Ferrari star Kimi Raikkonen says that drivers’ opinions in Formula One meetings rarely result in actual change for the sport.
F1 rules once again came under fire in Hungary last weekend, following incidents about track limits, restrictions on radio communications, and yellow flags. Raikkonen, for his part, complained about Max Verstappen’s antics after clashing with the Red Bull driver.
Verstappen’s robust defending has been slated for discussion in the Drivers’ briefing at this weekend’s German Grand Prix. But the 2007 world champion doubts the discussions will have any meaningful impact in the end.
“There’s always a lot of talk in Formula One, half the time it’s rumours and the other half is something else,” Raikkonen said. There’s nothing wrong with meetings, when there’s a purpose behind it’s fine, then we get somewhere.
“If you guys [the media] were there in the meetings, you’d see it’s been the same things for the last ten years. Most of the time, it’s about blue flags and circuit limits – stuff like that. Obviously now there will be another thing.
“Sometimes it feels that if they’d listen to what we say it would probably change and fix something’s but we’re not the guys that make the rules.
“We say our side of the story and who knows what happens with that. For sure there will be discussions, but let’s see what happens.”
Raikkonen also reiterated his views about what he sees as a lack of consistency in the enforcement of F1 rules.
“The thing is these decisions are very different from race to race, also because we have different Stewards every time and it’s in the human nature that people look at the same thing in different ways.
“My opinion [on the incident with Verstappen] hasn’t changed. It is what it is and it’s fine. I’ve nothing against it, but it should always be the case for similar decisions.
“In all the things, not just what happened with Max and me last weekend. What happened in qualifying, with the 107 per cent rule and also with the double yellow flag rule.
“I’m not saying this because I want to qualify one place up because of another drivers’ penalty. It’s purely because it’s not correct that certain tings should be treated always the same way and that’s why we have rules.”
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Scene at the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix
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