#i knew who Senna was WAY before I knew what F1 was | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mickstart · 4 years

Note

what do you think are some iconic/memorable schumi moments? i just got into f1 and would like to know more about him bc somehow i can’t really find anything like that about him.... just stats which are incredibly impressive but i can’t find anything about how he behaved or just anything about his personality..... thanks <3

:) Hi anon, thank you for unleashing the beast.

Ok I love you for asking me this thank you SO MUCH. Welcome to the circus I’m glad you’re here! Also yeah, Schumi is often talked about in terms of statistics and not as a human, Which is a shame bc like! Schumi is fascinating and the dynamics on the grid in late 90s F1 is so much fun! Also, this is mainly going to be late 90s -> early 2010s stuff bc I was born in 98 so uhhh I didn’t properly witness ANY 90s stuff and had to learn about it.

OK so I got super carried away but I’ve divided this into 3 sections: Drives/races that I think showcase some of his talents, human moments we need to talk about more, and Chaotic Little Bitch moments. The key thing to remember w/ Schumi is that he personally tends to be nice but as soon as you put him in a competition, Bastard Mode activates like a cat’s pupils going wide.

I am so sorry for the following short essay. Also some crashes are briefly mentioned but only ones with absolutely no injuries and there’s no details.

Chaotic Little Bitch Moments

Schumi debuted as a SUBSTITUTE driver for Jordan when one of their drivers was in police custody (yes. really.) The highest a Jordan had qualified all year was 10th and in his DEBUT at SPA, one of the toughest tracks, in the middle of the season, Schumi qualified that Jordan 7th! THEN his clutch failed before the first lap was even complete, but Benetton and Jordan WENT TO COURT to fight each other to sign him for their team before the next race in Monza. He couldn’t debut normally he HAD to cause a scene and set the tone.

The Red Strings of Fate: He qualified 7th, his iconic 7 starred helmet, his first victory next year was ALSO at Spa - his first complete race would be at Monza, Ferrari Holy Ground, and he finished 5th which 👀 1) he was immediately racing with The Greats. 2) Mr 5 Championships With Ferrari.

Winning a race by taking a stop and go penalty on the last lap, crossing the finish line in the pits, and making such a complicated argument about said penalty that in a hearing that was SUPPOSED to be Mclaren protesting the race result the stewards scrapped the entire penalty and the 3 who awarded it handed in their licenses??? Iconic.

Austria 2002 where Rubens was ordered to give the win to Michael. And then Michael fucking made him stand on the top step on the podium like “oh no no no RUBENS deserves this” and made a big SHOW out of it and its like “Michael stop you’re not making it heartwarming you’re making it WORSE Michael STOP” The Tension of germany 2010 podium VS the theatricality of THIS podium.

Team orders were banned because of this which also makes this indirectly responsible for Fernando Is Faster Than You having to be a coded message. You can’t escape him,

Blocking Alonso in Monaco qualifying and then, years later in 2010, overtaking Alonso technically illegally at Monaco (the race was ending under safety car, but the safety car doesn’t lead them over the line it pits and they’d crossed the safety car line and the regulations were NOT specific about the rules) and getting a 20 second penalty bc Damon Hill was a steward. Haunting FERNANDO specifically at Monaco like the ghost of christmas past? Getting a harsh penalty because ANOTHER driver he’d fucked over was a steward? Forcing the FIA to rewrite the rulebook to account for his nonsense when he was in his FOURTIES? I don’t know another chaos king.

Winning the 1995 championship by crashing into Damon Hill, getting AWAY with it for some reason, and then trying to do the same thing in 1997 to Villeneuve, failing to do so and simply rebounding off of him harmlessly, almost COMICALLY, and beaching his own car in a gravel trap at which point the FIA said “I have had ENOUGH of you Wacky Races Man!” and disqualified him from the entire championship

Forcing Mika off the track so bad at Spa 2000 that Mika realized the only way he was gonna be able to get past him was to re-invent the overtake and go for it whilst they were passing a backmarker. (The overtake itself is at 2:05 in the video but the build up to it is Important bc the key part it’s not just badass, it only happened bc Mika knew who he was dealing with.)

Spa 1998 was a Ridiculously Chaotic race it truly was the Mugello 2020 of its year, and after a crash at the start that took out almost the entire grid Schumi accidentally collided with Coulthard later in the race. (The teams used to have a spare car at every race then, so the race was able to continue after a restart.) This wasn’t a racing thing, Coulthard was getting lapped. So something in Schumi SNAPS, and he storms down the pitlane and tries to fight Coulthard while the mclaren and ferrari mechanics both hold him back and finally drag him away. He projected into the future, saw Coulthard was gonna talk non-stop shit about Seb, and acted accordingly.

Monaco 2012 Pole don’t talk to me about this I still can’t believe the audacity of this man to get the only pole of his comeback, at MONACO, at the ONE RACE where he had a 5 place grid penalty to take!!

In general, I know Cheating Bad but. I HAVE to admire the brainpower it must take to have the rulebook so memorized that whilst driving an F1 car Schumi could spot a loophole the size of the eye of a needle and then dance through it, forcing the FIA to add ANOTHER page to the rule book specially for him bc nobody else even REALISED that loophole existed.

Human Moments

A quick rant about Mika and Schumi’s entire friendship. After Spa 2000 Mika goes up to Michael, says something like “Don’t ever do that again” then they’re friends again. They had this mutual understanding that Racing was not Reality. This goes all the way back to their F3 days they were rivals AND friends for their entire career. They truly were the Sewis of the era if Sebastian was like 50% more evil. Their entire dynamic is “You’re the only motherfucker in this pit lane who can handle me”. Schumi would do some bullshit and every other driver would throw up their hands in frustration and Mika would just go “Okay” and drive better to put him in his place bc he was the only one who could keep up, and Schumi very visibly LOVED that he’s grinning after Mika owns his entire ass with that overtake at Spa. They were unstoppable force meets immovable object and I’m so sad their rivalry isn’t more talked about bc the way Mika is the only driver who can get him to behave like a normal human being is SO entertaining.

This is a sad one so I won’t link it but he started crying in the 2000 Monza press-conference with his brother and Mika when he equaled one of Senna’s records. The press kept trying to ask questions about it and Mika just has this death grip on his shoulder and tries to get them to stop or let them take a break and it’s so sad but also important to know about.

Once said he didn’t want Mick to race in F1 bc the pressure of his name would put Mick under so much stress and he wanted his son to be happy. (He fully supported Mick in his endeavors! But only after making absolutely sure it was what Mick wanted, and making sure he knew he could just race for fun if he wanted and it didn’t have to be F1)

This whole interview just after Mick was born with the Schumacher family. Special shout out to Gina on his head the entire video and also Corinna talking to the press while Michael is captivated by Mick. Me too Michael.

Once allegedly pleaded to take a stray kitten home from the track?

I reblogged this yesterday but. Sticking like glue to Sebastian at an F1 test and immediately being like “This is my new son he’s gonna go far”. There’s a lot of pictures out there also of Michael being a guest at the karting races Seb went to as a kid and baby Seb visibly losing his fucking mind at being given a trophy by his idol. Every day of my life I think about him trying to ruffle Seb’s hair through his helmet at Brazil 2012

WInning the championship in 2000. Him thanking the entire team individually and pausing mid-celebration to kiss his wife Corinna so tenderly it’s in the F1 opening. Also, the way it literally cuts from the rest of McLaren looking like they’re attending a funeral to Mika grinning at him and hugging him fucking SENDSSSSS me.

Schumi was a little shit in all the 2010-12 press conferences like, lowering Lewis’ chair, playing with a microphone wire, but ESPECIALLY corrupting baby Seb and getting him to mess with Nico Rosberg.

He’s just GOOFY! Like I refuse to let him be remembered as a terrifying force of nature he was so goofy kind of similarly to Seb. PLEASE watch this incredibly awkward interview he did with Coulthard on a golf buggy where they both had to pretend they hadn’t thought about murdering each other at least once. I think Sky F1 should force Brocedes to do this when covid’s over. “Do you mind if I drive?” “Yes.”

EDIT: I CANNOT BELIEVE I forgot the 1999 Canada press conference where Eddie Irvine and Mika Hakkinen get into a water fight and Schumi immediately grabs a towel and hides behind it and is like “I had NOTHING to do with it” 🥺 adorable, actually

A lot of people at Ferrari, including Rob Smedley (who was on the other side of the garage with Felipe Massa so not in his inner circle) have said that a lot of the success of the team came from Schumi’s LEADERSHIP more than anything, that he’d make the team get together to bond all the time. When Schumi moved to Ferrari in 1996 they were NOT dominant. He did the same thing Lewis did - went to a team that everybody said would be a huge mistake and helped build them up behind the scenes.

THIS bit of the Canada 2011 Rewind where his engineer gives him the strategy and he’s like “... OkaAaAaAay?” and then when it turns out to be the wrong strategy he cheerfully tells them it’s too late. Little shit.

Speaking of Mercedes I also wanna say that like. They were a MESS in 2012 and his car DNF’d because of a failing on their part MULTIPLE times. (In Canada qualifying his DRS was stuck open and they couldn’t close it.) He did not say a single bad word about them EVER even though the press used this to attack him non-stop as washed-up and bad without Ferrari to cheat for him. At Ferrari he was the exact same with the team, any bastard antics Schumi had for his rivals did not extend to the engineers and crew.

OK this one is soured bc Top Gear is trash BUT if you were like, a kid in England who followed motorsports? Schumi’s fake reveal as The Stig on Top Gear was like the coolest, sickest thing,

Please view this image of Schumi and Mika when they were young and stupid

Iconic Races

ok so I have limited myself to a few races that show off some of his key strengths!

Hungary 1998 / France 2004 - STRATEGY/SPEED - Schumi switched to a 3 stop strategy in 98 and a FOUR STOP strategy in 04 and won both races. In order for the strategy call to work he’d have to basically make every single lap a qualifying style ‘flying lap’ and you best fucking believe he DID THAT. God I fucking miss when Ferrari was the king of strategy.

Argentina 1998 - has it all. Talent, battling Mika, pit lane mind games with mclaren, and bullying coulthard xxx

Spain 1996 / a majority of the wet races - RAIN - One of Schumi’s nicknames was Rain Master bc he was so fucking good in the wet. If it started raining and you were a Schumi stan you were cackling evilly before the red lights even went out. I single out 1996 bc it was his first win for Ferrari and it was unexpected but in most wet races, even Canada 2011 post comeback, you can see Schumi thriving.

Malaysia 1999 - Schumi missed pretty much the entire second half of the season with a broken leg, came back for the last 2 races with everybody murmuring about whether he would struggle, and immediately put the Ferrari on pole. Also worth noting is that he was the number 2 driver for these 2 races bc his teammate Irvine was fighting Mika for the championship and he went along with that without complaint, allowing Ferrari to win the constructor’s championship if not the driver’s.

Monza 2002, 03, 04, or 06 just because it has the energy of the tifosi kneeling at the feet of an idol to their red god.

Brazil 2006 - Fuck All Y’all - Schumi’s last race for Ferrari. He got a puncture and ended up almost lapped, and then drove his way back from that to 4th bc he couldn’t go out without reminding us he’s a bad bitch.

Monza 2012 - Defending - Don’t tell F1 Twitter that there’s actual footage of Lewis and Michael having a genuine lengthy battle on track but DO watch Michael defending like a motherfucker and Lewis breathing down his neck for half the race we need to talk about this more.

Valencia 2012 - This isn’t necessarily anything special but I cried in my living room over the only podium of his comeback so it goes on here. It doesn’t have the same impact if you haven’t been watching him struggle with the car for years, DNF-ing from car failure most of 2012, and having BBC F1 telling you he’s washed up every single weekend, but you can just enjoy one of the best drives of FERNANDO’S entire career as he DRAGS that Ferrari by its hair to a home grand prix win and then watch the crowds embrace him like jesus and also Schumi being happy on the podium. Also, the very start of this clip from the press conference: him forgetting what language he’s supposed to be speaking

Basically, Schumi was a hyper-competitive ambitious bitch who turned into a goofball as soon as he switched the engine off. This is by NO MEANS everything if I was making an exhaustive best races guide I’d do more research and another post but I hope this is what you were looking for?? THANK YOU SO MUCH for letting me go MAXIMUM SPECIAL INTEREST and I apologize.

#asks #Schumi #Mika #Alonso #long post #god I'm so fucking sorry #Anonymous #This is not comprehensive bc I didn't want to accidentally turn this into a whole research project especially if you're new to it!

108 notes · View notes

mosalahd · 2 years

Note

Who are your favourite drivers and why?

oh. oh wow. ok,, this is gonna be LONG my absolute favourite favourite drivers, apples of my eye, loml, are valtteri and lewis, and i've written a 1000 word explanation as to why bc i'm mentally ill (: <3

with valtteri, it was love at first sight pretty much. when i watched my first race, he was the first driver to really stand out to me and i can't really explain why? maybe it's bc before i knew anything about f1 i knew who lewis hamilton was, and finding out that lewis had this almost "forgotten" teammate intrigued me and i became invested in finding out more about him? anyways since that one race i just fell down a rabbit hole and now i have so many reasons i love him like: - he is the most generic scandinavian man but also the most specialest little man and i can't really explain it but he just,, he has the standard scandinavian awkward but sweet underneath and idk he feels like home?? like he feels...familiar? - he is so considerate and always looking out for the people around him even at the expense of his own wants/needs, whether it be in obvious or more subtle ways. he's honestly the definiton of a perfect teammate both for lewis and for guanyu - how he's so open to talk about his mental health and his own bad times which is so important!! mental health is often ignored or stigmatised, esp when it comes to men's mental health, so seeing him be open about it and encouraging others to do the same and to take care of themselves makes me so <3333 - resilience!! now that he's in alfa romeo people love to act like he was always loved and appreciated, but i remember during his merc days how common it was for the entire fandom to just shit talk him for no reason at all? like people would call him lewis' dog, joke about him getting team ordered, never properly acknowledging any of the things he's accomplished (LIKE HELLO HE HAS A Q3 STREAK THAT'S ONLY BESTED BY PROST AND SENNA???). as if being the teammate of one of the greatest drivers of all time wasn't difficult enough, the fandom sure as hell did not make it easier for him and it made me so sad to see because he was always doing his best? like yeah, he's no lewis hamilton, but also, nobody but lewis is like lewis. valtteri was never really given a chance to be his own person w/o being compared to others (lewis/nico) but he still pushed through. it would have been so easy for him to let the negativity and hate get to him, succumb to resentment and turn against the lewis + merc, but he didn't, and that speaks volumes. obv he had his dark times and he had his doubts but in the end he always rose above it and i respect that so much - also he's an unbothered king who just wants to have his ass out in the breeze

now with lewis! i knew about him before i got into the sport bc i read an article about him, his success and his activism. but the thing that really got me was when i found out that he, like me, is mixed caribbean/european. he embodies the kind of representation i've been seeking and craving since i was a little kid, and i resonate so much with him. to be more specific about what i love ab him: - the fact that he doesn't shy away from where he's from, and continues being proud of his heritage means the world to me. a lot of mixed people feel the need to hide parts of themselves (usually the non-white parts) and seeing how sure he is of himself actually helps me deal with my own constant mixed kid identity crises - his passion and curiosity for all things creative. he wants to try everything and he will try everything and i love that bc i'm the saaame - how willing he is to learn from/listen to others and just, his general open mindedness and how considerate he is of others. that he always highlights the major issues going on in the world, whether it's in the country they're racing or somewhere else, just the fact that he actually takes the time to learn about others and their struggles and always makes sure that they feel seen and heard - (again) sheer resilience!! the fact that he's one of the most succesful drivers OF ALL TIME but has had his entire career continuously undermined bc of the color of his skin but he still has the power to brush it off and keep STUNTING ON THESE HOES. like just the fact that he went through the shitshow that was abu dhabi, went quiet for two months, and then came back all "i'm fine guys :)" is so fucking admirable. if it was me i'd be out for BLOOD. and that's just ONE incident amongst too many to count - his aforementioned activism work is so important and so impressive. i often think about that time he said that he's had all this success and accomplished all these things but that that won't matter unless he can manage to enforce actual change within the sport and make sure more people are given the opportunity to achieve their dreams. he is so much bigger than the sport and does his best make a positive impact and i WISH more people could see how important he and his work is. ALSO the way these two interact/treat each other is an additional reason i love them, they have so much unabashed adoration and appreciation for each other and i LOVE to see it. nothing, and i mean NOTHING, gets me going more than the beautiful marriage friendship these two have. k i'm done now. thanks for coming to my ted talk, etc. also sorry anon you probably didn't want a 1000 word essay but here we are

#dear anon you have OPENED THE FLOODGATES #all this time i've been trying to stay lowkey or w/e #about to expose myself #m.ask

1 note · View note

hecohansen31 · 4 years

Text

It Was Fun Till It Lasted

Duncan Shepherd x F1 Pilot Female! Reader

(A/N): Hello there, lovelies!

I have been a bit silent the latest weeks, but I just got hit by the inspiration train as of lately (even more after all the F1 glory we have been getting) and I just thought about a small drabble, about Duncan in the race car universe.

Not as a driver, but more like a sponsor.

This is very PWP, even for my sentimental ass, so I do hope that you’ll like it, even though it isn’t the most perfect thing ever (just to warn you).

Also I just wanted to give @guiltyfiend a big shoutout because she has been a constant source of inspiration for me with various fics (‘Quid Pro Quo’ has been the main reason why for the existence of this drabble) so do check out her lovely fics!

I am also personally, maybe (since I don’t feel apprecciated in the other fandoms I am in) of making a few comebacks in this fandom, if any of you would like iit obviously!

So, please, if you want more, don’t forget to leave some kind of feedback I truly apprecciate it from the bottom of my heart and it’ll truly make my heart beat stronger and my fingers write faster!

Don’t ever ever forget to support your beloved writers with feedback, if you liked what they wrote!

Have a nice reading!

SUMMARY: Galas can be annoying things, but when an handsome fellow accidentally drenches you in champagne there are many ways your night might change.

WORDS: 5,4 K

WARNINGS: Mention of Sexism, Misogyny, Harassment On The Workplace, Inaccurate Portrayal of The F1 World, Inaccurate Way Of Cleaning Champagne From Clothes, Sex, Slight Dirty Talk, Mirror Sex, Oral Sex (Female Receiving), Sex Between Strangers.

You sipped slowly from the flute of champagne you had managed to steal, meanwhile your boss wasn’t looking, since you had been instructed to avoid getting yourself drunk till you got the trophy in your hand, to avoid replacing the ‘drunk Kimi meme’ in the F1 world.

But it was difficult for you, an introvert, to feel at ease in a room full of different people.

A few of them were gladly ignoring you, but more were looking at you like you were some kind of freak in a costume, which was probably the best description for being one pilot of the only all-female team existing in F1.

You had grown up with the myths of Ayrton Senna and Niki Lauda, thanks to your grandfather and his the passion for fast cars and elegant ones, raising you as some kind of substitute to him, who had never been able to race, having had various problematics with his own health.

An heartattack at seventy had taken him away, just as you signed your first contract with the F2.

You had been partnered with a male pilot, and although the car wasn’t the fastest, you had managed to become much better than your partner, eventually getting yourself fired because females, in a place like F1, couldn’t raise to fame, throwing you in a depression that had brought you almost on the verge…

… but then your newest F1 stable had brought you back, giving you a car that wasn’t definitely one of the best you could have gotten but it had gotten you through a nice first season, and you had actually arrived at the sixth position in the constructors’ championship, alongside your partner…

… who, right now, didn’t look less bothered than you, at this fancy party.

But Abigail could definitely hold the curious gazes better than you.

You might have needed something more than champagne to get through a night like this.

You had begged your stable director to just bring Abigail, the social butterfly out of the two of you, but he had just insisted that ‘having two beauties on his arm would have done him and the stable more good than just one’.

And aside from the blatantly sexist part of the comment, you knew he was right.

Sponsors had been rushing to you this season because the media had focused much attention on the importance of new female figures in races, but now that the novelty was rushing off a few had decided to let you go, so you had to grab a few new ones, convincing them through either the use of your talk and your feminine charm.

‘… I had almost thought that he’d ask us to sleep with the sponsors to get them to stay’ had commented Abigail, as you both set yourself up for the night, the elegant rented dresses waiting for you on the comfortable bed of the expensive suite of the hotel ‘… it was this close to becoming an episode of ‘Law & Order: SVU’.

And now Abigail was being her usual chatty with a few sponsors fawning around her, as you tried to down the flute of champagne almost as if it was a full bottle of vodka, something that you honestly missed and stared at the expensive drink in the glass.

If only your glare could turn it in something that would give you more liquid courage.

A few of the rookies had been tried to talk with you and you had been extremely happy to have someone approach you, but soon the chat had diffused itself and all the drivers had been called back by their own director, and you had found yourself alone, again, and with annoying stares upon you.

Many of the pilots from the other stables had tried to get you in bed with them, and you knew that there were various bets going on about getting you or Abigail to finally relent your ‘haughty pretenses’, not to talk about the fact that the entire media platform and magazines had been set up on you and Abigail, waiting for any false step of yours.

You had been dubbed ‘the sole chance for feminism to raise’ and everyone was waiting for you to fall.

To prove that F1 wasn’t female territory.

So, you had been rigorously swearing off any coupling with the other drivers.

The fact that you found it already quite difficult to combine your training and the various galas you had to attend with an healthy social life, certainly did help with the whole ‘chastity promise’ thing.

And you never regretted such a choice during the race season.

The ‘no sex’ rule helped you during the competition, keeping your mind in the game, but now that the driving season was ended and you were finally enjoying your well-deserved holiday, you couldn’t help but hate thoroughly the situation you had landed yourself in, only able to rely on your hand and a few interesting toys.

But otherwise, utterly frustrated.

And yet unable to come up with a solution on such a short notice.

Dicks didn’t grow up on trees, these days.

You just bumped in them, apparently.

Because, as you were halfway through having your second drink of the night, counting on the fact that the director of your stable was halfway through a successful talk with some well-dressed older gentlemen, hence making him quite busy already and unable to check up on you, you clashed against a wall.

A wall of muscles, at a second glance.

A breathing wall of muscles, at third glance.

But you were far more interested by the fact that the bump-in had just made you spill your entire drink on your Givenchy rented dress, the one that costed more than your apartment rent, something that made a loud ‘shit’ leave your mouth and making the ‘wall of muscles’ raise his head towards you, as he noticed the stain.

And then, when you noticed that ‘wall of musclea’ had a pretty face and an even prettier body, a softer ‘shit’ left your mouth.

What a way to make an impression.

“Oh Gosh, I am sorry!” American accent, no British accent.

That was probably where Mother Nature had drawn in blessing him with all the ‘fucking handsome man’ gifts.

His handsome face was elegantly touched up by high cheekbones and feature that had something of roguish matched with elegant traits and darker colors, making him stand out as someone who wasn’t definitely a pilot or a journalist.

Which was ideal for you.

Such an refined face was matched with an elegant tailored body, the suit definitely made for him and him solely, knowing perfectly how to highlight each and every trait of a body that was obtained through attentive work, a careful one that was meant to impose itself or pump his muscles with no aim, but to give him a lean appearance of power.

That definitely worked with you.

“… oh” brain to Earth, brain to Earth, (Y/N), say something intelligent ‘… it was an accident’.

Tell that to the lady that will want the dress back.

But for now, that wasn’t your main concern.

Which was the handsome man in front of you.

But you couldn’t just hump him right there, not only because you were pretty sure that it would have been described as ‘sexual harassment’, but all the spotlight was set up on you, hence all the cameras were focused on every little small mistake you could have done, intensifying them in a way that didn’t happen with men.

You had to be perfect, but even more than that.

You had to be the male everyone thought you were, although you lacked of the attributes.

So, flirting was considered a hellish sin.

“Gosh, I am… extremely sorry” he repeated again, as his eyes shared a quick glance with yours, and you just nodded your head as if you had to confirm to him that you had heard him clearly the first time, before ducking to the restroom, hoping to be able to scrub away the stain, at least to avoid its yellowish color on the stark white of your dress.

But before you could start raising the dress off your legs, where the stain was more evident, you were followed inside by the man, and before you could utter any protest, he caught the ones in your eyes.

“I swear I am not a creeper” he raised his hands as if to reinforce this “… I just… you shouldn’t scrub on silk, it’ll just ruin the fabric, just ran the water and then wait for it to dry, some alcohol and a bit of bleach might also help, the stain will come out, with a single wash… I swear”.

You had a million questions for the stranger, unsure if you shouldn’t have already screamed at him for having entered the ladies restroom, but you just assumed that he was the first handsome guy ever to come with a cute personality.

And good domestic knowledge.

That was meant to always do something to a lady.

“… thank you” you settled on uttering, comforted by the fact that the guy turned around to leave you some privacy, but you couldn’t just let go such an opportunity, even more when you were in some kind of secluded area, and he didn’t look like the type that had a secret go-pro camera under his clothes.

Some girl that you had once met in a bathroom at one of the races had turned out to have one, as she egged on commenting some shit over Abigail.

Unluckily for her, Abigail was in the other stall and she had flushed in the noisiest way the water, before appearing with some kind of triumphant aura around her.

“… can you please stay?” ‘people will probably doubt you on your “abilities” if you come out after five minutes’ you almost wanted to utter, as a test to know if he looked just like a sex god or he fucking was, although with the way his cheeks blushed of a light red, you simply bit down on your tongue “… just to help me get the stain off, properly… you seem to know much more than me about it”.

“Things happen in college” he commented, as if it was an explanation.

What kind of parties had he been in college?

You just remembered the rush to grabbing the cheapest and most efficient alcohol.

He reached out as kindly as he could to start on the farthest part of your dress, where it wasn’t straight up skin tight, gently dabbing it with a piece of paper you had handed him, the fabric destroying itself on the dress, but the stain became a bit less prominent.

Enough to pass as some kind of enrichment the stylist had done on the dress at the last minute.

You hoped you could make the lady that had rented it to you buy this shit off too.

Because you either managed to get the stain out or get yourself a sponsor for the new year, or you’d have had to probably start living on the road, with only a few shining trophies for losers, such as the one you were supposed to grab tonight, for ‘best promising team’.

As if there was some kind of competition, between your small team and various established ones…

“… what are you doing at such a party?” you knew that conversation during this kind of thing would have gotten it to seem less sexual than it truly was, and although you were as good at small talk as you were at handling a crowd, you did your best to sound as relaxed as you could be.

But your question still sounded like one out of a police interrogation.

“Friend of a friend” it was more like meaning ‘none of your business’ but kinder, and you couldn’t deny his own right to privacy “… by the way, I do think that I should give you my name… in case you want someone to curse for the dress, I am Duncan”.

“I am (Y/N)” you were glad when no light of recognition shone in his eyes, just as his hand lightly grabbed the back of your upper thigh, to make the dress adhere perfectly to your skin and dab the stain more properly, a light shiver at the touch made you understand how truly touch-starved you had been “… and you look as out of place as me in this fucking gown”.

“Don’t tell anybody, but…” and he lightly leaned in closer to you, enough that you could feel the strong but comforting perfume of his cologne, something that smelt extremely male and yet, you couldn’t detect a trace of toxic masculinity in it “… I have never seen a single race of F1 in my life”.

Just what you needed.

“… oh tell me about it” you played coy, as his hands raised up from your legs skillfully avoided your ass, instead choosing to grip on the outer part of your hip, handling you with care but a sureness that made you want to relent the whole ‘male image’ you had created around you.

What would you have given for a night in which you didn’t have to be the one in control, constantly checking every detail!

“… neither a fan of the whole race panorama?” he asked, as his eyes trained themselves on your stomach, barely covered by the white of the dress, showing him a bit of skin behind it, exactly as the absence of your panties, a crazed decision of Abigail, who had thrown away your seamless granny pants.

‘They might be protective when we race, but these are shit’.

You knew you shouldn’t have lied to him about not belonging in the racing setting, but you just wanted to have one night in which you weren’t the prodigy, the promise, ‘the sole chance for freedom to raise’.

You just wanted to be (Y/N).

“Definitely not”.

“Brought here by a boyfriend?” now he was scanning his own ground, and he had a small break from his cleaning duties, as you caught a glimpse of that damned profile, the kind of thing you saw on expensive old coins.

He was definitely some kind of emperor in his own right.

“Nope” you mumbled, before you gave him back his own same coin “… just brought here by a friend of a friend”.

He smirked at his words being spit back at him and you smiled almost foolishly.

You even let out a soft giggle.

How fucking long had it been since you had giggled?

And done it because you honestly wanted.

And not because you were forced in front of journalists or potential sponsors.

His hands were now on the side of your chest, against the slight hill of your bra (you could have forsaken panties, but you needed that support), his hands lightly tracing the ridge of the silicone part where the bra stood attached to your skin, sweaty due to the fact that you had been wearing the whole thing for five hours, before of the event.

“… and you had an idiot spill a drink over it, in the span of an hour” the words were meant for self-deprecation, but the smile that accompanied him was utterly confident.

Had you had panties, they would have definitely hit the ground soundly in that moment.

“… it could have been worse” you mumbled, just as your eyes twinkled with secret meaning.

‘You could have been a complete twat or old enough to be my grandpa’

“… you couldn’t have known how to get out champagne stains” you joked, settling up on a more PG-13 comment, unsure of what to do, since it had been quite some time since you had last flirted, and although his hand told you a story, you weren’t exactly sure if he had gotten all the clues of the game.

He laughed so brilliantly that also a light blush joined your soft giggle.

“Gosh, that would have been awful” his tone was joking, but his eyes were onto you, as they searched some kind of confirm in yours, and you just had to lean in to sign the deal, leaning down to kiss him.

You had never been one for one-night-stands and neither for quick fucks in a restroom, but with the way he lightly gripped you, making sure to position you on top of the elegant porcelain sink, careful to avoid the water: it wouldn’t have been neither.

And you were completely swept away.

He definitely passed the ‘kiss’ test.

His hand went through your hair perfectly, but careful of the small updo you had done, his fingertips lightly scraping the baby hair on your upper neck, in a way that kept you grounded, just as his lips lightly bit onto your upper lips, leaving you wanting for more, just as he backed away with a cunning smirk.

One that spoke of that technique never failing.

And before he could perform again that cocky enchantment, you kissed him.

Releasing on him entire months of sexual frustration.

And you had to say that you surprised him, enough that you were worried that your suddenness would have scared him, but he just needed to regain the control, before his hand without any care went to mess up your updo, in a way that instead of grounding and relaxing you, made you tense up, just as his hand splayed your knees wide onto the sink to have him come up between them.

And after the passionate kiss you had been sharing, you found yourself quickly locked, with one that gripped you by the hair against the cold mirror and another one splayed on your knee

The fabric of your silk dress lightly caressed the skin of your inner thigh, right as his elegant and expensive pants did the same with your core, making you feel that you shouldn’t have seriously worried about the ‘five minutes thing’, or at least you hoped.

But the package seemed fucking good.

“… so, would you like to have a bit more of help?” the way he pronounced the word ‘help’ sounded downright sinful and how could a girl deny him, as your own hands moved to gently tap on his sharp cheeks, the scratchiness of a cleanly shaved beard making you feel like this was all real.

“Just don’t get my dress dirty” it was a whisper, but your eyes played with the dominance you wanted to relent to him, and he just looked intrigued.

“Then spread your legs properly, little one” and as if under a spell they opened properly and let him adjust himself against them as his hands lightly raised up to collect the dress away from your legs, stopping right up on your hips and leaving a bit of dress to cover you, as if he had to leave you some modesty “… good girl”.

You purred at that, leaning in the light petting of his grip having become less pronounced as a grip and more a caress.

“… I saw you out there in the crowd and I wanted to buy you a drink, because you looked at unease as me, I thought that you could use that” he commented as his face lightly moved down to the crook of your neck, his nose making a teasing trail down your profile, just as his beard lightly scratched your skin, making it redden simply for his lips, before he covered it of purplish bruises “… I thought I had done the worst thing ever since with pouring a drink over you”.

“… couldn’t stay mad when you fucking looked like a sex god” you muttered unable to deny the truth, your body arching right against his as his hands, gently dragged he strap of your dress down your shoulders, revealing the awful skin-like bra, but he just seemed focused on your collarbones, his hand working slowly to ease the bra away from you, eventually dropping it onto the small tissues box over both of your heads, so it wouldn’t get on the ground.

An attentive gesture, exactly as the way he gripped tightly your breast, making sure that your nipples were lightly caressed by his thumb, right as he bit down on the softer flesh of your neck.

“I am glad that my good looks were of some use” he joked, and gently looked up at you “… and let me tell you, I have a tongue that will make you forget all about my clumsiness”.

“I do think that I deserve an apology” you muttered, as your eyes met again, your lashes cornering perfectly your hazy eyes, breathy and soft “… a vocal apology”.

And he simply smirked down at you, falling on his knees with a sound thud, as you pushed yourself further down the sink you were on, till you felt the painful dig of the faucet in your back, enough to make you moan in protest, but soon the look of wonder on his face as he unveiled the secret underneath your dress was definitely a relief against the uncomfortable position.

“… didn’t know that you were one of those girls that go without panties” he pushed a knee up on you to spread you further to him, as he took in the proper masterpiece that had been revealed to him down there, and his kisses moved up on your inner thigh “… look like the pretty girl turned out to be a bad bad girl, no wonder I am about to fuck you like a fucking bitch in heat in a restroom”.

And you blushed at the profane words.

But it was just more endearing for you as he pushed himself to properly settle against the nest between your legs, already oozing soft milk and sweet honey, his lips lightly pushing against your own, as he dragged the same beard you had felt on your cheeks against your cunt, the sensation making you hiss, right as again your lips came to soothe your ache.

The plumpness of his lips made you unable to stop yourself from moaning out loud, your eyes closing just as he delivered a slap to your thigh, a silent warning to keep your eyes trained on him and you did, as his lips sucked your softest piece in his mouth.

His tongue was instead a blessing inside of you and this time you were the one delving a bit of pain to him, as you grabbed strongly his hair, some kind of relief to keep you grounded as your body became like a cloud, weighted down just by the tension in your whole muscles.

“Fuck, you do know how to have fun” he mumbled tightly, as he released your cunt, something that made you protest loudly “… when was the last time somebody fucked you this good, (Y/N)”.

And before you could properly reply, his finger slipped inside you, making you hiss out at the feeling of being full, so unlike the stretch of your own fingers, so slight that now you needed a minute to calm yourself from everything, as you waited to answer his reply.

And he gave you a moment to breath, before his finger lightly probed further, reaching inside with a wayward gesture that made you choke up on your own words, as your back arched against the mirror and the hand that wasn’t in his hair gripped so tightly the sink that you were sure you had left an acrylic nail there.

“… a long time for sure” he smirked so devilishly that it broke you thoroughly.

And then his tongue matched his finger and before you knew it your floating was interrupted by your skyrocketing to the ground in a pleasurable trail that brought you back to all the earthly pleasure you could ask for, leaving you numb and tensed, your eyes rolling back as you lost sight of what was going on with you.

And then as you regained, your legs were slack over Duncan’s sides, his lips teasing again the skin of your neck, but no intention to punish you with any pain or tease you, instead there was a desperate soothing in his gestures, as you slowly came back to reality.

Fuck, you honestly should do this more.

Sadly, half of the guys that wanted a hook-up wouldn’t have ever done anything like what Duncan just did with you.

And would probably last five minutes, indeed.

“… was that enough of an apology?” he asked as soon as he saw that you had regained some semblance of calmness.

“Definitely yes” not that you could reply with much more.

Your fingers spoke louder as they went to his belt, undoing it with a bit of problem since you were slightly trembling, but he tried his best to let you do it, but before you could lower the pants, he gently grabbed your hands, something soft in his eyes, as he made you look up at him.

“We don’t have to do this…”.

“Oh, c’mon…” you mumbled, but his question was sincere and you couldn’t help but blush lightly “… I am pretty sure I want to do this”.

He mumbled softly, as he grabbed something from his back pocket, as you lightly lowered pants and boxers in one move,

And you weren’t disappointed,

He was definitely a big guy.

Larger than longer, with a light curve that made you painfully ache for having him inside of you, already half-hard, and your hand gently moved up and down on him, in a gentle foreplay that was completely uninterested about the knocking on the door, eventually dissipating in curses.

“… gotta be quiet baby” he commented, as he pushed his wallet on the side of the sink, getting a condom out of it, something for which you were thankful, because although you were on birth control, he was a complete stranger to you, and although the thrill of it just made it all just more daring, you would have preferred avoiding anything that might have given you an awful month “… I don’t know if you will, since I’ll make you feel fucking good”.

You just smirked at him, with a smile that told him ‘I can take it, sweetheart’.

And he just silenced it with pushing himself inside of you.

The penetration gave you an unpleasant stretch, and you needed a minute, as your whole body shifted against him, completely pushing himself in your arms, and to his credit he didn’t do much more than steady you, as he gave you the time to adjust yourself on him, till your whole body relaxed but your own insides.

Gripping him tighter.

Goading him closer and deeper.

And he gently set up a slow rhythm, making you feel each inch of him, till you were hypnotized with the way his hips moved against you, his upper body lightly stroking your clit, as wetness oozed down him, lubing him up, as he took up more speed and you found your back pushed against the mirror with such intensity that you were sure it would have been broken soon.

But you couldn’t give a fuck.

He gently pushed you in another position turning you around, so that you could face the mirror, meanwhile he took you from behind, the angle being deeper and the slight curve of his cock hitting the perfect spot.

And the fact that you could see yourself being fucked by him was only a bonus.

The way his face became so deformed by pleasure gave it all some kind of dreamish state, as the pleasure intensified desperately and you were there just on the right spot, but not enough stimulation was there for you, till he brought a finger in your mouth, and you sucked him inside, looking at the wanton expression on your face, before you closed your eyes.

And pleasure overtook you.

It didn’t take him too much time for him to finish alongside you, as his hand lightly went in your hair again, pushing as a way to grip on reality for a last time and your muscles spasmed around you, desperately and tightly in a way that almost made you wonder how it would have felt to have his seed on you.

And not in a plastic wrapper.

But for now that was all you could do.

Your legs trembled but he steadied you, something that definitely gave him more credit than you thought, expecting him to simply tug himself back in and disappear, maybe stand a bit next to you, to wash himself, but to his credit he gently handled you better, till you were again seated against the sink, the facet now digging painfully in you.

But you were definitely sore in more pleasurable places.

He gently got you back in your dress, adjusting your bra on your sweaty skin, too sensitive for the powerful orgasms you had felt, his silken touch making goosebumps appear on your skin, as your nipples lightly peaked and he couldn’t stop himself from gently sucking one after the other in his mouth, as you moaned almost as a protest.

“Don’t start something you won’t finish” you warned him, as his eyes twinkled with teasing happiness.

“… I would… but I do think that people need this restroom” and he was right, since you felt somebody halfway through calling the security and you shouted out calmly a soft ‘sorry, I just stained my dress and I am trying to get the stain away’ “… but if you want, I can… leave you my number, for more fun…”.

Which you were tempted to take, honestly.

He was handsome, he had a good dick game and he was definitely respectful of boundaries.

But you knew these things always got too complex for you.

First of all because had you given him your number, you would have to admit the truth and secondly as much as you were free right now a partner that was repeated a few more times was dangerous, because feelings might be developed.

“… I…” but how could you let down a guy like this.

“… you aren’t the type” a sad smile appeared on the man’s face, no hard feelings for sure, but definitely uncomfortable at your rejection and you couldn’t help but simply nod “… got it, well it was fun till it lasted”.

And to his merit he didn’t do anything that might have been rough against you, choosing to instead smile politely as he cleaned himself a bit, before he exited with one last look at you, as if to check if you had changed your mind, but you simply stood painfully uncomfortable off the sink as you dabbed a bit more the stain.

“… thank you for the suggestion and…” ‘…the fucking amazing sex’.

“You are welcome”.

And with that he disappeared from the restroom, as you thought he’d disappear from your life.

The only trace of him was the faint stain on your dress and the slight blush on your cheeks as you joined Abigail again.

‘… somebody got lucky’ she simply muttered, as she twirled her glass, another one in your hands, as your eyes searched for Duncan, he joined a few of the investors, but your eyes diverted immediately from that sight, worried the connection might be seen and questioned ‘… at least one of us got laid tonight’.

You simply elbowed her, as you smiled lovingly at the sponsors.

But you definitely felt rebirthed after the restroom session.

Maybe you were wrong about not seeing him again.

Not that you hadn’t to wait much to meet him again.

That morning you had been asked to take part at a reunion of the stable, alongside a few sponsors that you had found at the latest event, it was a way to get them to know the ‘talents’ they’d fund, and as you expected old and older people to approach you, you were surprised to find Duncan standing there.

Hadn’t he been a complete stranger to the F1 platform?

And as your grew nervous and more nervous, your stable director came up to you and Abigail, slinging an arm over you both as he moved to get you and present you to him, making you blush as much as he did, but he was extremely professional.

You couldn’t, when you discovered he was your newest sponsor.

‘Girls let me introduce to you both our latest sponsor’ your boss commented softly ‘Duncan Shepherd’.

And he was Duncan fucking Shepherd.

The heir to the Shepherd foundation.

What the fuck had you done?

---

Duncan Shepherd (I don’t really have a taglist anymore, so if you are interested on being there for Michael do let me know, and I’ll add you, if I ever think about writing something for him again!):

@blakewaterxx, @melodylangdon, @avocodys, @ahsbitch, @littlegirlsdontplaynice, @accio-rogers

#Duncan Shepherd #Duncan Shepherd Reader #Duncan Shepherd x Reader #Duncan Shepherd x Female Reader #Duncan Shepherd Fic #Duncan Shepherd One Shot #Duncan Shepherd Smut #Duncan Shepherd Moodboard #Duncan Shepherd Writing #Duncan Shepherd Imagine #House Of Cards #House of Cards Imagine #HOC #HOC Imagine

72 notes · View notes

tkmedia · 3 years

Text

Ricciardo wins at Monza in McLaren one-two finish

Formula One F1 – Italian Grand Prix – Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza, Italy – September 12, 2021 McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo celebrates on the podium with second place McLaren’s Lando Norris and McLaren CEO Zak Brown REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the Italian Grand Prix in a stunning McLaren one-two at Monza on Sunday while Formula One title rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton took each other out of the race. The victory was McLaren’s first since 2012, the last being Jenson Button’s victory in Brazil in November of that year, and Ricciardo’s first since he was at Red Bull in 2018. ADVERTISEMENT A moment to savour for every single member of that team 🙌#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 @McLarenF1 pic.twitter.com/7w3v2WY5Ix — Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2021FEATURED STORIES It's so much fun when @danielricciardo's up there! 😍#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/jqS8EOP0Ou — Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2021 “About time,” smiled the happy Australian before performing his trademark ‘Shoey’ — glugging the podium champagne from his sweaty boot and sharing it with second-placed teammate Lando Norris and McLaren boss Zak Brown. ADVERTISEMENT “To lead literally from start to finish, I don’t think any of us expected that,” he said. “To not only win but to get a one-two, it’s insane. For McLaren to be on the podium is huge.” Ricciardo, whose other seven wins were all with Red Bull, had started on the front row and seized the lead from Verstappen at the start and he completed his day with a bonus point for fastest lap and voted Driver of the Day by fans. The result, on pace and merit, was a perfect reply from the Australian to his critics after struggling to get to grips with the McLaren since joining from Renault at the end of last year. “For anyone who thought I’d left, I never left,” he said over the radio after taking the chequered flag. “I just moved aside for a while.” Valtteri Bottas took third for Mercedes after winning the Saturday sprint race and then starting at the back of the grid due to engine penalties. ADVERTISEMENT The Finn finished fourth on track but Red Bull’s Sergio Perez ahead of him had a five-second penalty that dropped the Mexican down to fifth with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc fourth.

Title rivals collide

While McLaren celebrated, Verstappen and Hamilton had nothing to smile about. The pair collided and crashed out after their pitstops, with Verstappen’s Red Bull lifting off the curb and ending up on top of Hamilton’s Mercedes in the gravel, with the halo head protection device keeping the champion out of harm’s way. Both climbed out after the accident at the first chicane, with Verstappen’s five-point lead in the championship unchanged. “That’s what happens when you don’t give space,” said Verstappen on the team radio of what could be a defining image of the season and evoked memories of the famous late 1980s clashes between the late Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. “It (the car) landed on my head, but I’ll be OK,” said a sore Hamilton. “I was racing as hard as I could, finally got past Lando and was in the lead so they pitted me. The pitstop was slow, I lost a couple of seconds and I came out. Daniel came past, Max was coming. “I made sure I left a car’s width on the outside for him, I went into turn one and I was ahead and going into turn two and then all of a sudden he was on top of me. “He just didn’t want to give way today and he knew when he was going into two what was going to happen…but he still did it,” the Briton told Sky Sports television. The pair have collided before this season, notably at Hamilton’s own British Grand Prix, and Sunday’s latest clash will keep fans talking for some time. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was sixth with Lance Stroll seventh for Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso eighth for Renault-owned Alpine. George Russell, Hamilton’s teammate next year, took two points for Williams in ninth with Esteban Ocon 10th for Alpine. Neither AlphaTauri finished, car troubles sidelining last year’s Monza winner Pierre Gasly after three laps while Japanese rookie Yuki Tsunoda did not start. It was the first time this season that the team had failed to score.

RELATED STORIES

Get the hottest sports news straight into your inbox

Read Next EDITORS' PICK Don't miss out on the latest news and information. Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000. Read the full article

2 notes · View notes

leqclerc · 4 years

Note

credit where credit's due (tianvette's sebson fic) but the idea of charles having like cut out ads or magazine articles featuring seb and years later having forgot he even had them or seb's fastidiousness got the better of charles' clutter and unearthing them, and charles absolutely mortified having to explain while seb's living for the awkwardness and teasing opportunities

Oh. Yes 👀 The thing is, like...Charles is so cagey about everything pre...probably 2018? In regards to Seb. When asked who his biggest motorsport inspiration is, he’ll say Senna, although he wasn’t even alive to watch him race (unlike, say, Lewis who actually grew up watching with that era of F1.) He did add “oh, and Seb of course” in one interview but only after Seb sort of teasingly interjected. So either he followed Seb’s career/the late 00s to mid-10s racing scene more closely than he’s letting on, or he only really started becoming aware of Seb and admiring him once that Ferrari connection was established.

I tend to lean towards it being the former, so this absolutely wouldn’t be out of the question. (Yes, I do self-indulgently want Charles going :O over bleach blond Seb.) In one of my WIPs I actually had Charles witness Seb’s Monaco win way back in 2011.

Either way, whether Charles’s admiration for Seb started during his Ferrari years or earlier, it’s obvious that he was acutely aware of Seb way before Seb was aware of him. Or at least he wasn’t aware of Charles to the same degree that Charles was aware of him, if that makes sense. Maybe he knew he was Jules’s godson, maybe he didn’t. I believe during one media pen interview Seb’s distracted because he’s glancing over at the screens watching Charles’s junior category race (must’ve been 2017?) so I think he kind of knew this kid is good, but didn’t really know him as a person, really, until 2018 or even into 2019 when their relationship properly started to develop and flourish into what it is today, Cheek Cradle and Sebmet and all.

#replies #anonymous #sebchal anon #sebchal asks #headcanon asks

12 notes · View notes

georgeousrussell · 4 years

Note

Hi thanks for doing my ask thing, hope you are having a good day 🧡

Hamilton, Norris and Giovinazzi please

Ahh I absolutely love your asks! They’re the best 🧡 thank you for sending me one!

Hamilton: What’s your biggest achievement?

Graduating college. Always knew I’d go to it, but never thought I’d actually make it long enough.

Norris: What’s your favorite pastime?

Reading! I prefer physical books but I can’t afford to splurge on them right now since I’m an extremely fast reader and it would keep me occupied for like less than a day. So I’ve been reading a LOT of AO3!

Giovinazzi: If you could invite any three drivers, past or present, to dinner, who would it be?

See this one is hard for me because I was into f1 for a HOT moment back in 2014 before Jules’s crash and then I only recently got back into it.

Senna: Everything I’ve read about him just makes him seem like not only an amazing driver but a really great guy. His ontrack achievements aside, his personality and way of speaking just make it seem like he’d be an amazing dinner companion

Grosjean: I’m a baker. The man has a cookbook. This is a total no-brainer. He and his wife are ALWAYS welcome to dinner as long as they’re cooking (and I’m baking and get to play with the kids of course).

I’m stuck between Daniel or Lewis for this one but I’ll have to go with Daniel solely because that would be a ridiculously funny dinner and I feel like he’d appreciate my knowledge of obscure American facts. A dinner with Lewis would be too serious 😅

#ask and you shall receive

4 notes · View notes

crystalracing · 7 years

Link

Under the skin of the enigmatic Raikkonen

KIMI RAIKKONEN IS ONE OF THOSE BLOKES WHO polarises opinion, that people seem to either love or hate. Ironic really, considering he is the epitome of getting on with doing his own thing, not manipulating anything, staying clear of boring politics and not worrying about things he has no control over. As a private man who can be diﬃcult to read – not to mention one who a proportion of Formula 1 followers think has passed his best –he is, as our cover suggests, F1’s enigma. Which is why Ben Anderson’sin-depth 14-page feature, beginning on page 14, is probably the best and most-balanced thing you’ll ever read about him. Based on interviews with Raikkonen himself and those around him, it properly assesses his role on the F1 grid, and in the paddock. Ferrari announced a one-year contract extension for Raikkonen on Tuesday – after the last page of our feature had gone to press – but one thing for sure is that he is closer to the end of his F1 career than the beginning, and this week’s Autosport also provides a study of a talent at the opposite end of the spectrum. There hasn’t been a buzz this big about a young British prospect since Lewis Hamilton was rising the ranks, and Kevin Turner’s chat with Lando Norris (p28)tells us all about his cracking recent F1 test with McLaren. It was good timing that the interview coincides with two more wins in the Formula 3 European Championship at Zandvoort (p40). Funny to think that Norris hadn’t even been born when Raikkonen made his Formula Renault UK debut in 1999, and was only a toddler when Kimi ﬁrst raced a Formula 1 car…

“IF YOU STRUGGLE, PEOPLE SLAG YOU OFF, BUT IT DOESN’T BOTHER ME”

It is very rare that a driver comes along who challenges preconceived notions of what it takes to be a Formula 1 driver. But when a true prodigy breaks through into grand prix racing through sheer force of talent, they often create a sort of butterﬂy eﬀect.The world we thought we knew before is suddenly changed, and will never be the same again. Kimi Raikkonen should go down in F1 history as one such driver. It has taken Max Verstappen’s remarkable recent ascension to motorsport’s pinnacle to further redeﬁne the boundaries of possibility – so successful in one season of junior single-seater racing that he simply must be in F1 immediately. Since 2015, Verstappen has been thrilling fans, threatening reputations, and rewriting rules with his fearless and superlative brand of racing. Fourteen years earlier, Raikkonen laid the template –arriving with Peter Sauber’s eponymous team after a brief but highly successful stint in Formula Renault. Raikkonen had competed in fewer than 25 car races; surely he couldn’t be ready for such a monumental leap.Yet there he was – 13th on the grid for his debut in Australia, within four tenths of a second of sophomore team-mate Nick Heidfeld, scoring a point in his ﬁrst GP, ﬁnishing not much more than 12 seconds behind his team-mate. Raikkonen looked immediately like he belonged – a driver so naturally gifted he could bypass F3 and F3000 completely, turn convention on its head, yet be immediately and properly competitive in F1. Truly astounding. The question with all prodigies, in any sport, is what next? Will they fully harness that ability, show the necessary will and dedication to ally proper craft to their genius, and transform themselves into a truly unstoppable force? It is this unique blend that tends to deﬁne the ultimate greatness of an athlete – whether they burn out early and fade away in the Wayne Rooney style, or evolve into an era-deﬁning machine in the mould of Cristiano Ronaldo. Raikkonen’s stats suggest he’s something of an underachiever. This weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix will mark his 263rd grand prix start; only four drivers – Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso – have started more. For a driver of Raikkonen’s ability and longevity to have scored ‘only’ 20 wins and 17 pole positions, plus a single world championship achieved in fortuitous circumstances in 2007, seems out of kilter. Damon Hill would not consider himself to be the most naturally gifted driver ever to grace F1. Raikkonen could make that claim, yet Hill achieved more wins and poles than Raikkonen has, in much less than half the number of starts. And yet Raikkonen is still good enough that he is still racing for Ferrari – F1’s grandest team – at the ripe old age of 37, and Tuesday’s announcement that he will remain for 2018 means he will continue doing so for another season at least. That shows Raikkonen still has something serious to oﬀer in the eyes of those who make the biggest decisions in Maranello. Sport is always about much more than pure numbers. Personality and style also count for as much sometimes. Raikkonen commands a strong and loyal fan base, energised by his ‘Iceman’ reputation, one he says he’s done nothing conscious to cultivate. Publicly, Raikkonen comes oﬀ as a cool, aloof, anti-hero character – a no-nonsense antidote to the clean-cut corporate image of modern racing. His ‘wild-child’ early years curry him huge favour with those followers of F1 who pine for the era of James Hunt, when drivers partied away the nights and drove by the seat of their pants in the day. But even lovable rogues like Hunt and Raikkonen are driven by a ﬁerce competitive instinct that belies their devil-may-care reputations.We are left with a confusing picture. How to reconcile the incredible natural ability that once redrew boundaries at Sauber and McLaren, and claimed a historic post-Schumacher world championship for Ferrari, with the later seasons of struggle: bettered by Felipe Massa, outpaced by Romain Grosjean, destroyed by Alonso, now playing second ﬁddle to Sebastian Vettel? Herein lies the enigma of Kimi Raikkonen.

BLAZING A TRAIL AT SAUBER

Raikkonen’s first season in F1 was very strong by conventional standards for a rookie, but when you consider his fundamental lack of experience in car racing it was truly exceptional. His results were very good – four points finishes in total, twice finishing fourth (in Austria and Canada) and placing inside the top 10 in the world championship. Raikkonen made a vital contribution to what then constituted Sauber’s best F1 season, but it was his raw speed that caught the eye. Third time out, Raikkonen qualified only a tenth behind Heidfeld in Brazil, and thereafter matched his more experienced team-mate 7-7 on Saturdays. Not only that, Raikkonen performed with a calm assuredness that belied his lack of experience. “Kimi was very young [21] and not experienced at all – it was very risky,” says Sauber driver trainer Josef Leberer, who worked with Ayrton Senna at McLaren and recalls his season alongside Raikkonen with fondness. “A lot of people said, ‘I don’t understand why Sauber were doing this’. But it worked. “He’s not the kind of guy who sits days and hours on the computer. Such an intuitive driver, his instinct is incredible. This way I would say he’s one of the best. It comes naturally. No bullshit. Just wanna be fast, no excuses. “He was not spoiled, so you could talk with him and be straightforward, and he was an incredible, cool guy. Doing the massage in the morning we had to wake him up and he said, ‘Let me get an extra five minutes of sleep before the race’. I’d never seen this – the second race in Malaysia and he wanted to sleep an extra few minutes! Can you imagine being like this in your second race? “He made such an impact. We had a feeling and he was fast immediately. You could see he had the requirements to be a top driver.” Raikkonen’s extraordinary ability to drive an F1 car quickly without the educational foundation enjoyed by his peers left a lasting impression on the paddock. Renowned motor racing journalist and author David Tremayne was Sauber’s press release writer during Raikkonen’s rookie campaign. He recalls a driver aloof and reserved in public, but completely different when hidden from the glare of a camera lens. “He was very quiet, like he is now,” explains Tremayne. “You thought, ‘What is this kid like, is he going to be another Mika [Hakkinen]?’ But he clearly wasn’t in terms of the way he conducted himself – he wasn’t forthcoming. Kimi didn’t want to do any of the other bollocks. He wanted to get in the car and get on with it. “[But] at Monza I heard all this raucous laughter on top of the media bus at Sauber. I went downstairs and it was Kimi, Peter Collins, and a guy who turned out to be Kimi’s kart mechanic – and it was Kimi doing all the laughing. “It was the only time I ever saw what you might call ‘the real Kimi’– with mates, completely relaxed, no need to be protective of anything.

I think he has the ability to compartmentalise. There was a lot of fire in him but you didn’t get to see it. He’s very self-reliant. I don’t think he needs an entourage. “As a driver, he was wonderful to watch. Felipe came in the following year and he was quick but always on a different line. Kimi was just cool and calm with it – not pushing the car or wrestling with it.”So many drivers dream of being world champion, work hard to achieve that dream, but never even make it onto the grid. Others carve out opportunity but become overwhelmed by expectation or consumed by pressure. It seems Raikkonen benefited not only from exceptional natural ability behind the wheel – after all there are many drivers who share that sort of skill – but also a mental resilience and confidence that helped strip away the extra burdens that might have destroyed someone of a different character. Raikkonen never dreamed big or got carried away by the prospect of fame and fortune. It seems it was this aloof attitude, bordering on indifference, that made him so perfectly suited to thrive in F1. “It was a good team to be in; nice people – I still have lunch there,” Raikkonen tells Autosport, relaxing into his seat as we discuss the first stage of his long career in F1. “For me, it was very easy in someways because I didn’t really expect anything.“I didn’t know anything about F1. I never went to see a race. The first time I saw it live was when I was in a test myself. So for me it was like if you just go to Formula Renault [for the first time]. I had nothing to worry about – what’s the point? It either goes well or it goes bad. What can you do?” Ultimately, it went very well indeed for Raikkonen, who made such an impression that he was poached by Ron Dennis to replace retiring double world champion Hakkinen at McLaren for 2002. Even a wunderkind like Verstappen had to wait four races into his second season before earning promotion to one of F1’s biggest teams…

McLAREN: WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Some paddock insiders consider Raikkonen’s five-year stint at McLaren to be his absolute peak. His first grand prix victory at Malaysia in 2003 briefly made him F1’s youngest winner since team founder Bruce McLaren. Raikkonen won eight more times for McLaren in those five seasons, as well as taking 11 pole positions and 36 podiums from 87 starts. He quickly established himself as one of grand prix racing’s most exciting stars, but a world championship title eluded him. He was second to Alonso in 2005, but came closest to breaking through two years earlier, when Raikkonen lost out to Schumacher by just two points. “Back in those days he was massively quick,” recalls Pat Fry, McLaren’s chief engineer during Raikkonen’s stint with the team. “It’s a shame car reliability and engine reliability didn’t work for him really. If you look at him through the early 2000s, he was right up there with the best, wasn’t he? He was absolutely outstanding driving the McLaren through 2003, 2005. He should’ve won the championship in 2005.” Raikkonen was unfortunate in that his time at McLaren coincided with Schumacher’s most dominant seasons at Ferrari and latterly the brief but potent rise of Alonso at Renault. Only once during that period, in ’05, could McLaren be considered to have produced the absolute quickest car on the grid, and senior personnel admit it was too unreliable to ultimately get the job done. In this context, Raikkonen achieved much of his success against the odds. Apart from his first year with the team in 2002 – when he was paired alongside stalwart David Coulthard – Raikkonen was never beaten by his McLaren team-mate across a season. He won many admirers inside the squad for his fearless style of racing. “He was blindingly quick – sometimes the circuit wasn’t big enough to contain him in those early days, but he was pushing to the max and everyone liked it,” remembers McLaren’s chief operating oﬀicer Jonathan Neale. “He used to scare me. He scared me because he was so completely fearless. You just knew there was no way he was going to give anything less than 110%, and I don’t mean that lightly. He was just a force of nature.” Out of the car, McLaren found a “completely uncompromising” driver, whose “maverick” style didn’t always sit well with the team’s clean-cut corporate image. “We struggled to find out who he was as he didn’t say very much,” adds Neale. “[But] everybody underestimates him at their peril. He did have a fantastic sense of humour. If there were two drivers going on stage, to do a presentation or a question-and-answer session, he’d be sitting in the back and he’d do an amazing mimic. He had the voices and the phrases, all of that, so he was a sharp observer. “There was never a dull moment, but he was a great racer –somebody who is still spoken of highly in the team for what did with us, for us, and the style in which he did it, which was uncompromising. It was uncompromising in the car, it was uncompromising in the set-up, he was uncompromising on whether he wanted to be with a sponsor. It’s not always easy, but isn’t it refreshing when you find somebody who is brave enough to be candid and frank and not prepared to cower to conformity?

“He wouldn’t suﬀer fools. Everyone was taken at face value, no airs, no graces, nobody standing on ceremony, what you see is what get, very grounded, but enormous following with the mechanics and engineers – real loyalty. “Because that fire burns very intensely, it was kind of polarising –either you got it or you didn’t. It is quite diﬀicult getting engineers close to him – to be able to have that rapport and reach him without being too much, too little, not a fool. “Any whiﬀ of bullshit and you were toast! But [race engineer] Mark Slade was very good with Kimi and they had an understanding. Mark knew when to leave him alone, and when to push him and there were occasions when Mark was quite assertive with him, but because he built up that trust he could be. It is easy to be intimidated by somebody of that temperament.” Slade has worked with Raikkonen twice through the Finn’s F1 career – first at McLaren and later at Lotus. Slade responded well to Raikkonen’s no-nonsense attitude and fussiness for precision. He says the Raikkonen that drove for McLaren arrived at Woking “well-rounded” and was “massively impressive”. “He knew how to manage tyres, he knew how to set up the car – it was like working with someone who’d done it for five years,” Slade recalls. “He knew exactly what he wanted. It was not like working with a new driver. “The only aspect that was a little bit ragged early on was in qualifying, when we had to put the fuel in the car for the race, so 2003. He had a little bit of a tendency to want to be on pole regardless of the amount of fuel in the car. And there were a couple of races where he went oﬀ trying to achieve too much. “We basically banned him from watching the other drivers’qualifying laps. We just told him, ‘Go out and drive the car as quickly as it will go’. We did that for the rest of this season and he didn’t do any more mistakes.” Raikkonen is often portrayed as a lazy driver – someone who simply relies on his natural feel for the car but isn’t particularly interested in doing anything other than driving. Slade argues that’s a misunderstanding of Raikkonen’s approach. It’s not that he is uninterested, rather that he sees clear delineation in responsibilities within teams, and wants to trust those around him to do their jobs properly without interference. Slade admits this approach can compromise Raikkonen when internal politics arise.

“There were times at McLaren when things didn’t go the way they should have for Kimi and if he had been just a little bit more involved, that could have swapped things around a bit,” Slade says. “In the middle of 2005 there were certain things happening with the design direction of the car that didn’t suit Kimi and there was a lot of tension and pressure. I was having to fight Kimi’s corner, because he wasn’t really doing much himself. That was quite stressful. “He didn’t like hanging around in the oﬀice for very long. His debriefs were very short, but he gave us the important points and that was almost perfect for me, because it meant we didn’t spend lots of time talking about what was not relevant. He won’t rant about it. It’s just, ‘That’s what we need to fix’. Simple as that. “If people try to push him in a diﬀerent direction, it’s not going to work because you need him on board. You need to be on board with him and he needs to be on board with you. For me, it was enjoyable to work with him, because it was logical and straightforward. “One of the biggest diﬀiculties with drivers who are less consistent with their approach is trying to filter out this inconsistency. It becomes very diﬀicult very quickly. If he came in saying there’s something wrong with the car, the chances are there’s something wrong with the car – even if you can’t see that on data. Ninety-nine percent of the time he’s right. “When we were doing Michelin tyre testing, they desperately wanted him to do the testing. They told us at one point that he was the best test driver that they worked with. They used to give a little array of tick boxes for diﬀerent characteristics of the tyre – what the tyres were doing, what the characteristics of the diﬀerent compounds were. They said there were some drivers who got most of the points correct, but he always got them all correct. “And his consistency of lap time when we tested eight diﬀerent compounds – his baselines would be within one tenth, and that meant that they could properly analyse the lap time data as well as the driver’s comments.” Slade says he’s never seen anything else like Raikkonen’s “extraordinary level of sensitivity” to the car, to the point where Raikkonen could detect problems with McLaren’s traction control so aware the engineers couldn’t see in their trackside data. The chase for a ‘perfect car’ can be a real curse when too many things aren’t working correctly, but this degree of feel made Raikkonen a formidable weapon during F1’s tyre war between Bridgestone and Michelin. “That played a big part of how it went,” says Raikkonen. “I was very happy to do the tyre tests. We could test 20 diﬀerent sets of tyres and choose exactly what you wanted, whatever you feel is best for you. It was one extra thing that you could use.” Raikkonen does not agree with those, such as Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe, who would say his McLaren years represent Raikkonen at his peak. But he was certainly unfortunate not to win at least one world title with McLaren, and Slade recalls some truly stunning drives by Raikkonen during that period. “No doubt Michael, Fernando and Kimi were the three guys,” argues Slade, who feels Raikkonen could have won “15 straight races” in 2005 with better reliability. “Then, just slightly behind, DC, [Juan Pablo] Montoya and a few others. When it came to the driving and his racecraft, Kimi was right up there.“In the middle part of the [2005] season the car was phenomenal and he was driving phenomenally well. At Monza, he qualified fastest with the full tank of fuel [before a grid penalty]; at Silverstone, he was half a second per lap quicker than Montoya, who won the race; in France he started 13th and finished second. Japan was awesome because he came from the back and won. “One of the best races he ever did was Indianapolis in 2003, when we were on the Michelin wets and the Michelin wets were rubbish. He finished second. It was fantastic. He just drove his heart out. He didn’t win the race, but it was an absolutely phenomenal drive. “Nurburgring 2006 – the engine was terrible that year and he finished fourth. I remember him coming to the bus afterwards, sweat pouring oﬀ him, and he said, ‘I just drove 60 qualifying laps’, and you could see he had. We knew he had to drive phenomenally well to achieve that with the car we had then.” By now Raikkonen had grown increasingly frustrated with life at McLaren and reputedly made an agreement with Ferrari as early as late-2005 to join the Scuderia for 2007. “He signed with Ferrari two years before he moved to Ferrari,” confirms his then-Ferrari team-mate Massa. “I remember when I signed for Ferrari, Kimi already has his contract; the only way I stay in Ferrari is if Michael stops.” Schumacher announced his first retirement from F1 after winning the 2006 Italian GP at Monza. Thus, the way was clear for Raikkonen and Massa to usher in a new era at Maranello.

MARK SLADE RAIKKONEN’S ENGINEER AT McLAREN AND LOTUS

Does Kimi have particular traits in his driving? He’s very, very smooth, very gentle, very precise – minimal inputs into the car. He wants the car to do the work. Most drivers tend to be a bit more aggressive with inputs, which can have beneﬁts when the tyres are hard and difficult to get into the working window. The other thing is power steering. He came to us and complained about power steering. We spent a lot of time ﬁxing it. Then he went to Ferrari and apparently complained about power steering there. Then he came back to Lotus and complained about power steering. So the feel of the steering is very, very important. He doesn’t want any friction in it. He doesn’t want any play on the brake pedal. Also, Mark [Arnall] always carried a special cloth to clean the windscreen, because if there was a slightest ﬁnger print or scratch, we had to change it.

He says he hates understeer and you often hear him complain about the front… Even at McLaren there were occasions where we did have issues. Canada was a good one in 2005. We were slower on new tyres than on used tyres because he couldn’t get the new tyre temperature to work. The start of the lap can be a real problem if he just hasn’t got the front grip that he needs to get the car into corners. I would say that’s probably the only real weakness. There were times also that was an advantage, because he was a lot more gentle on tyres. When we won the race with Lotus in 2013 in Melbourne, he just walked away with it because he could do one stop. Those tyres were absolutely perfect for him, then Pirelli changed the tyres and that disadvantaged him unfortunately.

Why does he often seem to make mistakes in qualifying? He takes a high-risk approach to qualifying. It’s all about corner entry speed. And if you get the corner wrong you tend to drop a lot of time. Other drivers probably prioritise the exit a little bit more. He’s trying to carry speed through; that is high risk.

WORLD CHAMPION THEN DITCHED BY FERRARI

Raikkonen’s Ferrari career got off to a dream start – pole position and victory in his first race in Melbourne, and of course he went on to claim the championship as Ferrari backed his bid to overhaul the McLarens of Alonso and rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton. Raikkonen succeeded in this mission by a solitary point when team-mate Massa moved aside for him to win the season finale in Brazil.“For me it counts much more than any others – if I had won with McLaren or with somebody else,” Raikkonen says. “Ferrari is Ferrari.I got close a few times in the McLaren. I mean yes in some people’s eyes I [could] have won three championships. I didn’t deserve it.In the end, whoever gets the most points deserves it. “Would I be happier with three championships? It makes no diﬀerence. I am happy with what I have achieved.” It felt as though F1 almost owed Raikkonen that championship– regardless of the peculiar circumstances – as payback for the disappointment and near-misses at McLaren. But although he finally conquered the world in his first season as a Ferrari driver, Raikkonen never fully established himself as the team’s number one. Raikkonen says his biggest concern before coming to Ferrari was having to adjust to Bridgestone tyres after years spent honing his car on Michelin rubber, but according to Rob Smedley – Massa’s race engineer throughout Raikkonen’s first stint at Ferrari – the tyres were “never the limiting factor” for Raikkonen during this period.“In terms of raw talent he definitely was one of the best drivers on the grid when he came to us,” Smedley says. “[But] he very much needs a particular set-up. He needs the front to work for him very positively. He turns the car in very early, a little bit like Michael, like Fernando, like Valtteri [Bottas]. They turn very early in the corner, and due to that he’s very demanding on the front-end in that phase of the corner.“He needs to start sending the car into the apex almost immediately when he starts thinking about the corner, especially in medium-speed corners. When he first came to us, it took us a longtime to understand what he wanted. “He’s the driver who, probably the most I’ve ever seen of anyone, is absolutely and entirely unfazed by rear locking at the start of heavy braking. To be able to deal with that and not to be fazed by that is something quite incredible. “We spent a lot of our time in that winter of 2007 attempting to understand how on earth he was putting the brake balance so far rearward. He was running probably 8% more rearward than Felipe and the other drivers – that’s another planet. “We were quite surprised by that, but actually what he was trying to do, in his own way, was to make the car turn as soon as he asked for it.As soon as he asked for response out of the steering, he wanted the car to turn. He had a particular way of driving the car and I think it took us a little bit of time to understand that. Once we did, we got performance from him.” But not consistently. Raikkonen was closely matched with Massa through most of 2007, but would likely have been asked to support his team-mate’s own bid for the championship had Massa not suffered a damper failure while running ahead of Raikkonen in that year’s Italian GP – and narrowly leading Raikkonen in the standings. Massa, who describes Raikkonen as “for sure one of the strangest people I’ve met”, was a fan of the Finn’s honesty as a team-mate, but rates Schumacher and Alonso higher: “Definitely Michael and Fernando were stronger – not quicker, but more complete.” The following year Raikkonen was cast into the supporting role, as his title defence fell apart amid a run of four consecutive non-scoring races in the second half of the season. Massa was unlucky not to become world champion in ’08 and was Ferrari’s leading driver through the first part of a difficult 2009 campaign too, before he suffered a terrible head injury during qualifying for the Hungarian GP. “We never were really comfortable – like if you drive and you have to try and do things that are not normal,” says Raikkonen of his first stint at Ferrari. “We never really found it and put things together. We changed the cars a little bit, but we just struggled compared to what we did in the first bit.” Raikkonen showed flashes of form in a very difficult 2009 Ferrari, which was not a strong answer to the regulatory upheaval of the previous winter. He qualified on the front row and finished third at Monaco, but he wasn’t proving so relentlessly impressive as he had done in his McLaren years– against a team-mate not rated as one of the absolute best on the grid.

“In ’08 Felipe was still in the stage of rapid improvement and overall Felipe was pretty much quicker than him, definitely in qualifying,” adds Smedley, who reckons Raikkonen’s “pure natural talent” made him better than Massa at looking after the rear tyres in races.“That was one of the things that really surprised me, because I expected him to come in and be blisteringly quick but not really manage things in such a mechanically sympathetic way, and in fact the opposite was true. One of the strengths he’s always got is that he can take the tyres further than anybody else and, wherever he goes, the team tries to exploit that.“It’s never a matter of application with Kimi – you just plug him in and he just does it. You often wonder [what would happen] if he had the level of application of others with his level of natural skill and tenacity, [but] one thing you can say about him is that he doesn’t bring any politics. The guy is absolutely apolitical.“I think that comes a little bit from not being interested in this world. The thing that is really important to him is going racing on a Sunday afternoon, qualifying, trying to be better than anybody else. And all the other periphery bits do not interest him. “And that’s kind of where he probably differs to 99.9% of the rest of us in F1. You wake up thinking about it, you go to sleep thinking about it – much to the annoyance of my wife! But that’s how we are– constantly striving to do better and be the best. I don’t think Kimi has that. I mean, he likes it here, he comes and drives his car, then he goes home, and doesn’t think about it a great deal after that.” The feeling inside Ferrari was that Massa was establishing himself as the quicker driver, and that messed with Raikkonen’s head. Raikkonen’s form certainly picked up following Massa’s accident. Kimi was on the podium at Budapest, Valencia and Monza, and beat Giancarlo Fisichella’s Force India to victory at Spa. His performances were made to look all the more remarkable by how badly Massa’s stand-ins Luca Badoer (who qualified slowest of all at Valencia and Spa) and Fisichella (who took over after Spa) struggled. But it wasn’t enough for Ferrari, which elected to pay Raikkonen out of the final two years of his contract to bring Alonso on board for 2010. Raikkonen is still guarded about the events that unfolded behind closed doors at Maranello, but says he was keen to get out of F1 in any case. “I have nothing to hide really,” says Raikkonen, who originally never planned for a long career in F1. “That’s how it played out and I was happy at that point to say, ‘OK, that’s fine and I’ll go’. Honestly, somethings happen in life and I didn’t feel bad about it. Obviously, I had a contract, but that got dealt with. They obviously wanted something else at that point, and for me that’s how it goes sometimes. I wanted to do something else anyhow.”

RETURN FROM THE WILDERNESS

Raikkonen was temporarily done with F1, but F1 wasn’t done with him. Throughout his two-year stint experimenting in the World Rally Championship, proposals were made for his return. Eventually, Raikkonen realised he missed the joy of wheel-to-wheel competition so began thinking seriously about a comeback. He held talks with Williams – “I had a meeting with Toto [Wolﬀ]; he came to my home” – and Lotus, before opting to make his comeback with the Enstone outfit.“The year before I got people asking me if I wanted to come back– there was a lot of talk but I felt if I want to come back I needed to have a current team that people will at least try to put the money into,” Raikkonen explains. “I didn’t need the money, but I wanted a car and a team that actually had some chances to do something good, rather than just being there.”Raikkonen enjoyed a superb first season with Lotus. He finished every one of the 20 races held in 2012, was on the podium seven times, and claimed a victory in Abu Dhabi – the infamous GP where he told the team to “leave me alone I know what I’m doing” over the radio while preparing for a safety car restart.Then-Lotus team principal Eric Boullier recalls a driver who was“a bit rusty over one lap” at first, but “brilliant” in the races, despite spending two seasons out of the game.“His capability and racecraft was amazing,” recalls Boullier.“The good thing for him [was] he had Grosjean near to him, and he [Grosjean] was very fast on one lap but not as good [overall].The most amazing thing about Kimi is he has a great understanding.He has a GPS in his head. He’s doing his own strategy, it’s amazing. ”Boullier recalls the 2012 Hungarian GP as the perfect example of Raikkonen’s craft, where the Finn came from the third row of the grid to beat Grosjean (who qualified on the front row) to second by saving his tyres and running longer in each stint. “You just have to guess sometimes what he wants, because he’snot the best communicator in the world,” Boullier adds. “Kimi gets quite stressed sometimes; he needs people who understand him and can handle him.“He is charismatic – actually, his charisma is strong enough to make people fans of him. What would be better would be to have more motivation to push people around him. He’s not as complete as maybe a Vettel, but he is a great driver. Some drivers need support. He’s one of the guys who can do it on his own. He’s incredibly talented.“He’s quite easy [to work with] to be honest – as long as you give him space to breathe and you’re not on his back all the time.

That was key – to let him live his life. ”Reuniting Raikkonen with Slade (who came across from Mercedes to work with Kimi again) also proved crucial in helping Raikkonen get the most from his comeback, and Lotus get the best out of Raikkonen. “When he first came back, he was really enthusiastic,” remembers Slade. “Unfortunately, he got messed around a bit on the salary side of things. That was an annoyance, but in terms of the driving, I felt he was still exactly the same. I don’t think it’s any secret that he’snot a big fan of the F1 paddock scene and the stuﬀ that goes with it.”It seemed those two seasons of F1, racing on the most extremely fragile rubber of the Pirelli control tyre era, also suited Raikkonen’s particular skillset. Often he would score a big result by making fewer pitstops than his rivals, but Raikkonen himself reckons the design of that generation of Lotus – conceived by James Allison’s team around the Renault V8 engine and exhaust-blown downforce – made more of a difference, giving him the “pure front-end” grip he needs to drive well. Whatever, the combination gelled superbly. Raikkonen added eight more podiums to his tally in 2013, winning the first race of the season in Melbourne and finishing second six times. An unfortunate retirement at Spa that year (thanks to a visor tear-off blocking a brake duct) broke an incredible run of 27 consecutive points finishes stretching back to the Bahrain GP of 2012. “He’s relentless,” says Slade. “I’d say Fernando is the closest in terms of achieving consistent results.” But into the latter part of 2013, Grosjean began to establish himself as the stronger and generally faster of the two Lotus drivers,even though he was twice defeated by Raikkonen overall in the championship. Grosjean describes Raikkonen as “the perfect benchmark” and says he learned a lot from racing alongside the Finn. “As team-mates we didn’t talk much – maybe three times in two years!” Grosjean says. “Everybody thinks he doesn’t give a shit; he actually does. He works. Same as Fernando – the only thing he thinks on Sunday is 2pm, how to get the car to where he wants it to go.“Once I had a rear soft spring for a race and Kimi tried it and liked it. He was pushing to get the springs. He was trying even though you think he doesn’t [care]. It was interesting that everybody thinks he [just] comes and drives the car and goes. He actually works. ”Their head-to-head record as team-mates is also skewed slightly by the fact Raikkonen skipped the final two races of 2013 – quitting the team over a financial dispute and electing to have surgery on a long-standing back injury, legacy of a testing accident during his first season in F1 at Sauber. “Unfortunately the whole thing [was] destroyed by people that, in my mind, were just stupid to be honest,” Raikkonen says. “They had a great thing on their hands. “It’s not my business, but I left there purely because I didn’t get paid. Without it, who knows? But then obviously I got the oﬀer from Ferrari. I never had a bad feeling with them when I left, despite people thinking that. You know how people always think it will end in a mess, but they oﬀered me a new deal and I went back.”

WHY RAIKKONEN OWES HIS SECOND F1 CAREER TO RALLYING AND NASCAR

Kimi Raikkonen’s two-year sabbatical from F1 in 2010-2011 led him to try his hand at other forms of motorsport he’d long wished to dabble in but never had the time to do so while fully absorbed into grand prix racing’s goldﬁsh bowl. Having sampled Rally Finland in the summer of 2009, Raikkonen contested most of the 2010 World Rally Championship as part of the Citroen Junior Team, and nine rounds of the 2011 championship with a DS 3 run under his own ‘Ice 1 Racing’ banner. There were many incidents, but also many top 10s. “I always wanted to try the rally stuff, because it looks so difficult,”says Raikkonen. “I wanted to see how it would go and I was happy to have the help from Red Bull to do it. I still think it’s a great sport, it’s so difficult. The problem is that it needs time – experience counts a lot more in rallying than in circuit racing.“In rallying you have to put the same effort in driving, but you [also] have to listen to your co-driver. The most difficult thing is that you have to think about what he says and then react. That takes too much time. When that starts to happen automatically then you can go faster, then it gets easier.I was close to getting to that point,then things happened and I ended up back in F1. ”Raikkonen also travelled Stateside in 2011, to try his hand at NASCAR. He contested the lower-tier Nationwide and Truck series races at Charlotte, qualifying mid-pack for his Nationwide outing.It was this experience that reﬁred Raikkonen’s enthusiasm for circuit racing and accelerated his F1 return. “Without that happening then I would deﬁnitely not be here today,”he says. “I would never have lasted this long if I hadn’t had a few years doing something else, trying things.

MARANELLO COMEBACK

It was during Raikkonen’s financial dispute with Lotus that he agreed a two-year deal to return to Maranello. Initially, it looked as though signing Raikkonen was the perfect insurance policy for Ferrari,which seemed in danger of losing Alonso after failing to carry the fight to Vettel and Red Bull in 2013. But despite publicly criticising the team and being admonished by company president Luca di Montezemolo, Alonso stayed put (for the moment) and he and Raikkonen became team-mates for 2014, as Massa departed for a fresh start at Williams. Raikkonen’s first season back at the Scuderia was a real struggle.The first year of F1’s current V6 hybrid turbo era was Ferrari’s least competitive since 1993. The car was bad, Raikkonen couldn’t adapt it to his driving style, and was demolished in the championship by Alonso, 161 points to 55. Jonathan Neale recalls how McLaren found its suspension development pulled “in two different directions” owing to Raikkonen’s demand for instant steering response from its cars, and Pat Fry, who was Ferrari’s chief engineer when Raikkonen returned in 2014, found his team coming up against an age-old problem – one exacerbated by stiff and hard Pirelli tyres that Raikkonen often struggled to get working for a single flying lap in qualifying. “He has a very smooth driving style – you’ve got to get rid of the understeer in the car,” says Fry. “You can obviously play around with suspension geometries and stuff like that to try and give him the feel,and sort out power-steering and all that stuff. ”The process was made trickier by Alonso’s long-standing presence as Ferrari’s number one driver, which inevitably led the team in a development direction that suited Alonso, before he departed for the ill-fated McLaren-Honda project.“In all the years I’ve worked with Kimi, the year I saw him struggle the most was that first year back at Ferrari,” says his long-time trainer Mark Arnall. “Coming from Lotus, where he had a good front-end on the car and had podium after podium after podium, it’s not like he suddenly forgot how to drive – he just couldn’t get a balance with that 2014 car.” But Raikkonen commanded the faith of technical director James Allison, with whom he worked at Lotus previously, and knew that he would have to play the long game at Ferrari to get back to where he needed to be.“I knew what I was getting into,” Raikkonen says. “With the engineers, I wouldn’t say they were bad – maybe the fit wasn’t what I wanted. It just didn’t work, I suppose, and our car was not very good.

“The front end has to be right there. If it’s not right, it’s not right,unfortunately. When it’s right things are very easy. Even when you have a good year, it’s a little percentage that’s perfect. There’s always something. There’s so many things that you have no control over.“Some days everything goes perfectly fine, and some days whatever you do it seems to be against you, but I’ve been long enough in the sport to know it. People look at you in one race and if you struggle they slag you off, but I’m used to it so it doesn’t bother me too much.“I want myself to do well and I know what I can do. That’s more important for me. Obviously, it’s not nice when you are in a team like Ferrari and the results are not coming, [but] I had no issues with them and I knew that things would turn out to be just fine with time. It just took some patience.” Raikkonen’s form has gradually improved since that annus horribilis, during which time the Ferrari senior management has changed, the technical structure has changed, the identity of his team-mate has changed, and so has his engineering group. Drafting in Dave Greenwood as his race engineer at the end of 2014 has made a massive difference for Raikkonen. “The car has been getting better and better every year, and a big part for me has been the people,” Raikkonen explains. “Dave is for sure one of the greatest guys that I have ever worked with. I would compare him with Slade – I very highly rate them. “For me it’s important that when we do something, everything has to be exactly like it should be. A very easy example: the ride height,if it’s [supposed] to be 20mm, it has to be 20mm; it can’t be 21mm or 19mm.“When everything is ‘close enough’, and you have five or six things like that, we all know in F1 how much difference small things make,then suddenly the lap time is not so perfect anymore.”Vettel has generally outperformed Raikkonen since arriving at Maranello in 2015, but their similar set-up demands and harmonious working relationship is helping drive Ferrari’s development in a single direction, and the Scuderia is now finally carrying the fight to Mercedes in the world championship – though it is Vettel leading the charge rather than Raikkonen. “Of all F1 drivers, he is probably closer to him [Vettel] than any of the others,” says Arnall, who arranged for Vettel to travel with Raikkonen on a private jet when Vettel was first in F1, and recalls Vettel’s rapid progression playing badminton against Raikkonen. “Kimi always liked Seb and I think Seb always liked Kimi. They are good friends – as much as you can be in this sort of environment. “The thing about Kimi is that he is not political at all, so I think to be a team-mate of, he is actually very easy as he doesn’t stir up any shit in the background – he is very transparent. Harmony in the team is something that is massively underrated. It makes a huge difference.”Paired alongside Vettel, Raikkonen’s own performances have steadily improved too, to the point where he has earned three contract extensions, which will keep him in F1 until after his 39th birthday.Questions about his ultimate speed and consistency remain, though, stoked further by occasional criticism from Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne, who has described Raikkonen as an occasional “laggard” in races. But Raikkonen’s pole position in Monaco proves he can still be faster than anyone when things are right, and his pernickety obsession with car set-up and tyre behaviour, plus the deep levels of valuable experience from F1’s tyre war era he can bring to bear in an age of severely limited testing, make him a valuable commodity, even if the price is the odd lacklustre performance.“I think Kimi is one of those guys that if he thought, ‘I just can’t drive one of these cars as quick as I used to’, he would stop,” reckons Arnall. “Kimi brings a shit load of experience,he’s very good with the development of the car, very non-political, an easy team-mate for people to have, so I think as an overall package,he is [still] very good.“I think his belief is that he can still compete near the top. He is very honest with himself – if he didn’t think that was the case, he’d stop.”Many would argue that he should have stopped a while ago, that his continuing presence on the grid, in such a coveted seat, is baﬀling when you consider he hasn’t been definitively quicker than any of his last four team-mates in F1. But what does Raikkonen himself think – does he believe he is as good a driver now as he ever was? “That’s so hard to say,” he replies. “I feel that I can drive as well as 2007 and 2001, or whatever people think has been my best ever [year]. For me, if I didn’t feel that I can drive well, or couldn’t win races or championships, I wouldn’t be here, because I don’t have interest to waste my own time and everyone else’s time. “I value my own time too much to use it on something that I wouldn’t be happy with, or that I wouldn’t think that I can actually do well. Plus, all the other people who would waste their time and money or on something that I just want to be part of. It’s not the most friendly place to be if you don’t really want to be…” That Ferrari continues to place its faith in Raikkonen suggests it feels, beyond the headline results and numbers, that he is still fundamentally among the very best drivers in the world, and that it recognises those deeper layers of style, character, substance and ability that make Raikkonen something more than the sum of his parts. He is enigmatic and mercurial, hasn’t been world champion for a decade, but clearly possesses extra qualities that F1’s biggest team finds are still worth investing in. He may lack the single-minded dedication of some of his peers,he may not be the out-and-out fastest driver on the grid anymore, he may well be too Button-esque in his over-reliance on particular car characteristics to drive quickly. He may not be as adaptable as some of his rivals, and F1 may only be a job to him, rather than an all-consuming obsession – but what’s wrong with being naturally gifted enough at your job that you don’t feel the need to take your work home with you every day?His critics will argue that’s not good enough, that Raikkonen has long outstayed his welcome. If Ferrari hands him another contract extension, they will no doubt be outraged if this enigma is given yet another lease of life. But one thing is for sure, Raikkonen will not care what they think. “I can live my life very happy,” Raikkonen says. “Obviously, my aim is to win races and I’m not happy when I’m not doing well. My biggest issue when I’m getting older is that I care too much. In the past, I didn’t care much. Now, when I have a bad weekend it’s more painful because I care more. Before it was still painful, but I got over it very quickly. “I never tried to be anything else than myself. If people like it, that’s good; if people don’t like it, that’s fine. As long as I’m happy what I’m doing, that’s my only interest. I’m not trying to please people because then I don’t live my life as I should. I live my life for myself. “I always said I have a life and that F1 is just a part of that. It’s not like F1 is all your life and then you have nothing. In my mind, I have the opposite. I mean F1, yes I love it and I enjoy doing it, but it’s not my life. My life is outside of it, and that’s how it should be.”

MARK ARNALL- RAIKKONEN’S LONG-TIME PERSONAL TRAINER

How does the Kimi of now compare to the Kimi you ﬁrst knew back in 2001?

He didn’t really care too much about the PR stuff, he wasn’t interested in that glamour side of it, being famous, I think he would much rather be anonymous! Every time he got in the car all he wanted to do was drive the crap out of it. When I started working with him, I could never imagine him being a father. Now seeing him with two kids is a phenomenal transformation. He is fantastic dad. I think all drivers, everyone learns, go through life and grow; experience teaches a lot. If you look at Kimi, the PR stuff he does now and what the sponsors say, everyone is super happy with him, and he’s got a global following of fans.

He doesn’t give much away in public; is he a shy character?

I think that mysterious side to him is intriguing for people. I don’t think he is particularly shy – the whole fan side of things,he obviously understands Formula 1, knows he is a popular driver, but it is not something he deliberately tries to play to, he just tries to get on with the job and what comes with it comes with it. One area he is very good is with kids. There was a guy who come up to me in Spa once, with this charity, to say this girl has cancer and she’d just love a picture with him or to say ‘hi’, and he spent 25 minutes sitting down and talking to her.

Is he quite a diﬃcult character to work with? He polarises opinion – some people get him and say he is brilliant,others say he is completely closed oﬀ, diﬃcult to work with…

The nicest thing I’d say about Kimi is what you see is what you get. Zero bullshit, zero politics. Kimi’s always been his own character and will always make his own decisions. He’s got a very strong head on those shoulders, so if he doesn’t want to do something, it is really difficult to get him to do it.

It sounds like he is not too demanding, quite independent and knows his own mind.

That is quite an accurate description of what he is like. I think he is probably the opposite to what most people think. If I was to describe Kimi, it would be ‘Mr 110%’. Goes into the gym and goes 110%. If he is lying on his sofa, he’ll go 110% horizontal! When he drives anything, it would be 110%, if he goes out it is 110%. I think that is just the way he lives his life.

The public persona is the ‘Iceman’: cool, disinterested, closed-off. Is he really like that?

In most situations, he is like that, but Kimi is actually a very warm, big-hearted character, and he has got a phenomenal sense of humour, but that is not really something people see. He needs to like people as well. If he doesn’t particularly like being with someone, he doesn’t do anything other than just ignore them.There is no bullshit, if he doesn’t like someone, he is quite straight about it. I think I’ve seen all the different versions of him, but I wouldn’t carry on working with him if I thought he was an arse. I actually really like him. I think he is super genuine, superkind. That is something people don’t really see so much.

#Kimi Raikkonen #raikkonen #f1 humor #F1 News #F1 #Formula One #Formula 1 #sauber #mclaren #Scuderia Ferrari #ferrari #mark arnall #mark slade

69 notes · View notes

lukemalkin · 6 years

Text

What’s going on here? I’m ranking my experiences in the 20 countries I’ve been to so far. Nostalgia is going to drive these explanations a bit further than #20 – 11. From there on, each country gets its own mini expose starting with. I did #10 – France and now it’s…

#9 – Brazil

Visited: Sao Paulo

Brazil at #9 is the first of two quick-fire short trips that completely smashed expectations. I was only there for a weekend, but it made a huge impression.

Sao Paulo was a sort of pilgrimage for me. I’m a lifelong F1 fan, and I grew up watching the old season review tapes and playing the video games. My favourite circuit? Interlagos.

Sao Paulo Brazil is nothing like Santa Cruz Bolivia, so this was the first big city in South American city I visited. Everything was new and unexplored, then I rocked up at the circuit in a country I’d been in for less than 24 hours and I knew exactly. where. I. was. It was such a weird and wonderful feeling. I’d driven this track virtually hundreds of times. It was a weird homecoming, and it was the first F1 race I was watching live. Interlagos is a great circuit to visit for F1 because you get to see pretty much the entire track (F1 fans, I was on the grandstand on the long straight after the Senna Ss). Well worth it.

But Brazil doesn’t take #9 just because a multi-national event visits every year. No, it takes #9 for the series of fortunate events that took place as soon as I arrived.

I posted on facebook asking for Sao Paulo recommendations before I flew, and to my surprise, an American friend I’d met in Tanzania happened to be traveling and couchsurfing at that moment. Did I want her to ask if I can stay with the same hosts if there’s a problem with my hostel? Well, yes I did. Especially when upon landing I found my hostel had indeed canceled my reservation last minute. Brazil basically tore apart my novice-level plans and rewrote my holiday better than I could have imagined it.

I made my way through the concrete jungle to their location and found myself in a cool arty flat with three Brazilians who could not have done more to make me feel welcome. “Oh cool you’re here for the race, yeah come stay with us. We’re catering a party tomorrow night after the race- want to meet us there?”. Yes. Yes, I did. That party turned out the be a hipster takeover of 3..or was it 4 floors of an old flat. Redecorated like an antique shop, roof terrace, my hosts catering up great food for everyone, and everyone inexplicably spoke English. I didn’t get much chance to see the city, but I had some landmarks pointed out to me from the rooftop. I couldn’t have planned it better.

Brazilian friendliness didn’t just run in this crowd either. A local on the metro wanted to make sure that I knew where I was going when I really didn’t think I was giving off a distressed look. The taxi driver to the airport may have weaved all over the road and I have a strong suspicion he was half-blind, but he kept conversation going all the way. The taxi driver in the city, even though we couldn’t speak a word in common, got me where I wanted to go smiling.

I haven’t yet been back, and part of me thinks that it’s because a new holiday would have to do a lot to match this first one. When you consider how massive Brazil is and how it borders the country I live in, it can’t be long until I start thinking about it again.

I’m doing a 30 before 30 challenge. One of the targets was to take my country count up to 20 and I thought I’d mark that with this list of my experiences in the places I’ve traveled to. Here’s the whole list if you’re interested.

Ranking my experiences in 20 countries – #9 Brazil What's going on here? I'm ranking my experiences in the 20 countries I've been to so far.

#brazil #experience #interlagos #Sao paulo #Travel

0 notes

myracingcareer · 7 years

Text

Interview to Novikov by BrendanEvans

Somebodystopme (Damon Michael Novikov) Rating: 4979.415 World Position: 6th Nation Position: 1st 1x F1 WDC, 2x Indy DC, 1x F2 World DC, 1 Trophy of Champions and has finished top of standings in Nation Cup. Races: 3865 Wins: 1888 Race per win: 2.047 Track Records: 571 Hi, first of all and I'm sure you've heard it many times before but Congratulations on taking the MRC F1 drivers title in Season 18. Your driver first entered F1 in Season 16 and you wasted no time establishing him as one of the best in the business. Many people would know of you but few would not much about you. So, if you’ve got the time I’d like to ask you a few questions about yourself as a manager and your driver? Q) Your first two seasons in F1 included 6 wins, 18 podiums and almost 500 points. Can you tell us about your first two seasons in F1 and two Indy titles, and how much of a jump was it technically after spending two seasons dominating the Indy Series? A) I want to begin from the end... Yes, those two seasons in Indy were outstanding, but I was inside, and I know why they were so successful. My first season in Indy was at the age of 24, but my driver was already very strong, strong enough to win the title. His skills were not the best in the series, but there were no other top managers, so I expected easy title, I just had to be stable, and I did it. Second season was a bit harder, because there were more experienced challengers, but I was stronger too. What could be better than win to consecutive titles at the age of 24 and 25... F1 was coming... I had lots of proposals of different teams, the best was from Mercedes. Grandi was completely sure that new car would be competitive and I started to help Mercedes, but Grandi and Mercedes were ignored by community those days, and FBednar sent me a message with the question "Why?". From my side, I asked him about seat in Jordan. This was for luck, I didn't expect they say yes. Then I had a big choice: Mercedes or Jordan. Jordan's car was already good enough, but I promised to drive for Mercedes, but finally I had chosen Jordan and that was the 2nd big luck for me, because Grandi forgot to sign suppliers, and Mercedes was in the bottom of the grid. Jordan had only 3rd best car, behind RB and McLaren, I was very excited about the start of my career in F1, but I knew, that it would be unreal to win the championship. I'd got great communications in my team, and I finished 3rd in my first and 2nd seasons in F1, between McLarens and RB's. That was success, because I had made some stupid mistakes in some races, anyway, I couldn't be better, than 3rd. Technically... It was easy for me, because I was prepared, I'd got setups from different cars and managers, and I'm always analysing previous races, that helps a lot, plus my rain skill was better and that was one of my benefits. But was dreaming about 18th season, because rules were completely changed. ... Q) As we mentioned earlier, in Season 18 you finished with 5 wins, 13 podiums, 17 top-10 finishes, 5 poles, 2 fastest laps and took the title by 34 points which is especially impressive considering Monaco, Montreal and Circuit of the Americas you walked away with 0 points. To begin, how well do you remember the season, and talk us through when you started to believe you would take the title. A) First five races were good, and I'd got victory in China, but after Monaco and Montreal I was thinking that title was gone. In Montreal, as far as I remember, there was my mistake, my setup wasn't saved somehow. I decided to drive from one race two another, and what a miracle, my 2nd part of the season was perfect and awful for opponents. I tried to be conservative, to avoid risks. I counted races until the end of championship, my teammates and compatriots were ready to yell about my coming title, but I said - that is too early, no words until the title. I'd got 18 points ahead of Grosjean before the last race, so he had to win, and, in that case, I should had finished 6th to take the title. And after the collision between Grosjean and Rapido, I believed that I could win the title. I won, having only the 3rd best car in the championship, that was unbelievable! There were other reasons, I had better adaptations for the new rules, and luck, luck, luck. Q) Lesser known facts about yourself, you're a team owner at Audi, a driver for Jordan, and have made driver donations to more than half of the mid field teams in recent years. What motivates you to support so many teams in an area of MRC that is dominated by politics? A) Well, at the very beginning I was the major creator and team manager of BMW, but after the short period of time I understood, that this work is not so interesting for me, and I left managing of the team, I was only shareholder and consultant. I started to work with our national team for A1, and you know the results of my work: this season is my 10th season as president of association, we won 5 titles in a row, and we were on the podium each season... I was needed the best possible team for my driver, because I was wanted to become F1 champion. I'd done that with my Jordan family. They received my full support. Our Russian community was growing, there were a lot of perfect drivers, and we decided, that we need the second team in F1. Firstly, we were in negotiations with Grandi's Mercedes, but the price was too high. We wanted to be middle team, something like BMW, and we started to buy Senna's shares. Nothing personal, we thought it was the easiest team to buy. There was no other way besides the auction. We knew, it would be a long journey. Then we saw 41% Williams shares on the auction and that was our chance, I calculated everything, besides holes in the rules. Than there was a proposal of buying Audi, and finally we did it. Since that, I'm helping Audi too. As for other teams, I have a lot of free money, and I'm happy to help smaller teams to make our championship more competitive and interesting. Next season I will drive for McLaren and they will be having all my support. My seasons with Jordan were absolutely perfect, thanks to Midar, FBednar and for all Czech community. But I think, I deserved to be a bit higher -)) Q) Your driver was created in a golden age were many went on to finish their driver skills at an age well before the drivers began to lose skills. I've not been here long, but have already read many times in the forums that such feats may not be possible these days. Do you believe these rumours, and when it's time to say goodbye to Novikov will you be having another crack and do you think you can achieve the same successes with a new driver? A) -)) Actually, I was the first, who wrote that. Yes, that is true, but situation has changed a bit. I think, that my next "Novikov" would be a least not worse than present. Firstly, yes, my(his) career was outstanding, there were almost no mistakes during my career, but I know that mistakes and I could avoid them with my new driver. Secondly, now I know a bit more, than 15 seasons ago. And thirdly, when I wrote that it would be hard to achieve the same results the game was growing, I mean number of managers and skilled managers. There are lots of skilled managers still, but, as I see, the number of managers is not growing anymore. It would be very hard to achieve same titles, for example, to win F2 World at the age of 23 and Indy at 24, but it would be possible to have all skills 100 at the same time, or earlier. Q) You said yourself, this won’t be your first interview and won’t be your last. If you had to interview yourself, what would be one question you would ask yourself? Is there a story to tell that no-one has touched on yet? A) Wow, lots of questions! -)) Private, for example, favourite colour, film, serial, sport, singer, actor, etc... For now, I ask the simple question. “What is the most difficult thing in MRC?” The most difficult thing is to stay calmness. I mean, that we have our own mistakes, and we have random mistakes. This is very hard psychologically, a lot of players couldn't do anything with it. What helps me? Firstly, I have already achieved all that I wanted a very long time ago. Secondly, I'm always trying to explain every mistake to myself, and if I couldn't do that, I'm getting upset. On the other hand, for example, you may have bad race today, but in an hour, or tomorrow you will have another race, good race, there are a lot of races and that helps a lot too. Thanks man, awesome answers. Appreciate you taking the time with detailed answers :) Just out of interest, what is your fav colour? ;) Red -))

1 note · View note

torentialtribute · 5 years

Text

Sebastian Vettel calls for safety improvements as sport mourns loss of Anthoine Hubert

& # 39 I prefer boring Formula 1 championships forever and bring back Anthoine & # 39 ;: Sebastian Vettel calls for safety improvements when sport mourns loss of F2 driver

Sebastian Vettel says Hubert & # 39; s accident shows that sport must improve safety

Vettel added that the loss of Hubert and Jules Bianchi is a wake-up call for F1

The 32-year-old asked for a detailed investigation into the accident of Hubert

By Philip Duncan, Press Association Sport F1 Correspondent

Published: 18:03 BST, September 5, 2019 | Updated: 18:03 BST, September 5, 2019

Sebastian Vettel said he would prefer Formula 1 boring if it could bring back Anthoine Hubert, the young French driver killed last weekend.

The sport has gathered in Monza still recovering from Hubert's death after 160 mph Formula 2 crash in Spa-Francorchamps.

] The tragedy is being investigated by the FIA. The car of Giuliano Alesi, the driver who designed Hubert before he bumped into the barriers, has since been confiscated by the Belgian police.

Sebastian Vettel tells the death of Anthoine Hubert shows F1 to make safety improvements

Tribute was paid to the French driver who died during a Formula 2 race

Formula 1 legend Jackie Stewart has claimed that drivers taking too much risk during races

Hubert became the first driver to die during a Formula 1 race weekend since Ayrton Senna was killed at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

But Vettel, a senior member of the Grand Prix Drivers & Association, insists that sport must continue to improve safety.

& # 39; Some people think Formula 1 is too safe and too boring, but I'd rather have boring Formula 1 championships forever and bring back Anthoine & # 39 ;, Vettel said prior to this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

& # 39; The accident shows that there are things we can do better and things that we need to improve and that we need to work on. What happened could not be worse.

& # 39; I am a fan of racing in Spa because it is a great circuit with a great history, but we need to take a closer look at the incident and

Earlier this week, Sir claimed Jackie Stewart that Formula 1 drivers take too many risks and expected that the Hubert accident would serve as a wake-up call.

Three times world champion Stewart survived the deadliest era of sport, and it was his campaign that changed security.

Frenchman Jules Bianchi died in July 2015, nine months after his crash at the rain-hit Japanese Grand Prix.

Hubert & # 39; s death cam four years after Jules Bianchi died in 2015 after the Japan Grand Prix

Vettel, 32, added: & (39) He (Stewart) was racing in a terrible time when drivers died more often, so you cannot compare his age with ours. He knew how he felt and he can judge.

& # 39; To some extent, it is part of the motor sport. It's dangerous and that's part of the excitement, but the last few years have been a wake-up call after the death of Jules and now Anthoine. & # 39;

American driver Juan-Manuel Correa, who was racing through Hubert & # 39; s car, was transferred this week from Liège to a hospital in London. He broke both legs and suffered spinal cord damage in Saturday's tragedy.

Lewis Hamilton has a 65 point lead over teammate Valtteri Bottas on his way to the final round of the European season.

The Tifosi expect Ferrari to build on their strong performance at Spa, where Charles Leclerc won his first big win.

Share or respond to this article:

Source link

#Sebastian Vettel calls for safety improvements as sport mourns loss of Anthoine Hubert"

0 notes

eddiejpoplar · 6 years

Text

The Legend of Valentino Rossi is Still Going Strong at 39

Who is the greatest racer of all time? It’s an unwinnable argument that inevitably includes superstars such as Mario Andretti, Tazio Nuvolari, A.J. Foyt, Juan Manuel Fangio, Richard Petty, Ayrton Senna, Sébastien Loeb, and Michael Schumacher, to name just a few. But perhaps the real king is a man known best for his exploits on two wheels rather than four, a motorcycle racer named Valentino Rossi.

At 39, the Italian maestro is still fighting for the MotoGP World Championship, rubbing elbows with rivals at 220 mph. He has also won car rallies, competed in the World Rally Championship, and, perhaps most staggering of all, turned down a Ferrari Formula 1 drive.

It’s a fact lost often to the passage of time, but a dozen years ago Maranello courted Rossi to join Schumacher, who was nearing the end of his reign in the world’s most glamorous racing team. Rossi was approaching his 30th birthday and had been competing on motorcycles since he was 16, so it seemed only natural he might be ready for a new challenge. Both Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and F1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone wanted him in F1 because his rock ‘n’ roll swagger would be a huge boost for the series.

Rossi duly agreed to test for Ferrari, committing himself to a serious program expected to take him full-time into F1 in 2007 or 2008. From 2004 to 2006, he completed more than half a dozen tests with the Scuderia in between his MotoGP duties.

F1 cars are not easy machines to master. They are hugely complicated, a bit like a four-wheeled NASA rocket. At Ferrari’s Fiorano test track in April 2004, Rossi switched from a 240-horsepower Yamaha MotoGP bike, which rode around corners using only mechanical grip via two tiny tire contact patches, to a 950-hp Ferrari F2003 that rocketed around corners via four mammoth slicks and mind-boggling downforce. The change didn’t seem to bother him. To Rossi the game was just the same: an engine, some rubber, a racetrack, and a timing board.

Schumacher was present during that first test, when the Italian was so unprepared that he had to borrow the German’s F1 helmet. When Rossi returned to the pits after his first few runs, the most successful driver in F1 history could hardly believe what he saw when he checked the telemetry. He was stunned, even incredulous.

Rossi’s pace in that debut outing should have been impossible for a rookie who spent his life racing motorbikes, but the man has an almost supernatural affinity for anything involving petroleum explosions, burning rubber, and dancing on the giddy limit. Or as Rossi’s own hero Steve McQueen put it, “twisting the tiger’s tale.”

F1 car, rally car, MotoGP bike—Rossi can make them all sing. And no one else has ever done that, apart from the late John Surtees, the only man to win world championships on two wheels and four. But who else has turned down the chance to drive for racing’s most hallowed name? Rossi recalls the moment he made the decision to spurn Ferrari and four wheels.

“It was on the plane going home from a test at Valencia [in Spain],” he says. “I went there to understand my potential against the other guys. I understood that with a lot of work I had the potential to go fast. But on the plane, I decided: bikes. The main reason was that I was not ready to stop racing bikes. This was the biggest problem.”

Rossi has won seven MotoGP world championships, the most recent in 2009—a long time ago, but he finished second in the championship in three of the past four seasons. This year he sits third in the standings with four races remaining on the schedule. He holds the series’ all-time record for race wins, with 89. He took his first grand prix victory in the junior 125cc category in August 1996, and his most recent success came in the 1000cc MotoGP category in June 2017.

That’s a winning career that spans almost 21 years, a long way beyond Schumacher’s F1 record of 14 years between his first and last victories, especially considering the enhanced risks of MotoGP racing. Bikes have a habit of chewing up and spitting out even the greatest of exponents; riders have no carbon-fiber safety cell, just a leather suit and a helmet.

Rossi is a busy man during the season, contesting 19 MotoGP rounds, from Texas to Argentina to Malaysia to Australia and throughout Europe, as well as testing commitments and public relations duties. His opportunity to race cars is therefore limited to a month or two each winter. His has a soft spot for Italy’s Monza rally, which he has won a record six times. Last December he beat two professional car racers into second and third: factory Hyundai rally driver Andreas Mikkelsen and Audi LMP1 driver Marco Bonanomi. It sounds like an unlikely outcome, but it’s there in the record book, a plain fact as opposed to a myth. In the more distant past, Rossi managed to squeeze a few WRC outings into his motorcycling schedule, finishing just outside the top 10 in the 2006 New Zealand round.

Perhaps we shouldn’t consider such performances unlikely; Rossi has spent his entire life playing with engines and wheels. His father, Graziano, also a motorcycle racer of some repute, scored three grand prix wins in 1979, the year Valentino was born. He was forced to retire three years later due to a head injury, and in retirement he built a racing machine for his son. But it wasn’t a motorcycle.

“When Valentino was 6, I built him a kart,” Rossi senior recalls. “It was an evil thing—the chassis was for a 60cc engine, but I fitted a 100cc engine.”

Thus his son learned to do what he does best—battling on the brink of disaster—by thrashing this homemade device around the local gravel pits. He started racing a few years later, finishing fifth in the 1991 Italian junior karting championship, with the plan to graduate to the European championship the following year.

“Going fast is always what I wanted to do in my life; I think I inherited that from my father,” Rossi says. “I started to understand quite early that I have a special talent to do this. When I raced go-karts, I understood that I have a good feeling to understand what’s happening. But I was not the only one. There were other kids who were faster than me, so I said, ‘This is the way for me, but, f***, I have to improve.’”

There was one problem: Rossi’s father didn’t have the budget necessary to contest the European championship, so Valentino suggested he should race something cheaper: a popular type of racing minibike called Minimoto.

“My passions for cars and bikes were growing up together,” he adds. “But when Minimoto arrived, I began to think that I had a better taste from riding the bike. For sure, the money for racing karts was a problem, and because [my father] knew a lot of people in the bike world, it was more possible for him to find bikes and sponsors.”

Rossi switched full time to motorcycles in 1992, winning the local Minimoto championship at his first attempt. Three years later he was Italian 125cc champion, and in spring 1996 he made his Grand Prix debut. He won the 125cc world title the next year, then the 250cc world title in 1999. He graduated to the so-called class of kings in 2000, when the premier class featured evil 500cc two-strokes, with precipitous powerbands that had a nasty habit of overpowering the rear tire and flicking their rider into orbit.

“Racing 125s was like a game, 250s were serious, but 500s are very serious!” Rossi said during his rookie 500 season. “They’re dangerous: You open the throttle, and you’ve got almost 200 horsepower, so you have to be careful.”

Rossi conquered the 500cc class in 2001, the year before the category switched to 990cc four-stroke machines. He has won world titles on every kind of bike he has ridden, a unique achievement. Every motorcycle racer has his own technique, his own way of taming a motorcycle via throttle control, body weight, and maximizing traction. But different types of motorcycles require very different techniques to extract maximum performance from their engines and chassis. Rossi can swap seamlessly from one bike to another—the 500cc two-strokes he raced back in the day were very different machines to the MotoGP bikes he rides now.

Rossi’s style on any kind of motorcycle seems effortless—finding a tenth of a second here and a hundredth there—but it’s when he has to fight to win a race that he becomes truly spectacular. And this happens both and off the racetrack. He has always been a genius for taking apart his rivals, whether it’s with an apparently offhand remark in a press conference or an ultra-aggressive move on the final lap.

Texan Colin Edwards was Rossi’s MotoGP teammate at Yamaha for several years. “Valentino is very clever, how would you say it … he’s sly,” says Edwards, a two-time winner of the World Superbike title. “He’s very undercover, foxy, sly. He’s not real blatant about some of the mind games, but on the track he’s pretty vicious.”

For certain Rossi has won plenty of races by getting physical—barging into rivals at the last corner or suckering them into crashing out—and he is still as unforgiving as he ever was. But how long can he continue racing motorcycles at the limit? Maybe another year or two, then it will be cars even though he would probably prefer to stick to bikes forever; they hold an endless fascination for him.

“Even now in bike racing, it seems like there is something undiscovered,” he says. “When you drive a car, you are always in the same position, you are stuck in the seat, all you have to do is drive. On a motorcycle you use a lot of body movement, so the rider is more important than the driver in a car. I like driving cars, but for me riding bikes is more exciting and you can express yourself more.

“In car racing, the setup is very important. It is important for the driver to understand everything in order to modify the car to go faster. The setup is also important in bikes, but with the bike you can also modify your style to go faster; maybe you can change the way you move your body into a corner.”

Despite turning down Ferrari, he loved driving the company’s F1 cars.

“The car is f****** incredible, the acceleration is unbelievable!” he grins. “Maybe it’s about the same as a MotoGP bike, but the feeling is more exciting in the car. You feel the acceleration more because you sit lower and because the bike is light and very powerful, but the car is heavier and even more powerful, so you feel the push a lot more.

“With the Formula 1 car the driving becomes a bit unnatural, a bit different from a normal car—it is very important to understand how the aerodynamics work. A MotoGP bike is like a normal bike but lighter, more power, more everything. A Formula 1 car is not like a normal car. You have to understand all about the wings. The braking is very different. Everything is different. It is true that in MotoGP we already have a lot of technical meetings, a lot of thinking. I speak a lot about electronics with my guys, but in cars it is different. With cars, everything is already fixed, so if you do this, you make this lap time, if you add that fuel, you make that lap time. So it is like the driver doesn’t have anything to invent. It’s more like a job. Also, I don’t feel that the F1 atmosphere is close to my lifestyle. It’s a lot, lot more serious. I’m more comfortable in the bike world.”

It makes sense, then, that when Rossi does finally switch to cars, he will most likely swap asphalt for dirt, because he loves rallying so much.

“Driving rally cars is a lot of fun, a lot of sliding,” he says. “In circuit racing the most important thing is precision and perfection. In rally it is control which is most important, so it’s fun. I think it is more wild than motorcycle racing. It’s so different. You’re driving out in the country, with the mechanics working on the cars in the dirt.”

The switch is still at least a few years away: Rossi has already signed to stay with Yamaha’s MotoGP team for 2019 and 2020, so perhaps he will commence his full-time car racing career in 2021, when he will be 42. Catch his motorcycle exploits before he scrapes his elbow through one final apex, because there might never be another racer quite like him.

Photos: Rossi family archive, Ferrari S.p.A, Whit Bazemore

#IFTTT #Performance Junk Blogger 6

0 notes

jesusvasser · 6 years

Text

The Legend of Valentino Rossi is Still Going Strong at 39

“When Valentino was 6, I built him a kart,” Rossi senior recalls. “It was an evil thing—the chassis was for a 60cc engine, but I fitted a 100cc engine.”

Despite turning down Ferrari, he loved driving the company’s F1 cars.

It makes sense, then, that when Rossi does finally switch to cars, he will most likely swap asphalt for dirt, because he loves rallying so much.

Photos: Rossi family archive, Ferrari S.p.A, Whit Bazemore

#IFTTT #Performance Junk WP Feed 4

0 notes