Current World Champion Kimi Raikkonen seems a bit upset over the racing conditions provided by his Canadian hosts for this weekends Canadian Grand Prix.
“The car has been good all weekend and was even very good this morning then you go into qualifying and it is quite a joke with the circuit,” said Raikkonen.
“We will see how it is in the race but it is going to be a nightmare. We have 70 odd laps to do and it (the track surface) broke up after two laps in qualifying so it will be interesting,” he said.
“The problem is that black patches, they redo it every year and then it breaks up again,” he said.
“It has been the same over the last three or four years, it always seem to break down and they always say they will fix it - maybe they need to send some people from somewhere else to fix it,” he said.
“I enjoy it here. I have nothing against anyone here but unfortunately the circumstances are always the same. Hopefully they will find a solution and there will be more fun for everyone,” he said.
BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica joined in the chorus of condemnation for conditions at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve:
“The biggest problem is the race track, it is quite a big joke to have these conditions,” he said after qualifying in second place.
“I mean we are in qualifying and after three or four laps it’s breaking down. It’s quite a big lottery…it will be a tough race for sure,” he said.
NOTE to the owners and operators of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve; Not to worry, at the rate at which Bernie Ecclestone is operating and his decided preference for Middle Eastern and Southwest Asian venues that allow for prime-time viewing in the EU the Canadian GP will probably be next on the chopping block.
UPDATE: Here is CGP executive vice president Francois Dumontier announcing resurfacing of the hairpin in underway and the possible reason for the problem.
“This year we chose a new specialist to settle the issue, but obviously conditions related to the technological evolution of the race cars do create some problems.
“Aggressive adhesion of grooved tyres, removal of traction control systems and the actual physical configuration of the hairpin corner itself could all be probable causes for this situation.
Un-huh, thanks for that fine demonstration of spin, now please explain why, as reported by Kimi and various media outlets, the same problem occurred in years previous.
Technorati Tags: Auto Racing, Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber, Canadian Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa, Kimi Räikkönen, Gilles Villeneuve, F1 Rage!
Tags: Auto Racing, BMW Sauber, Canadian Grand Prix, F1 Rage, Felipe Massa, Gilles Villeneuve, Kimi Raikkonen, Robert Kubica
peterg wrote,
I don’t see any other F1 tracks coming apart with the removal of TC.
What a joke, & for Kimi to utter more than his usual “kimidrivefast” he must have been really pissed.
Early 80’s the turbo’s did this at Spa & the event was cancelled, the other track break up that comes to mind was the absolute disaster that was Dallas 83(?).
Link | June 8th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Rage-in-Chief wrote,
That kind of got to me also, to blame, even partially, the problem on having no TC is Pr spin to the max.
If it’s that bad now wait ’til the NASCAR tin-tops invade the place in August.
Link | June 8th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
hayley wrote,
i think kimi is a great driver. he may not be articulate with his words but he made his peace about the awful track conditions. too bad that lewis ruined his race for him. it was looking to be such a great fight. congrats to robert for taking the advantage of the awful situation. great race!
Link | June 17th, 2008 at 7:03 am