Kimi Raikkonen hopes that Alfa Romeo Racing will find some answers after running different packages in F1 Japanese GP.
It was a far from interesting race for the Alfa Romeo boys in F1 Japanese GP at Suzuka after they finished 14th and 16th, with Raikkonen ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi. It has been a difficult few races with no points scored as they chase performance.
Interestingly, Raikkonen stated that the team ran two different packages on their cars to try and understand the deficit to the other midfield teams. The Finn, who turned 40-years on Thursday, hopes that the Swiss-Italian outfit is able to find some answers.
“It was boring day, that’s for sure,” said Raikkonen after the grand prix. “I mean I don’t know like the first two stints we had no front end, no real grip at all in the car. Once we swapped to the soft tyres actually the car was pretty nice.
“And I think it was three-four seconds fast. So, it’s very confusing, but we still need to figure it out. We run two cars on a different package this weekend. Let’s hope we figure out what is wrong and get back to where we should be fighting for the points.”
Giovinazzi, meanwhile, felt the pace was better in qualifying than the race which surprised the team as well. “It was a difficult weekend for us,” he said. “The conditions weren’t ideal with the wind, but in the end it’s the same for everyone so we need to focus on our work.
“Our pace turned out to be better in qualifying than in the race in comparison with our rivals and we have to understand why. The potential of the car is there but we have to keep working to improve ahead of the final races and do the best possible job.”
Team boss Frederic Vasseur concurred with Raikkonen and Giovinazzi as he could see in the data that their performance turned bright in the last stint on the soft tyres. Over the weekend he stated that the team knows where it is lacking and is working to better it.
The trial by Alfa Romeo to run two packages – which Raikkonen revealed – is not new this year as Haas tried the same early on when they ran different specs on their cars for few races to obtain data. They eventually decided to run a hybrid spec on both the cars.
Here’s how the F1 Japanese GP panned out
Sebastian Vettel on his mistake and FIA’s clarification
Valtteri Bottas admits about concerns he had of Lewis Hamilton not pitting
Robert Kubica felt let down by Williams in Japanese GP
Charles Leclerc accepted blame for Turn 2 incident
Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton dedicate title to Niki Lauda
Sergio Perez feels he left enough space for Pierre Gasly in their clash
Alexander Albon says Lando Norris left the door open for the move
Daniel Ricciardo didn’t like team orders but it worked for them
Carlos Sainz proud of his efforts in Japanese GP
Japanese GP: Key statistics and information from 2019 F1 race
Additional input from Venkatesh P Koushik
