Raikkonen aiming to avoid another hairpin spin

2016 Canadian Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikkonen believes he and Ferrari have got on top of the problems which caused him to spin at the same corner for two years in a row in Canada.

The Ferrari driver spun his car at the slow hairpin which is the penultimate corner at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in both of the last two Canadian Grands Prix.

“I’m pretty sure we have,” said Raikkonen during today’s press conference when asked if the problem had been fixed. “Hopefully I’m not wrong on Sunday. It’s been quite frustrating in a way the last couple of years.”

Raikkonen revealed he had tried to provoke a similar spin during practice for the race last year but wasn’t able to. However during the grand prix it happened again.

“We kind of knew the issues and we took care of it in our minds,” he said.

“I think in the first year it happened in practice but last year because we knew what the problems [were] and then kind of tried to even force it in the practice and nothing happened and then in the race again.”

“I make sure this year it’s not going to happen, hopefully. But I think we learned our lesson.”

Raikkonen arrives at this weekend’s race fourth in the championship after crashing out of the last race in Monaco.

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    Keith Collantine
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    17 comments on “Raikkonen aiming to avoid another hairpin spin”

    1. What, his right foot?

    2. Good luck with that.

    3. I believe the were some issues but they were software related or something? How does it work?

    4. Let’s say it would be good not to repeat it… (I don’t know why, I have Schwarzy’s voice in my head : “Ya, dat would be good”)

    5. petebaldwin (@)
      9th June 2016, 20:53

      A problem that existed for at least 12 months, only affected 1 car and only caused issues at 1 corner on the entire planet!?

      Cool story bro.

    6. Kimi is so past his time. Can’t wait to see someone else in that seat next year. Still looking forward to his Spa performance though.

      1. Neil Debacquer
        9th June 2016, 21:14

        That’s why he is still ahead of Seb in the championship and they both have had there share of bad luck not like last season

        1. They have not had their fair share. Vettel has lot far more points than kimi has. I’ll go through each race and say how many points I believe that they lost because of issues.
          Kimi: Lost 12 in Australia, didn’t lose any in china as Riccardo and Hamilton all lost points as well so he may not have improved on fifth, Monaco lost none as that was his fault. Total: 12 lost

          Seb: Lost 12/15 in Bahrain after engine, smashed out in Russia and likely lost 10/12/15 points, spain had a bad strategy like Riccardo and may have won otherwise: 0 lost. Total: Minimum of 22 lost which would put him ahead of kimi if you factor both of these. The Maximum results would have meant a loss of 40 which would put him in the championship fight.

          Have they both been unlucky? Yes, they have. Is it a fair share one way or the other? No, it isn’t. As the stats show, seb has lost more points so far.

          Having said that, I still believe that Kimi is doing a solid job and there are not necessarily any drivers currently on the market that would have done better than he is.

    7. The interesting part to me is that we never heard why he spun twice, yelling “we have the same problem as last year”
      That implies something with the car, maybe tyre temperatures, but I think it’s possibly also to do with differential or the amount of electric power.

      1. (EDIT)
        To explain a bit more: I think Kimi is past his prime, but no liar or cover up. So if he refers to a problem, it’s there. Could be related to his driving style. But not just “Oops too much throttle” – Kimi would’ve admitted he made a mistake.

        1. ‘Kimi would’ve admitted he made a mistake.’
          Has he ever? I mean, apart from the completely obvious ones such as his last Monaco crash?

    8. I like kimi,but you know that a driver has past his prime when his target for the weekend is not to spin at a corner that he spun out at 2 years in a row.

      I’m not buying the excuse that there was a problem with the car which replicates itself on the one corner on one particular circuit only

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        10th June 2016, 12:30

        ….. and only affects one side of the garage and remained despite every single component of the chassis and pu being different.

    9. I think there should be a list of these bogey driver-corner combinations.
      Felipe and St. Devote in Monaco.
      Kimi and this hairpin.

    10. As I remember (I could be wrong), he said last year it was a post pit stop engine map that was causing the problem. That map is probably tailored to each circuit based on the needs of the energy recovery systems. And is only used for the lap after a pit stop.

      Don’t know how many stops he did last year and the year before, but a problem that only occurs on one lap at one race? Sounds reasonable to me

      1. I remember reading that too, so it follows that there is something different about the in lap compared to a normal lap, and specifically at Canada. IIRC the lap at Canada is poor for harvesting energy, so I guess the norm is for the car to have a less than the maximum amount of energy in the batteries. So does it follow that during an in lap more energy is generated and so the following lap more energy is available here and it affects power delivery in the hairpin? Or because braking zones are missed on the pit ‘straight’ then there is even less energy available? Or are there some other differences that Ferrari have to allow for after a pitstop?

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