| Source: lotusf1team.com |
Friday at the Nürburgring saw our Finn go fifth fastest in morning and afternoon sessions alike. With identified areas for improvement, it’s been a promising first day…
Q: How was your Friday at the Nürburgring?
KR: We tried quite a few things today; some were good and some were not, so we have a good idea of what to do tomorrow. Our long run pace wasn’t as good as it could have been as we were running with a different set-up which would have taken too long to change back in the session, but we now know which setup works better so it’s not a worry.
Q: What do you think about the latest tyres?
KR: There’s no difference in the tyres when you drive with them; no difference at all. We’re not comparing them any more as we only have the latest specification here. When we did compare the older ones with these ones in Canada they were more or less the same so we didn’t expect any surprises.
Q: There are new constraints to what the teams can do with regards to car setup concerning the tyres; is this a concern for you?
KR: It limits the setup changes you can make, but luckily we’re constrained more or less to the range we were working to anyway so it’s shouldn’t harm us too much.
Q: There’s been some talk of a possible driver boycott of the race if there are more issues like in Silverstone…
KR: I will race whatever happens.
Q: Your position on the timing monitors looked good today; what could be possible in qualifying tomorrow?
KR: You never know. It wasn’t too bad today and hopefully we can improve, but I’m sure everyone else will also improve.
Other Quotes:
Kimi says Lotus stronger but rules out pole
Kimi Raikkonen is optimistic that the Lotus will prove more suited to the Nurburgring than it was to Silverstone this weekend, but does not expect to be in the pole fight.
“It is more or less the same car as we had last week. I think part of it is for sure the circuit, it is a bit better [for Lotus],” said Raikkonen.
“It is a more high downforce circuit and probably suits us better than the low downforce, and also it is a long time since we used the soft tyres on a normal race circuit, which was at Shanghai. For some reason they seem to be a bit better for us.”
He said a top-six spot is the most Lotus can expect for qualifying, but is more optimistic for the race.
“The front four cars will be very fast in qualifying, but the race is always a different story,” Raikkonen said.
“I think the weather will get much hotter, so that should only help us.
“If we can put our cars in the top six tomorrow then that is a very good starting place, then we have to see where we end up in the race.
“We have to work on the cars a bit to get it a bit better – the long runs felt bad but the car wasn’t with the right set-up.
“I think you can expect more or less similar to what we have done in previous races, where we qualified and we were a bit better in the race.”
KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN SPACE 