How Räikkönen went for a very good result in Russia on his own

Kimi Räikkönen was one of the big winners of the late arrival of the rain at the last Russian Grand Prix: the Alfa Romeo driver, back after two missed races, was 13th before the downpour , and 8th on arrival; he therefore clearly maximized the potential of his car (unlike Pierre Gasly, for example, whom Kimi Räikkönen overtook).

What made the difference at the time fateful? Why did Alfa Romeo manage the rain better than McLaren with Lando Norris or AlphaTauri for example?

For that we have to go back to the 48th lap of the race: Kimi Räikkönen ‘to be overtaken by Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly; then he didn’t have much to lose during the Grand Prix. Just before, Alfa Romeo had just warned Kimi Räikkönen that “the rain would increase in one or two laps” . But the Finn was asked to stay on track.

However since Kimi was 15th, and as George Russell and Valtteri Bottas had just returned to the pits, he himself took the lead in saying: I’m coming back.

And on the track, in inters, Kimi Räikkönen then demonstrated his science of racing: he even passed George Russell then the Red Bull of Sergio Pérez to obtain his best Grand Prix result since Brazil 2019.

The experience pays off and Kimi Räikkönen looked back on this agitated and successful end of the Grand Prix for him…

“Fortunately, we made the right choice, it looked like it was already too wet and we were among the first to come and change tires. It paid off in the end. “

” Our car is normally not the best in the wet, but luckily we got in at the right time and had good speed in the last two rounds. I managed to overtake a few cars, so not too bad. »

Pujolar was right to trust Kimi

Alfa Romeo’s chief race engineer, Xevi Pujolar, takes his hat off to Kimi Räikkönen, who deserves the 8th place first and foremost. The comparison with Antonio Giovinazzi is also harsh…

“The rain came very late and everything changed very quickly. We knew we had to be ready to call the drivers because they are the ones on the track and it would be very difficult for us to understand the conditions from the pits. “

” We just say to the drivers ‘let us know when it rains too much and we need to pit’ and that was a good choice of Kimi so we managed to gain positions. “

” When the track gets wet, you have to rely more on the pilot. Forecasts are also important, but if the driver tells you that I can’t keep the car on the track, you have to react. It’s not easy because you only have a few laps before the end of the race it only rains on one side of the track so can you keep the car on the track losing four or five seconds or are you going to destroy the intersections on the part track?

“It worked well, but another day it will take another direction. You can go from heroes to zero very quickly in these kinds of conditions. »

At Williams, George Russell also scored a point in Sochi and Alfa Romeo remains 16 units from 8th place in the constructors’ standings. But Russia is cheering on Pujolar.

“We will keep pushing, we will do our best in every race and we will fight until the end. We will see after Abu Dhabi whether we have succeeded or not. “

” Right now we’re just trying to make the most of everything and focus on the best of ourselves. “