Kimi-Räikkönen - great read indeed.
Discussion
A good read.
'It wasn't so much the acceleration and speed that struck him as the braking. 'It was like running through your back yard and hitting a glass door,' he says. 'It seemed to be over in an instant. You hardly had time to think what you felt on one corner before you hit the next. When we debrief the drivers, they analyse in great detail what takes place in an instant. They'll complain that one gear shift isn't right and you look at the data and you see it took 25 milliseconds instead of 15. They have a sensitivity that the rest of us just don't understand.'
'It wasn't so much the acceleration and speed that struck him as the braking. 'It was like running through your back yard and hitting a glass door,' he says. 'It seemed to be over in an instant. You hardly had time to think what you felt on one corner before you hit the next. When we debrief the drivers, they analyse in great detail what takes place in an instant. They'll complain that one gear shift isn't right and you look at the data and you see it took 25 milliseconds instead of 15. They have a sensitivity that the rest of us just don't understand.'
carter711 said:
I had no idea that Kimi liked to get loose, from his interviews on ITV he came across as a machine, i used to wonder if he was a human at all!
Now that i know he idolises James Hunt he has gone up ten fold in my estimations, good lad!
He is Finnish. They are World Champion piss artists and partiers. They just don't talk about it much and do it away from prying eyes.Now that i know he idolises James Hunt he has gone up ten fold in my estimations, good lad!
Very interesting.
The bit about McLaren having "Lifestyle restrictions" or whatever they called it, I don't understand. Fair enough, they are my favourite team, but controlling what their drivers do outside of the car isn't really good. I for one would love to see Lewis do a Keith Moon and drive through the glass window of his hotel, up to the desk, roll down the window and ask for the key to his room. And if they refuse, he should get Heikki to drive a VW Camper through the other window and they sleep in that, in the reception. Now, the Police would probably look on that with a bit of displeasure, but for the rest of us, it would be hilarious. This is the problem, back in the old days, nobody cared what the drivers, or anyone famous, for that matter, did in their private lives, they just either tutted or pissed themselves laughing when, say, Keith Moon drove a Rolls into a swimming pool.
If I were an F1 driver, things would be different. No "lifestyle restriction policy" or whatever the team asked would stopped me basically making an arse of myself if I could entertain people. Although I wouldn't fall off of my hugely expensive yacht whilst wasted out of my mind so badly I can barely remember my own name. That would hurt too much. But put it this way, any sponsor's events with me would certainly not be the usual, i.e. Lewis name dropping into every sentence. Most things would end up broken or on fire.
The bit about McLaren having "Lifestyle restrictions" or whatever they called it, I don't understand. Fair enough, they are my favourite team, but controlling what their drivers do outside of the car isn't really good. I for one would love to see Lewis do a Keith Moon and drive through the glass window of his hotel, up to the desk, roll down the window and ask for the key to his room. And if they refuse, he should get Heikki to drive a VW Camper through the other window and they sleep in that, in the reception. Now, the Police would probably look on that with a bit of displeasure, but for the rest of us, it would be hilarious. This is the problem, back in the old days, nobody cared what the drivers, or anyone famous, for that matter, did in their private lives, they just either tutted or pissed themselves laughing when, say, Keith Moon drove a Rolls into a swimming pool.
If I were an F1 driver, things would be different. No "lifestyle restriction policy" or whatever the team asked would stopped me basically making an arse of myself if I could entertain people. Although I wouldn't fall off of my hugely expensive yacht whilst wasted out of my mind so badly I can barely remember my own name. That would hurt too much. But put it this way, any sponsor's events with me would certainly not be the usual, i.e. Lewis name dropping into every sentence. Most things would end up broken or on fire.
The problem with F1 Driver Contracts is that the teams now own the drivers, their image, name fame and reputation. Drivers are now managed 24/7, 365 days a year....sponsors invest tens of millions and want 'brand ambassadors'. If a driver is not PR friendly they are sent to school to improve their image and then have managers, PR people and clothing guides etc to turn them into the finished article.
Gone are the days of 'having fun'. Its called professional sports. Rugby has it, some soccer clubs do and having a behaviour clause is now standard in many professional business situations.
Gone are the days of 'having fun'. Its called professional sports. Rugby has it, some soccer clubs do and having a behaviour clause is now standard in many professional business situations.
dpbird90 said:
...back in the old days, nobody cared what the drivers, or anyone famous, for that matter, did in their private lives, they just either tutted or pissed themselves laughing when, say, Keith Moon drove a Rolls into a swimming pool.
Rather like when Graham Hill rode a motorbike up the stairs and into the main reception of (I belive) the casino in Monte Carlo after the Monaco GP 
If you're paying a 25 year-old $15M/year to drive a car, it doesn't seem too much to expect him to refrain from doing things that would either
- impair his ability to drive, such as by fracturing his shoulder whilst riding a trail-bike, or
- embarrass the team or its sponsors, such as being drunk in public and making a fool out of yourself.
It was more entertaining in the old days, but it's not the teams' fault that this isn't the old days.
- impair his ability to drive, such as by fracturing his shoulder whilst riding a trail-bike, or
- embarrass the team or its sponsors, such as being drunk in public and making a fool out of yourself.
It was more entertaining in the old days, but it's not the teams' fault that this isn't the old days.
Saied said:
stew-S160 said:
Kimi has been my favourite driver for years. i think this seasons performance had more to it than what we have seen and heard.
+1Thanks for the link, superkartracer.
belleair302 said:
The problem with F1 Driver Contracts is that the teams now own the drivers, their image, name fame and reputation. Drivers are now managed 24/7, 365 days a year....sponsors invest tens of millions and want 'brand ambassadors'. If a driver is not PR friendly they are sent to school to improve their image and then have managers, PR people and clothing guides etc to turn them into the finished article.
Gone are the days of 'having fun'. Its called professional sports. Rugby has it, some soccer clubs do and having a behaviour clause is now standard in many professional business situations.
Depends on the team. Why is it DC has been seen in a whole new light since his RBR days?Gone are the days of 'having fun'. Its called professional sports. Rugby has it, some soccer clubs do and having a behaviour clause is now standard in many professional business situations.
McLaren owns the driver's image rights. They don't allow drivers to have personal sponsors. There's a huge layer of spin and PR at McLaren. There was brilliant Hamilton interview last year from the Telegraph too (don't know the URL but I remember it featured in the Saturday magazine supplement before British GP) - it even referred to the dinner ladies being on message saying there was no rift between Lewis and Alonso.
tomTVR said:
Saied said:
stew-S160 said:
Kimi has been my favourite driver for years. i think this seasons performance had more to it than what we have seen and heard.
+1Thanks for the link, superkartracer.
You raise a very interesting question. My thoughts are summarised below, be good to hear further views.
1. The Ferrari's tendancy to be easy on its tyres compared to the McLaren seemed to pose a particular problem during qualifying in terms of generating sufficient heat into the rubber for the one hot lap. Massa's more aggressive driving style appeared to mitigate this problem somewhat. Kimi's frequent poor starting position made it very hard to win races.
2. It became apparant later in the season (I think they went public post Spa) that the Ferrari had problems maintaining brake temperature during damp / wet conditions. Both Massa and Kimi seemed to be relatively poor whenever the conditions turned wet.
3. Points 1 & 2 above were exacerbated by the unusual number of races which featured damp / wet / changeable conditions over the course of 2008.
4. Car development over the course of the season seemed to favour Massa's driving style. Schumacher himself seemed to hint at this in a recent interview I read (sorry, no link).
In terms of pure speed, I still think he's the fastest man out there, followed very very closely by Alonso. The number of fastest laps tend to back this up.
Justin
dpbird90 said:
Very interesting.
The bit about McLaren having "Lifestyle restrictions" or whatever they called it, I don't understand. Fair enough, they are my favourite team, but controlling what their drivers do outside of the car isn't really good. I for one would love to see Lewis do a Keith Moon and drive through the glass window of his hotel, up to the desk, roll down the window and ask for the key to his room. And if they refuse, he should get Heikki to drive a VW Camper through the other window and they sleep in that, in the reception. Now, the Police would probably look on that with a bit of displeasure, but for the rest of us, it would be hilarious. This is the problem, back in the old days, nobody cared what the drivers, or anyone famous, for that matter, did in their private lives, they just either tutted or pissed themselves laughing when, say, Keith Moon drove a Rolls into a swimming pool.
If I were an F1 driver, things would be different. No "lifestyle restriction policy" or whatever the team asked would stopped me basically making an arse of myself if I could entertain people. Although I wouldn't fall off of my hugely expensive yacht whilst wasted out of my mind so badly I can barely remember my own name. That would hurt too much. But put it this way, any sponsor's events with me would certainly not be the usual, i.e. Lewis name dropping into every sentence. Most things would end up broken or on fire.
Remember Montoya? he was 'told' to go on a diet. do this and that. etc.The bit about McLaren having "Lifestyle restrictions" or whatever they called it, I don't understand. Fair enough, they are my favourite team, but controlling what their drivers do outside of the car isn't really good. I for one would love to see Lewis do a Keith Moon and drive through the glass window of his hotel, up to the desk, roll down the window and ask for the key to his room. And if they refuse, he should get Heikki to drive a VW Camper through the other window and they sleep in that, in the reception. Now, the Police would probably look on that with a bit of displeasure, but for the rest of us, it would be hilarious. This is the problem, back in the old days, nobody cared what the drivers, or anyone famous, for that matter, did in their private lives, they just either tutted or pissed themselves laughing when, say, Keith Moon drove a Rolls into a swimming pool.
If I were an F1 driver, things would be different. No "lifestyle restriction policy" or whatever the team asked would stopped me basically making an arse of myself if I could entertain people. Although I wouldn't fall off of my hugely expensive yacht whilst wasted out of my mind so badly I can barely remember my own name. That would hurt too much. But put it this way, any sponsor's events with me would certainly not be the usual, i.e. Lewis name dropping into every sentence. Most things would end up broken or on fire.
Most people would hate to be controlled like that, but it's Ron's way. it's his team, he has made it into what it is.
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