Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Raikkonen felt 'more like a rally driver than F1 driver'

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Kimi Raikkonen expects the grip level to remain low throughout the Mexican Grand Prix weekend, saying he felt like a rally driver during Friday practice.

A combination of a new track surface, medium compound tyres and high altitude which impacts on aerodynamic performance have all led to low grip in Mexico City. Having finished FP2 with the sixth fastest time, Raikkonen says he expects to face tough track conditions throughout the weekend.

“It’s just because it’s so slippery that we’re sliding around and I was feeling a bit more like a rally than an F1 driver sometimes," Raikkonen said. "Obviously it’s going to improve as we do more and more laps the circuit grips up a bit but it will still be a bit more tricky than normal races even in the race.”

With top speeds touching 360kph on Friday, Raikkonen says he would rather be able to go quicker through the corners than in a straight line.

“We knew that it was going to be high speed because of the altitude. The air is so thin, I think everybody is running more or less full downforce but because the air is thin you’re going to go fast but we don’t have downforce.

"It’s fine to go fast but I would rather take the downforce that we normally have in the normal conditions but it’s the same for everybody. It will prove to be a tricky weekend but we’ll try to make the best out of it.”

AS IT HAPPENED: Mexican Grand Prix FP2

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.