F1 Talk: Raikkonen Takes Full America Honours at Austin

Kimi Raikkonen won a brilliant US Grand Prix to become the most successful Finnish driver in F1 history in terms of victories. It was a popular win as Raikkonen is a fan favourite with his unique personality, short answers to questions and his attitude which always seems to stay the same.

It had been 2044 days since his last win in the 2013 season opener in Melbourne in the Lotus and rather strangely exactly 11 years ago on Sunday (21 November) Raikkonen won the world championship. The 39-year-old is the oldest F1 race winner since Nigel Mansell in 1994 and he now holds the “record” of the longest gap between a driver’s first and last victory. His maiden win came in Malaysia in 2003.

But how did he do it?

Raikkonen was the only driver to start on the ultrasoft tyres out of the top 5 cars whilst his rivals started on supersoft tyres. This gave him an advantage off the start line as the ultrasoft tyres provide more grip and get up to temperature a little bit quicker. That amazing acceleration that the Ferrari has helped as well but he forced Hamilton to stay to his outside so that there was no threat of Hamilton attacking back immediately at the exit of turn one.

A VSC (virtual safety car) came out on lap 11 and Mercedes elected to pit Hamilton to get a “cheap” pitstop; lose less time compared to a normal pitstop done under green flag conditions. Everyone else towards the pointy end stayed out and I thought it was a masterstroke from Mercedes that would hand Hamilton the win. I thought Ferrari got it wrong with the strategy but I was proven completely wrong.

Hamilton was now on brand new soft tyres and emerged out in third position. Teammate, Valtteri Bottas let him through easily so Hamilton set about closing Raikkonen down and caught him after just a handful of laps. Raikkonen was struggling on the used ultrasoft tyres so the Mercedes strategy looked as if it was going to work as Hamilton had closed the gap and now just had to overtake the Ferrari.

Hamilton was all over the Ferrari but couldn’t get passed. He looked to the inside and outside but Raikkonen covered him beautifully. We got a taste of it in Monza but the battle in Austin was even better. The superior Ferrari straight line speed made it difficult for Hamilton but he was so much faster that I still thought he could have got the job done. Raikkonen defended really well and it was a pivotal moment in the race.

Not only was it great racing but Raikkonen made Hamilton hurt his tyres by holding him up in the dirty air and he cost Hamilton a lot of time. Rather than overtaking Raikkonen and gapping him, Hamilton was stuck behind and couldn’t make good use of his newer tyres.

Raikkonen pitted on lap 21 and it was exactly the right time to pit. Bottas and Max Verstappen were catching quickly as Hamilton and Raikkonen battled so if Raikkonen didn’t pit on that lap, Bottas would have likely undercut him and it would have been a tough race to win for Raikkonen. Hamilton now had the lead but he lacked pace.

Raikkonen was now on the soft tyres and was able to match Hamilton’s lap times before starting to close him down. The gap went from a manageable 19 seconds down to 12 and with hindsight we can argue that Mercedes should have pitted Hamilton a little earlier to get him out ahead of Verstappen. Instead, Mercedes pitted Hamilton on lap 38 and put him on another new set of soft tyres. Verstappen interestingly said on the radio that the soft tyre was not a good tyre and he was spot on. Hamilton found himself with a dozen seconds to close down and he would have to at least overtake Verstappen to win the championship.

Verstappen himself was impressive to say the least, gaining nine positions after the first lap and finding himself with the leaders at the end of the first stint. He undercut Bottas to get into a podium position and even though he was on the theoretically softer tyre (the supersoft) which should degrade more than the soft tyre, he was able to stay with Raikkonen and closed in on him, as Hamilton started to light up the timing screen.

But, Mercedes gave Hamilton too much to do. It was the right thing to do a two stop strategy (having pitted under the VSC) but maybe they should have gone onto the supersoft tyre which was the best tyre in those hot conditions with lots of sunlight. Hamilton had to use a lot of the tyre to close the gap down to Verstappen but I still expected him to overtake the Dutchman and set about taking Raikkonen for the lead.

We got a battle which we haven’t had much of which was Hamilton vs. Verstappen and the latter came out on top. At the time, Hamilton just needed to overtake Verstappen to win the championship so when Verstappen went a touch deep into turn 12, Hamilton got a good run through the next sequence of corners and went for a big move around the outside at the triple left of turns 16, 17 and 18 but he went off line and was in the marbles which sent him off the track and that was his one and only chance.

Hamilton said in the press conference that he should have been a bit more aggressive – perhaps squeezing Verstappen to give him a tighter line into the corner but he was thinking about the championship, even though he can afford to get his elbows out since he has a big lead. But, he was smart and knew his opponent and settled for third place.

This battle allowed Raikkonen to get some breathing space because with 6-7 laps to go we had the brilliant situation where the top 3 cars, all from different teams were split by less than 3 seconds and one mistake from either of them would see the order change or hopes dashed. It was excellent pressure motorsport with some stunning racing and racecraft to top it all off.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel’s chances of taking the win plummeted as he made another mistake. I’ve already talked about him in my Driver Ratings article but I’ll sum it all up here again. He made two errors in two corners which ultimately led to him spinning around just like he did at Suzuka and Monza. It’s so unusual for the driver in the inside to spin around but this has happened to Vettel three times now so he must be doing seomthing wrong.

When overtaking a Mercedes or Red Bull, he seems to do it half-heartedly. He doesn’t commit 100% and when he sees he’s going to make contact, he tries to recover it and that’s what’s making him spin. Vettel should know that wheel to wheel contact usually ends well for both drivers, as long as you open up the steering to straighten up the car, but Vettel is doing the opposite to that. I also don’t get why he doesn’t put his hand up and says that it was his mistake.

For example on Sunday, he said Daniel Ricciardo “didn’t see him”. Of course Ricciardo saw him. The Australian left Vettel plenty of room and it was Vettel who carried too much speed and went into the side of Ricciardo.

For Ricciardo, he just cannot get a break with the reliability issues he’s suffered. Ever since he’s announced he’s going to Renault, the engine just seems to go pop. He lost drive in a similar fashion to what happened to him in Bahrain and showed his frustration by sticking his middle finger up at his Red Bull car and punching a hole through the wall in his changing room. With the way the race panned out, it would have been the type of race which Ricciardo could have won as bold moves and good raecraft was a major part of the race.

The midfield just seems to get more and more chaotic. Firstly, Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen were disqualified for exceeding the fuel flow limit and for consuming more than the maximum fuel limit (respectively).

Magnussen only exceeded the limit by 0.1KG so it is harsh to disqualify him but a line has to be drawn somewhere Magnussen could see how much fuel he was using and should have managed it better, and Haas should have been all over it and telling him to save a bit of fuel. They can only blame themselves on that one.

The action on the track was wild from the get go. Lance Stroll took himself and Fernando Alonso out of the race and out of contention for the points by misjudging what was going on in front of him and wiping Alonso and himself out. Later on lap one, Romain Grosjean locked up and turned around Charles Leclerc, Grosjean receiving a three grid place penalty plus another point on his superlicence, taking him just two points away from a race ban.

It was a case of dirty air helping the cause but Grosjean should have known that you lose lots of downforce when behind other cars in the braking zones.

Renault had one of their best days of the season with Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz taking 6th and 7th. Thousandths of a second split them in qualifying but it saw Sainz go out in Q2 but Hulkenberg progress to Q3. Sainz made a rather cheeky move on lap one at turn one by going off the track to avoid losing positions.

He may not have gained any positions (maybe one) but he stopped himself from losing any because if he had stayed on track he wouldn’t have good momentum off the corner and cars on his inside may have overtaken him. Sainz got one of those useless five second time penalties which was probably the right decision for what the stewards have done in the past but I can see why Force India and Haas were so upset that he didn’t get a bigger penalty.

The midfield was ridiculously close throughout qualifying and the race, expect it to continue this weekend in Mexico.

Hopefully it will be as close at the front of the field as the high altitude of 2285M means that engine performance equalises and aerodynamics are more important than engine power. You need an efficient car and this is where Red Bull can come into play.

They were very strong here last year, hence why Max Verstappen was less than a tenth away from pole position and dominated the race. Verstappen still hasn’t taken his maiden pole position and he has until the end of this season to become the youngest ever pole sitter. Mexico is his last “proper chance” as Brazil and Abu Dhabi will not suit Red Bull, even if it rains I doubt it will be enough.

Personally, it would be quite cool to see some history made so that the build up isn’t all about Hamilton on Sunday. Ferrari should be the favourites though as there amazing acceleration will certainly help coming out of turns 3, 5, 6, 13 and 16. I will talk about how they have refound their form in a separate article next week, if they are strong this weekend at the 4.3KM Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit.

Hamilton needs to just finish in the top 7 to win the championship. Realistically, only a DNF will prevent him from doing so but even if he does DNF, Vettel MUST win the race. It’s all in Hamilton’s hands now, he just needs to execute on Sunday.