Räikkönen seeks way out of mid-season mediocrity

Drivers' title hopes slipping away through poor performances in qualifying

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With six Formula One races remaining, the current World Champion Kimi Räikkönen’s (Ferrari) situation in the drivers' championship table is considerably better than it was last year.
     
Last season, before the last six races the Finn was trailing 20 points behind the then leader Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) of Great Britain. This time around, the difference is only 13 points in Hamilton’s favour.
      For all that, in some ways Räikkönen’s situation is now considerably more difficult than 12 months ago. The Finn has been severely overshadowed by his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa of Brazil. In recent races Massa has definitely hit the right notes, whereas Räikkönen’s results have been somewhat discordant.
      After the first five races of the season, Räikkönen had put together 35 points, but in the last seven GPs he has added only 22 more.
     
Räikkönen is currently battling with difficulties in the qualifying rounds. In recent GPs he has systematically produced very mediocre qualifying times. As a result, his weak starting position on the grid has kept him from being a serious contestant for anything more than consolation points.
      Next weekend’s F1 race is in Spa, Belgium, where Räikkönen has dominated the event for the past three years. A fourth win would be more than welcome.
     
But what is the recipe for shaking off the qualifying problems so that the Finn might continue his reign?
      “Kimi wants a more aggressive car, and our task is to provide him with one”, reports Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali to the Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.
      Räikkönen's driving style - like that of BMW's Nick Heidfeld, another who has suffered in qualifying - is more gentle than Massa's, and when the car is set up "soft", it generates problems with handling.
     
Even though changing the setup of the car will not happen in a flash, Räikkönen has not given up hope yet.
      “Last year I had similar problems, but at that time the right adjustments were found that suited my driving style. Hopefully the same will happen again”, Räikkönen says.
      According to the leading German automobile magazine Auto, Motor und Sport, the Ferrari engineers are now demanding that Räikkönen change his philosophy with regard to finding the right tuning for his vehicle.
      The magazine writes that the Finn concentrates in the free practice sessions merely on finding the correct race adjustments.
      As a result, Räikkönen’s tyres either fail to reach a high enough temperature in the qualifying rounds, or they start to peel off. Or then Räikkönen commits mistakes because he fails to focus sufficiently on the qualifying lap.
     
For some time now there have been rumours that Ferrari would promote Massa to become the team’s number one pilot.
      Over at the McLaren camp Lewis Hamilton has no such pressure, as he has already secured a 27-point lead over his Finnish teammate Heikki Kovalainen.
      For the coming races McLaren promises to modify its vehicles significantly. “In Spa and Monza we will introduce a radically altered aerodynamics package, because they are fast tracks”, says McLaren team boss Ron Dennis. “And the same applies to the Asian races in September-October.”
      Faithful to his bombastic style, Dennis denies keeping an eye on what Ferrari are up to.
      “We only concentrate on our own performance, as we cannot affect the opponents’ doings”, he says.


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