all have to accept that it is Kimi who insists on this decision as well as with his engineer Chris Dyer) to sacrifice grid position for better race performance even when Kimi really is still faster than Felipe on pure speed! And look what else Mr White has to say regarding the engine worries Ferrari had after what happened to Felipe in Hungary might happen to Kimi in Valencia:

…Under these circumstances it would be perfectly logical to run Felipe
light in an effort to capture pole in the hope that the race itself
would then come to Ferrari as the weather improved on Sunday. No point
in doing that with Kimi as he would have to conserve his engine on
Sunday in an attempt to get the car home. This is what appeared to
happen. In the race Massa set the fastest lap for the first time this
season while Raikkonen was a whole seven tenths slower. This is what I
have termed a “door-kicking” margin in an earlier posting. A gap of
this magnitude can only be a car issue. As Kimi is actually faster in
the races than Felipe, as well as faster in qualifying when you correct
for fuel, the inescapable conclusion is that he had the suspect engine
running on a very conservative ECU map…

Astonishing! And even I didn’t think of this. Infact, I hadn’t really noticed Kimi was that much slower throughout the race so the weekend in Valencia was always going to be a ‘bad’ one but none of us, apart from Mr White, noticed that it wasn’t only Kimi’s qualifying problem yet he still did a great job. Moving on, we know sacrificing grid position is ultimately costing wins but looking at the past races, as an article which rightly points out that consistantly scoring points is why Kimi is by no means out of the title fight, it’s the only way Kimi is comfortable for the day that counts, the race day. Just because of this simple problem yet with complicated consequences, it’s making Massa look extremely good. No offence Massa fans, but he isn’t nowhere as good as the results say. The day Kimi is as comfortable as Massa is in that Ferrari, you’ll know what I mean. Or maybe the days when Kimi has a shit before the race, then that’s even better for performance! (Sorry! I can’t help the sarcasm. The professionalism of KRS can be put turned off for a day I think.)

The point is, Kimi is trying. He said before last the Valencia GP that he’s going to try and improve qualifying. He only had to say it to the media and us because of the difficult situations in Hockenheim and Hungary. That doesn’t mean he suddenly realised qualifying is important. He knows more about his situation than we do. And I think we should respect his job before claiming he isn’t ‘performing’ or he should ‘change’. He’s performing the absolute best he can given the circumstances. If he changes, we won’t be supporting the Kimi we accept and adore, we’ll be supporting a completely different driver. He won’t change to Massa’s set-ups or go lightly fuelled in qualifying (France pole was a one off because somethings have changed in the development process) as his whole driving system or ‘talent’ can’t be nurtured for a different home. His home, as we saw in the McLaren/Michelin combination is different to his Ferrari home. His natural ability surpasses way beyond Massa’s, Hamilton’s, Kovalainen’s and excetera. But it’s being seriously restricted. And it will take time to fix, unfortunately, if that’s even possible right now. Which leads me to another point.

Ferrari and Kimi joined forces in 2007. Kimi won his first world championship in his first season with Ferrari, a completely different environment that he was used to. It wasn’t easy at all. Granted, McLaren and Hamilton’s mishaps helped last season but it works both ways. This season Kimi’s ‘mishaps’ are helping Hamilton and ultimately, Massa. As the teams world champion, their No.1, Kimi has the right to be given equal equipment. Above all, equal treatment. The equipment being the car, the developments, the determination of his mechanics to help. It can’t be the same as what Massa is receiving because they’re both very different drivers. One asks for something else, the other likewise. The team give them that. Inside Kimi’s camp, I assume there’s a difficulty in understanding and therefore giving. Kimi has been more uncomfortable than content with his machine in the time spent at Ferrari. Yet, he won the title beating Massa last year and was only 5 points behind Hamilton in the championship now up until his engine blew up. This is by no means a disgrace, it’s still not bad. But by Kimi’s potential and ability, he might as well be put in some sort of FIA Prison because he can give so much more! Ferrari feel they need to stress their support for Kimi with Domenicali doing a good job with his talking, saying the team are behind Kimi 100%:

"It’s easy when things are going well, that everyone close to you puts your arms on their shoulders to say you are number one, number one, number one and then suddenly when you have a difficult situation, then you see, ha ha, this is already a boiled driver. That’s not the case."

"He’s the world champion, we are a team, and of course we will support everyone of the team, and above all, of course Kimi, because we trust him 100 percent.

"It’s in the difficult moments that the team has to stay together. We don’t have any doubt at all about Kimi’s performance and I’m pretty sure he will come back from here up to the end in Brazil."

"When you’re a driver, first of all you are really able to look inside and understand what things are going well and the things that are going wrong, and for sure, at this moment, we – because I want to stress and underline the fact that we – have to work together and understand how on our side we can improve and help.

"And I’m pretty sure that as I said before, once again, that he’s totally committed and you will see up again in the end because he wants to show and we want to show that he’s the world champion, believe me."

All nice words, of course. But people will still wonder whether this support is just moral support or the support in giving the goods and preferation to perform. Kimi won’t give up though, he never does and so why should we? He’ll continue trying his best and at the end of the day what more can we ask? If it’s Massa who ends up being champion, I won’t accept him as being better, faster, stronger than Kimi. Not for a split second. Obviously, he’d have to be faster and stronger to get there but due to straight and undeniable competiton with Kimi? Has it been straight? Have we seen Kimi and Felipe in equally good positions for the win and racing eachother? Let’s see…the last time we really did have this, at Malaysia (Kimi qualified 2nd behind Massa on pole) and France (Kimi qualified 1st ahead of Massa in 2nd), Kimi was the victorious. On both occasions they were very close in qualifying. And it’s in competitive qualifying that I speak of. Not when Kimi is qualified 6th and Massa on pole that we can call it a straight competition in the race. Obviously when Massa is way ahead of Kimi, then he can whup Kimi’s ass. Otherwise? Not a chance. Unless it’s Turkey and Bahrain, surprisingly Monaco now but even Massa couldn’t believe that he took pole there! Being bemused and shocked when Massa and his engineer Rob Smedley get pole – what does that really mean? It means they didn’t expect to be there, and that they didn’t really believe it was possible. That’s because of Kimi, he’s supposed to be there, they know he’s a more complex, consistant and faster driver. I rest my case. Races are actually less important than qualifying it seems and all the things that allowed Kimi to be so fast in qualifying at McLaren aren’t consistant now, in Ferrari. Nothing suggests to me that Kimi has lost his touch or is becoming slower. He still manages to qualify decently and score points well despite such a restricting issue. Just imagine Kimi when that Ferrari and it’s tyres are working as well as they do for Massa. We’ll need a whole new Formula series for Kimi, guys.

The thing that hurts me most, is that Kimi is struggling with himself in the car. Not losing to Massa, not Hamilton, not losing points, not even the championship. Supporting Kimi obviously has a point to winning and winning championships, but when I see Kimi flying nothing feels better, even if he was in a Sauber or a McLaren but he really out-drove it and did his best. Can you imagine how great it feels for him? I don’t want to look back and turn this into a whole philosophical and soppy essay but, when he was at McLaren he could always show his potential in the sense that nothing held him back (apart from the bad reliability of course). And therefore, you should be happy knowing that you’re able to do it. He wasn’t totally happy with McLaren in the personal life but his life inside the car was great when it would take him to the finish line. Here at Ferrari it’s the complete opposite. He’s happier in the team, the atmosphere, but he’s suffering in the car. What would you rather see? That he’s happy with both of course, but the point we’re fans of Kimi is because of his talent and what we watch on tv on the track, not what we watch behind the scenes. Because he’s a racing driver. And that’s our focus here at the KRS. And when he’s down in the dumps, we are too. We had a high moment in Malaysia and Spain, got kicked back down in Monaco and Canada, then mixed feelings in France and Silverstone, then we felt slightely good towards the end in Hungary, but now we’re hit back down again. Shit happens. You can’t let it hold you down though, which is why I’m smiling and I’m sure Kimi will have to brush this off with a smile. He already managed to smile after the race yesterday in an interview so he’s already past it, saying he’s fine. If Kimi can win a title in a new team on his debut and still be in the championship fight despite not being up to his own standards then I’m even more impressed by him! Remember that.

Or if you want to sulk and be miserable about Massa being the No.1 now in Ferrari and that he’s become ‘better’ than Kimi, then go ahead! Just please don’t bring it here. Because here at the KRS, we have God as our witness when we state that Kimi is the fastest and the most talented speedster out there and we accept him as just that. Not someone who has to change his talent to be like someone else just because it’s helps to win. It can’t change! It’s fixed, it’s his heart, passion, and mind melded together to create what he gives. You can’t change that. What can change though is the Ferrari. It changes almost each time they touch it and that’s the battle Kimi is having, the car. Let Massa enjoy his good times, he also has a lot of critics and it’s only fair that he had days where he can overcome then. Just don’t forget Malaysia, Spain and France and Silverstone this year as like last year Kimi was the man. This time however luck bit Kimi in the butt and Massa benefitted in France and in Silverstone…well you saw it, Kimi was challenging Lewis for the win and Massa was right in the back spinning all over the place. It’s just a matter of getting to the sweet spot again. It’s just really complicated for Kimi unfortunately. Spa Franchorchamps is next – Kimi’s playground we call it, having won there 3 times consecutively in 2004, 2005 and 2007. Highs and lows have passed, highs and lows still come but more highs will arrive and then Kimi does what he’s made for – Flying! So to end how we started with a grin and I was right – I can’t help it, so, Keep Flying Kimi.

| Race Quotes, Kimi – "Still In Title Fight Despite DNF"

Kimi Raikkonen – DNF: "Not much to say after a day like this. It was definitely not the weekend I was hoping for but I do not believe that, despite this negative result, I am now out of the running for the title. There are still six races to go and sixty points up for grabs. We have seen that the situation change really quickly, even if I realize things are now more complicated.

"Today, I lost a place at the start and I was stuck in traffic for all of the first stint. Then, when I had a clear track ahead of me, I was able to push and was doing good lap times. At the second pit stop, I made a mistake and left before I should have done. Fortunately, Pietro (Timpini) is not too badly hurt. I wish him all the best and hope he gets better soon. In any case, it would not have changed anything as then the engine broke. Now we must concentrate on preparing for the next rounds and on improving our qualifying performance."

Post-Race Q&A with Kimi
From Autosport.com

Q. What can you tell us about the pitstop?

Kimi Raikkonen: There is not much to say. I left (the pits) a bit too early. It was my fault and unfortunately I ran over the guy who was refuelling. We need to look and see what really happened.

Q. Did you feel anything before the engine broke?

KR: No, it was just in the last corner. Unfortunately I don’t know what happened, but we need to investigate what was wrong with the engine – but maybe it is similar to what happened to Felipe in the last race.

Q. There was a lot of traffic in the race wasn’t there?

KR: Yeah, I knew that already before. We didn’t have the qualifying that we wanted, so we started behind people again and then you cannot do much. But whatever we would have done we wouldn’t have finished the race, so that is the sad thing. But we know what the issues were and hopefully we can fix them.

Q. How do you feel now?

KR: I am fine. I was not a nice weekend but it is not the first time. We are in a bit of a worse situation in the championship but if we get all the things sorted then I think we still have a chance to come back. We just need to get things as we want and try again.

Q. You seemed to be so optimistic before the weekend though…

KR: It is not great if you don’t finish the race, but for sure we didn’t have the qualifying as we wanted. When you start behind the people you cannot get past them. The speed in the races is not too bad, but when you are behind there is nothing you can do. I had a problem in the pit stop but in the end we would not have finished the race anyhow. It is not the best weekend but there is nothing we can do.

Q. How do you rate your chances in the championship now?

KR: We need to get things sorted in qualifying. I think we still have a good chance, but we do the best that we can in the next races and then we will see where we are.

Q. It is eight events now since you won a race. Does that worry you with your championship defence?

KR: It wasn’t the best weekend. We didn’t score any points so we dropped more behind. I am not worried about not winning the race, but losing the points we could have got today is not very good. But hopefully we get the things as we want, and we still can then fight for the championship. There are still many races to go and it can change quickly, but there is no doubt it won’t be easy. We need to see what we can do in the next race, for sure we need to start wining again – otherwise there is no chance.

Q. Are you able to explain what the problems are you are having in qualifying?

KR: We know what the issues have been, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to sort them out. Hopefully now in the next test we can work a bit and try to find the solution for it. If we get the qualifying right it will help a lot.

Q. Is it a tyre issue, a team issue?

KR: We are one team. I haven’t been able to get exactly what I want from the car, so we try to work with it. We were in a very similar situation last year, so hopefully we can find a solution and get back to where we should be.

| Race Videos: Start, Alonso Out, Massa/Sutil Pitstop, Kimi’s Pitstop, Kimi’s Engine Failure

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