The old layout is better - Räikkönen

With his return to Silverstone this weekend, Kimi Räikkönen has said he wouldn't mind the circuit to be reverted to its old layout, as he believes it featured a better fast flowing nature. The Finn though returns with high hopes, having already been 5 times on the podium.

Räikkönen won the British GP in commanding manner in 2007 and shone many more times there.

The track was rethought and redesigned for 2010 in a bid to make overtaking easier on the high-speed track. Räikkönen thinks the new part which consists of long straights and low-speed turns does not fit well with the old nature of the track which hosted the very first race in F1.

“I prefer the old one, actually” said Raikkonen to the official Ferrari website.

“I think it was better in terms of flowing and more complete, how it was supposed to be and used to be. It is quite fast now with the new layout.

“There are some slow corners, but the old layout was more flowing, while now the new part doesn’t fit so well. It’s not bad, it allows more overtaking, but if I could chose I would chose the old one.”

The Finnish driver is nonetheless looking forward to the weekend and hopes he can continue his good run in Silverstone.

“I had quite good races there in the past, I’ve been on the podium a few times. I enjoy the circuit and hopefully we can win again.”

Räikkönen’s race engineer Dave Greenwood is happy to travel to Silverstone as he has good memories about the circuit.

“It was one of the first circuits that I attended as a youngster and spectator.”

The track notoriously demands a good aero-efficiency as there are a couple of ultrafast, long turns. The changes also increased the importance of top-speed because of the longer full-throttle sections.

“The circuit itself nowadays, it’s obviously changed quite considerably and the addition of the Wellington Straight has obviously lengthened the track, but it still retains quite a lot of its traits in terms of good aero-efficiency, what you need.

“In recent years we’ve also seen the circuit has become more of a rear-limited circuit than a front-limited, and in general the balance of the wear has been quite consistent across the tires,” concluded Greenwood.