F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Ferrari 'made the best of it' in Brazil, says Raikkonen

Ferrari might have failed to keep the constructors championship alive with its performance in Brazil, but at least Kimi Raikkonen came out of it with a podium to mark his 150th race start for the team.

The Finn admitted that circumstances had turned against them on Sunday, with his team mate Sebastian Vettel suffering a sensor problem that dropped him back to sixth by the end.

Raikkonen himself had a better time of it, although third place was still a bit of a disappointment as far as he was concerned.

"Obviously it is not the greatest of results, but I don't think we could have got more," he offered. "We did not make any mistakes and fought hard

"We can always debate many things, but today we made the best of it," he insisted.

As for the race itself, Raikkonen gave every impression of having enjoyed himself in a prolonged battle for position with fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas among others.

"It was a nice exciting race. We had good battles throughout and the car was working well during the whole race. The speed was there and we had no particular issues.

"It was good. Not easy, but there was some battling, so it was fun. Obviously we hoped for better but not the easiest."

The two Ferrari drivers had been unique in the top ten of being able to start on slower but longer-lasting soft tyres, while those around them began the race on the faster but less durable supersofts. However, Raikkonen doubted that this gambit has paid off for them once the lights went out.

"I don’t know," he shrugged. "The first set of tyres was very good at the start and I was really happy, but then I destroyed them a little bit trying to pass the Mercedes.

"My tyre was good, but it was difficult to pass and it took too long to pass. You cannot replay on other tyres, so we don’t know.

"Once we changed the tyres the car was absolutely fine. We kind of knew that once we pitted we could have gone past them.

"After that the behaviour of the car was still very good, but at that point we were a bit too late, as it had taken too long for us to get there. As for the strategy, we did what we thought was the best for us."

Ferrari had needed to close the gap on Mercedes to remain in the running for the team title, but in the end they didn't come close to pulling it off.

"As for the Constructors' Championship we knew that it would have been difficult," Raikkonen admitted. "We did our best, but unfortunately it was not enough. The best team won this year, that's how it goes."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.

Recent Posts

Ferrari and Mercedes admit to plank changes based on FIA’s TD

Ferrari and Mercedes have both modified their car’s floor element in Las Vegas to comply…

33 mins ago

Las Vegas GP: Hamilton continues on top in second practice

Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on top of the timesheets for the second time in Las…

1 hour ago

2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix Free Practice 2 - Results

Full results from Free Practice 2 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas,…

1 hour ago

Leclerc confident Ferrari ‘has a shot’ at F1 Constructors’ title

Charles Leclerc believes that Ferrari has a genuine “shot” at beating rival McLaren to Formula…

2 hours ago

Komatsu: F1 teams united against Audi 2026 cost-cap offset

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has revealed that nine Formula 1 teams stand in opposition…

4 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in trouble-free FP1

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell led the field in a chilly but trouble-free first practice…

5 hours ago