Raikkonen out to topple Schu

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Raikkonen out to topple Schu - McLaren's Dennis - 22 July 2004

Formula One outfit McLaren has not been as close to victory in '04 as it'll be at the Hockenheim GP track on Sunday, company CEO Ron Dennis said on Wednesday.

The Briton confirmed that even more upgrades feature on the 'B' MP4-19B.

'Put it this way,' he told Britain's 'The Times' newspaper ...

'... the car will definitely be faster at Hockenheim that at Silverstone.'

There, at McLaren's local circuit in Northamptonshire, Kimi Raikkonen snared pole and ran Ferrari champ Michael Schumacher close in the British Grand Prix.

Dennis thinks the Finn might beat F1's top German on Sunday.

He said: 'Based on our experience ... [of] grand prix racing, there will have to be something in the pipeline coming from BAR or Renault or Ferrari.

'I think we'll take a step forward that ... won't be matched.'
 
Brave words - their car may be a marked improvement but neither the drivers nor the team are even in the running. I don't think Ferrari are standing still waiting for them.
 
Nigel Roebuck (respected F1 writer) says that Ron never says anything that's not truthful. If he doesn't want you to know, then he won't say anything, or change the subject.
 
It will be interesting to see - my major concern is that I don't think Schumacher's shown just how fast the Ferrari is in his hands this year. It would be good to see them pushed, even better to see them beaten.
 
That's why I'm surprised by these words, Ron Dennis is generally a very quiet man on such topics, to come out and say something like this, they must have a lot of confidence.
 
Very brave words. We'll just have to see if they can back them up with actions on Sunday.
 
vat_man
It will be interesting to see - my major concern is that I don't think Schumacher's shown just how fast the Ferrari is in his hands this year. It would be good to see them pushed, even better to see them beaten.
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I'm afraid the Ferrari's won't be beaten :ouch:
 
Pink_the_Floyd
I'm afraid the Ferrari's won't be beaten :ouch:
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Hmm, I really hope to see them lose. That sounds really bad but we need another winner that wins from speed rather than Micheal retiring.
 
No follow-up?

I think that Raikkonen did give Schumacher a run for his money. But damn, what a shock when Raikonen's rear wing blew-off! Could have been a fatal accident ...

Raikkonen has actually never finished a race on Hockenheim and once again, his bad luck caught up with him. His reaction showed how angry he was when he threw his helmet down.
 
The way he hit the barrier there was really no way he could have gotten seriously hurt.
 
Blake
The way he hit the barrier there was really no way he could have gotten seriously hurt.
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Thats true, but it could have been a fatal accident. The car could have flipped for example. Plus he was going 300 + km/h at the moment.

About the race, Button really was the star of the race, even with a loose helmet strap (near the end)! Bar Honda did an extremely good job.
 
Too bad about Kimi, but that accident really shows us what that wing does for an F1 car. And Button's helmet was choking him! Evil thing! :lol:
 
phantasm
too bad the engineers forgot to bolt down his wing ;)
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It was actually a manufacturing problem. Not a case of bolts not being tight enough at all. Rear wing structural failure at around 305 km/h! Not my cup of tea. Looked pretty scary. :sick:
 
sunpic3.jpg
 
I'm sure that's what Kimi was thinking about, "Well at least the car's getting some good camewra time, the sponsers will be happy", hah!
 
Eagle
I don't get how the car could have flipped as a result of the rear wing being lost.
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When the rear wing goes, all the downforce goes off the back of the car - and we're talking literally tonnes of downforce here. All the loading goes off the rear suspension - if the car gets sideways, it's quite possible for air to get under the car and lift it up. It's more common to see if on speedway because of the higher speeds.
 
Eagle
I don't get how the car could have flipped as a result of the rear wing being lost.
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Raikkonen didn't roll. Trulli rolled, but that was a driveshaft failure breaking the suspension.

If a car is travelling sideways over a gravel trap, it has more chance of rolling than not. The first time I drove on a race track, in the safety briefing they said "If you're going off into a gravel trap, make sure you go straight. Then we can pull you out and you'll be fine. Otherwise you're likely to roll it."

I heeded their advice, and decided that going off would be a bad thing.
 
As a result of the gravel trap I could see, but simply as a result of the lack of downforce I didn't think that'd be possible - it was a rear failure after all, I know Indy car wings can generate to the tune of 2 tonnes of downforce and I'd imagine that's somewhat similar in F1 but I didn't think a rear failure on a flat piece of track would be able to put the car into such a compromised position that it would flip. I'd just expect the back to kick up unpredictably and the car spin, as happened.
 

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