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If Raikkonen doesn't race for Williams, Valterri Bottas might become the favoured son.
Kimi talks with Williams? - No. Signs with Lotus Renault for 2012
- Thread starter Hologram777
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- Sohvakettu
Valtteri seems to be doing well on his tests. Of course it's hard to say how well that really is without knowing what everyone's test programmes really aim at.
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- astrosdude91
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As I have repeatedly said, Raikkonen has been on the sidelines for two years. In that time, the sport has changed dramatically - he has no expeirence with Pirelli tyres, fuel-heavy cars or the DRS and the F-duct. None of the top teams would take a chance on him without experience using one of those elements, much less all three. It would appear that Williams is the team with the highest placing and a willingness to take him.
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Yeah, they probably would have wanted to do that if he hadnt of quit.
The KERS makes no difference.....its not hard to learn. It allows for engine braking which helps improve the lap times a bit.
The DRS is a bit tricky for qualifying. In the race its really simple. Save it all up for the longest straight and hit the guy in front with all of it at once.
The only real diff in the cars since 09 is fuel weight & the tires. The chassis' have gotten better since then so that cancels out the weight diff too.... So its really down to perfecting tire life. He'd have to work alot on that. But after all the tire modeling they got in this year the simulator I'm sure will have the tire stuff down.
There's so much simulator time....and so much spring shakedowns that they run. Somewhere around 20,000 miles if I'm not mistaken, its not a matter of inexperience, but how fast the driver is after hour upon hour of practice. Raikonnen's already well proven.
hampus_dh
(Banned)
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True, i forgot he did a season i only remembered him doing some testing at Sauber. I should be ashamed lol.
Yea that is true but that´s from a team perspective. Look at it from his view.
He is one of the fastest drivers F1 has ever seen, he has a championship under his belt etc. Then sprinkle some ego over that and then tell him to run for a middlemarker team with no chance of winning any races.
He is familiar with fuel heavy cars. 2009.
Tires will be similar like last year but all of them will be tweaked except SS.
DRS should be no problems, that my guess is you would learn during testing.
KERS he already knows.
F-duct?
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ROAD_DOGG33J
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- holyc0w1
- holyc0w
Wasn't the fuel ban introduced in 2010?
I don't think Raikkonen would have problems with DRS, as I'm sure he had to play with multiple settings during his races. He was one of the top drivers. I'm sure he can adapt quickly. The major thing will probably be whether he can manage the tires, but with Pirellis becoming more durable this might be a non-issue. Plus teams will now have more data on the tires and can use that more in their car designs. So Pirelli would constantly have to change the tires to create bring tire management more into play.
I don't think Raikkonen would have problems with DRS, as I'm sure he had to play with multiple settings during his races. He was one of the top drivers. I'm sure he can adapt quickly. The major thing will probably be whether he can manage the tires, but with Pirellis becoming more durable this might be a non-issue. Plus teams will now have more data on the tires and can use that more in their car designs. So Pirelli would constantly have to change the tires to create bring tire management more into play.
C Ronaldo 7
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- mu675
I'm not sure how relevant that is considering how different rally is.
Schumacher continued to try and evaluate Ferrari's F1 cars after his retirement.
Schumi is 42 though
Kimi is 10 years younger. And i have to say apart from last year, schumi is doing good.
Only 7 points behind Rosberg. Next year it will be even closer i believe.
Good point. Agree, though, apart from a couple of rookie mistakes this year.
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- pj-gm
- PJwasHere876
As some drivers have already shown, it doesn't take that long to get back up to speed, even with all these new features of F1. It doesn't completely rewrite the book of how to drive a car fast. e might not be a risk worth taking by a frontrunner without some testing first, but he wouldn't be any worse, methinks, if he returns.
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- HamiltonMP427
Could you name the drivers? Cause the ones that I've seen like Hiedfield and De La Rosa didn't have a gap like Shumi, now I'm not sure if those are two of the drivers your thinking of, but it was easier for them to get up to speed compared to Shumi who was out for almost four seasons. The cars in that time span changed alot, aero was restricted more, KERS was introduced and RBR became a destroyer of worlds
.Seriously though I think Kimi will have better luck than Shumi only due to being familiar with KERS and the time frame of being out of F1 is shorter.
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- Ardius_
De La Rosa didn't have a gap like Schumi? Did he live through 2007-2009 on a different measurement of time then or something?
What about Karthikeyan (2006-2010)? Klien (2007-2009)? Wurz (2001-2004)? or the obvious like Niki Lauda (1980-1981)?
All of these drivers came back and performed reasonably close to their previous form and in Lauda's case came back and still won.
Schumacher's comeback has been pretty reasonable really. Not quite multi-WDC capable but then he wasn't really showing much of that in 2005 and 2006.
What about Karthikeyan (2006-2010)? Klien (2007-2009)? Wurz (2001-2004)? or the obvious like Niki Lauda (1980-1981)?
All of these drivers came back and performed reasonably close to their previous form and in Lauda's case came back and still won.
Schumacher's comeback has been pretty reasonable really. Not quite multi-WDC capable but then he wasn't really showing much of that in 2005 and 2006.
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- Ardius_
De La Rosa did, he went from grooved cars from 2006 back to slicks in 2010. From refuelling to non-refuelling. From completely different aerodynamic specs. He had to learn the f-duct. And he did it with far less overall race experience than Schumacher and did a pretty decent job of being close if not beating Kobayashi when the car held up.
Karthikeyan even more so, 2005 with grooves, no KERS, no DRS, refuelling, V10s.....
Not to mention the simple fact that F1 changes a lot in the space of 1 year even just in aerodynamics, let alone 2 or even 3 or 4 like for Wurz and Klien....
I haven't even mentioned various small things that have changed like qualifying regulations, seamless shift gearboxes, engine mapping, traction control and all the various advances in electronics, etc etc etc.
All of the drivers I listed match everything you just said. What are you guys not understanding about drivers who have had the exact same years away as Schumacher also proving you can come back and still return to form? I mean De La Rosa has an almost identical career without the motorcycle racing between 2006 and 2010.
Do you even know who De La Rosa is?
Karthikeyan even more so, 2005 with grooves, no KERS, no DRS, refuelling, V10s.....
Not to mention the simple fact that F1 changes a lot in the space of 1 year even just in aerodynamics, let alone 2 or even 3 or 4 like for Wurz and Klien....
I haven't even mentioned various small things that have changed like qualifying regulations, seamless shift gearboxes, engine mapping, traction control and all the various advances in electronics, etc etc etc.
All of the drivers I listed match everything you just said. What are you guys not understanding about drivers who have had the exact same years away as Schumacher also proving you can come back and still return to form? I mean De La Rosa has an almost identical career without the motorcycle racing between 2006 and 2010.
Do you even know who De La Rosa is?
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- HamiltonMP427
Well you didn't understand me...again. I'm saying as far as racing goes in this modern age the only driver who aren't consistently racing were Heidfeld, De La Rosa, and Senna for example however you seem to think that I said they had a gap, when I clearly state word for word they didn't have a gap. The only gap is racing for them, but since they were test/reserve drivers when the time came for them to race a GP it wasn't hard for them to get up to speed.
Karthikeyan I suppose, but the car doesn't have Kers so that's one less struggle for him. Klein falls into the same category as De La Rosa, Senna and Heidfeld, he was a test/reserve driver at Honda and BMW Sauber. Wurz also is just like Klein and became a test driver/reserve. Lauda is the only one that I can say to an extent came back and won big like he never left. Räikkönen hasn't tested with any team, and just put F1 behind, this is why I think Kimi will have a bit of a time catching up, but I don't think it will take him all that long.
De La Rosa did, he went from grooved cars from 2006 back to slicks in 2010. From refuelling to non-refuelling. From completely different aerodynamic specs. He had to learn the f-duct. And he did it with far less overall race experience than Schumacher and did a pretty decent job of being close if not beating Kobayashi when the car held up.
Karthikeyan even more so, 2005 with grooves, no KERS, no DRS, refuelling, V10s.....
Not to mention the simple fact that F1 changes a lot in the space of 1 year even just in aerodynamics, let alone 2 or even 3 or 4 like for Wurz and Klien....
I haven't even mentioned various small things that have changed like qualifying regulations, seamless shift gearboxes, engine mapping, traction control and all the various advances in electronics, etc etc etc.
All of the drivers I listed match everything you just said. What are you guys not understanding about drivers who have had the exact same years away as Schumacher also proving you can come back and still return to form? I mean De La Rosa has an almost identical career without the motorcycle racing between 2006 and 2010.
Do you even know who De La Rosa is?
Seeing as Shumi was and advisor but not an actual test driver or reserve driver and all the others you and I listed were, using them to make the Kimi point is moot. They became familiar with and crafted cars that helped the actual drivers win, especially looking at De La Rosa who Hamilton should thank partially for three solid seasons, two of which were stellar for him.
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- Ardius_
I would argue that being a reserve driver between 2006 and 2010 meant a lot less than riding around competitively on motorcycles. Schumacher got several tests in GP3 and GP2 machinery prior to 2010, what did DLR get? Sure he had some short pre-season tests every now and then but he was seriously lacking in race experience during those years. He didn't race in anything else. It means very little to carry out a 1 day test in an entire year, certainly very little in the terms we are talking which is overall performance.
If you think being a test driver means anything, then please explain why Badoer after 10 years of being only a test driver completely failed to make any impression at all? If it meant as much as you are suggesting (effectively like racing those years in F1) he should have easily come back and been on pace. It was the very fact that he only been toodling around testing that he had lost a lot of racecraft. And no, Badoer isn't 6 seconds off the pace bad, he is/was a decent driver - precisely why Ferrari kept him for so long to develop their cars.
If you think being a test driver means anything, then please explain why Badoer after 10 years of being only a test driver completely failed to make any impression at all? If it meant as much as you are suggesting (effectively like racing those years in F1) he should have easily come back and been on pace. It was the very fact that he only been toodling around testing that he had lost a lot of racecraft. And no, Badoer isn't 6 seconds off the pace bad, he is/was a decent driver - precisely why Ferrari kept him for so long to develop their cars.
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Same could be said for any of the drivers we've named (besides Lauda) tell me after all their years of racing why they never won a race or were highly competitive weekend to weekend?
Test driver does mean something especially when that test driver has used KERS and DRS on the same car and is familiar with the newer aero packages and engine mapping systems. (which the mapping will mean nil next year)
Also your twisting it again, I'm saying that a test driver position is alot better than a guy that hasn't been driving open wheel cars of any degree. Also their roles are far more important than that and you as well as I both know this, but if you want to look at it as one day of testing that's fine.
RTSolvalou
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I think he's got almost no chance of staying, but I hope they keep Barrichello, he deserves at least the first half of 2012 to show what he can do with what should be a better car next year, to dump him right before Williams get a much needed performance boost is cold, but that's the climate of F1 contracts, and Kimi.
If he does get dropped I actually wouldn't mind seeing him pop up at Renault, although they have a whole box of chocolates to choose from already, and Senna isn't bad at all.
If he does get dropped I actually wouldn't mind seeing him pop up at Renault, although they have a whole box of chocolates to choose from already, and Senna isn't bad at all.
