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Its all ok. The car is not that crazy faster than the competition and its harder to follow on the dirty air. They could have done better but its all ok. We continue. Eventually Mclaren will escape with both championships once the first upgrade puts us clear of the competition.
The team need to do much better, comfortable in P2-3, they should be able to take calculated risks. It looks like it's all about the constructors again.
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.
Its all ok. Lando is still first and he will bounce back. Maybe Max might be slightly better as a driver but I dont think the difference is that much that the car cant overlap. As Brundle said we have two excellent drivers.
Last edited by Darth-Piekus on 06 Apr 2025, 08:33, edited 1 time in total.
Its all ok. The car is not that crazy faster than the competition and its harder to follow on the dirty air. They could have done better but its all ok. We continue. Eventually Mclaren will escape with both championships once the first upgrade puts us clear of the competition.
No it's not, but it's quicker, and it was 2 v 1 all race, they didn't even attempt to capitalise or take advantage of that. That was disappointing.
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.
Its all ok. Lando is still first and he will bounce back. Maybe Max might be slightly better as a driver but I dont think the difference is that much that the car cant overlap. As Brundle said we have two excellent drivers.
Yes, Lando is still P1, but not to start an argument, Max isn't slightly better than Lando, he's considerably better.
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.
It is quicker but as you can see both drivers have to work for it. All is well. I cant see how we can lose the WCC and Lando will bounce back in the following races. After all dont forget that Mika Hakkinen was not that fast as Michael Schumacher but with a little bit faster car he beat him two times.
By the way when you say considerably better can you quantify it? How much time? One tenth, two tenths?
Despite what the table says, Oscar now appears to be reaching the merge where he's matching Lando.
No deg but still thermal management and Oscar seemed to need to drop back less and could push more. More time needed but it does look like he's getting past the final hurdle before pushing on.
The difference for both drivers this weekend is Saturday. They need to up their game.
Hopefully the next update makes up for what the drivers can't currently do.
And after some positive signs, the pit wall today lost all their balls. Afraid to make a decision that would been seen to hand an advantage to either driver, including pit strategy.
If that is how they wall will play it then it feels more worrisome than the drivers fighting on track.
You've got to go for the win, if someone is upset then just bloody deal with it.
Last edited by mwillems on 06 Apr 2025, 08:44, edited 2 times in total.
Not sure why they pit Lando and Max on the same lap to be honest, that never works out well for the car that is behind. Bit of a fumble. Lando had good pace at the end of the stint too. Should have let him out for at least 1 lap to see what pace he had to work with in clear air.
I decided to ignore all the fracas about drivers between qualifying and the race. Races often make liars out of us don't they? Firstly well done to our drivers and the pit crew and engineers who all did an A1 job. I'm sick of making this comment because nothing is changing in the strategy team - it was lacklustre like 2024. I don't know how a certain fellow's job wasn't on the line after the Hungary undercut, today there appeared to be ZERO plan for what was likely to happen which did happen. There was no Mercedes/RedBull/Ferrari - like use of the two car strategy pincer, no effort at all.
I don't blame the team for not acceding to Oscar's veiled request to be let past, even if as it appeared, Oscar was significantly quicker driver late in the race. It wouldn't have knocked Max off and would have strained team harmony, a bigger issue than many seem to think. Oscar was mighty today, isn't he showing he is getting it all together now? Lando was merely excellent but never looked to have fight in him as Oscar did.
