F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Arrivabene: Feeling Ferrari trust is helping Raikkonen

Maurizio Arrivabene says Kimi Raikkonen's performance has been boosted by feeling the trust from Ferrari this season.

Raikkonen was comfortably beaten by team-mate Sebastian Vettel in 2015, finishing 128 points adrift of the German in their first season together at Ferrari. This year, however, Raikkonen has been much closer to Vettel's pace and actually holds a five-point advantage in the constructors' championship at this stage.

Arrivabene attributes the improved performance to the environment Raikkonen now has at Ferrari, with the Finn signed for an extra year as early as July this season.

"Well, in my opinion everybody gets surprised when they talk about Kimi’s performance, but there is nothing to be surprised [about]," Arrivabene said. "The guy was a world champion, with us actually.

"Most probably he was suffering a bit in the last few years, but now he can feel that the team is… the part of the team that is working with Kimi is committed to him. He has a very good relationship with Sebastian and that helps.

"It’s just a question for him to feel the trust of the people around him and then he’s going to do his best.  The guy when he has to push with his feet is pushing very, very hard."

Raikkonen again outqualified Vettel in Austin on Saturday, leaving him trailing the German 10-8 in the qualifying head-to-head this season, with Vettel having held an advantage of 15-4 last year.

2017 driver line-ups so far

Silbermann says ... Taylor should take over F1

Romain Grosjean column: 100 races, now for the wins

PREVIEW: 2016 United States Grand Prix

TECHNICAL - Turbulent Jet Ignition: In the antechamber of F1 power

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

Las Vegas GP: Thursday's action in pictures

The opening day of running at the Las Vegas GP was a smooth but chilly…

1 hour ago

Williams' headaches persist into Vegas practice

Williams is continuing to fight uphill battles this weekend in Las Vegas as a knock-on…

2 hours ago

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

3 hours ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

5 hours ago

Hamilton delighted with ‘consistently strong day’ in Vegas

Lewis Hamilton was particularly happy with his opening day of running at the Las Vegas…

6 hours ago

Verstappen stuck with 'draggy' rear wing for Vegas

Red Bull fears that its prospects for this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix - which…

7 hours ago