Scuderia miss out on second row of grid for the first time in 2015 - but Raikkonen and Vettel don't think they're going backwards
Wednesday 8 July 2015 11:47, UK
Kimi Raikkonen believes Ferrari were blown off-course during British GP qualifying by the blustery Saturday conditions at Silverstone, where they were surprisingly beaten to the second row by Williams.
For the first time this season neither Ferrari car will start directly behind Mercedes after Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas snared third and fourth places on the grid respectively. Raikkonen and team-mate Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, had to settle for row three.
Raikkonen, who only crept in to Q3 with his final lap, says the cross winds that habitually sweep across the Northamptonshire circuit caused particular problems for the SF15-T.
“It wasn’t a very smooth qualifying - I think we could have done better,” said the Finn, who has proved the lead Ferrari driver throughout the weekend so far.
“The main thing is that we went through after Qualifying Two, we got a bit too close, but it’s been quite tricky to get the laps together.
“I think it’s the windy conditions that seem to affect at least us quite a lot. One lap is fine, the next lap is a bit different. It’s not guessing, but it’s hard to put it right.
“The last two new [sets of] tyres in Q3, if I could have managed to put the sectors together we could have been third or something. But we did our best and obviously it’s a bit disappointing to be where we are in fifth. We’ll try to do better tomorrow.”
Although disappointed to lose out to both Williams cars, Raikkonen at least was able to record his first direct qualifying defeat of Vettel since the four-time world champion arrived at Maranello at the start of the season. He started ahead of the sister Ferrari two races ago in Canada, but only after Vettel dropped out in Q1 with a technical problem.
Single-lap pace has been the area in which Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene has repeatedly challenged the 35-year-old to improve but Raikkonen, coming under increasing pressure for his seat for 2016, said outqualifying Vettel didn’t matter to him when the team were not right at the front.
“I’ve always said, I’m not happy about it [qualifying form]– it doesn’t make me more happy when we’re fifth and sixth,” Raikkonen insisted.
“I don’t care if he’s in front of me when we’re in these positions, it makes a difference if we were P1 and P2. Maybe people look differently, but it’s just a number. Tomorrow is the race and we have to try and do better.”
Vettel, whose only victory at the British GP came five years ago, had unusually trailed Raikkonen through practice and admits neither he nor the team delivered the perfect qualifying session, with a mistake on his final lap capping a frustrating day.
“We were simply not quick enough. If you look at the first two cars [Mercedes] they seem to be in a different world. For this track, Williams were very competitive in qualy,” the German explained.
“I think it was a bit of a surprise their [slow] times yesterday, but then again it’s nothing new. If you take the global picture of last year, Williams were pretty normal on Friday and then very strong on Saturday and Sunday. So it seems to be the case this year, but probably a bit too quick for us [here].
“On our side it was not a completely smooth session. I think we could have operated a little bit better plus, in terms of feeling, the car was probably not as good as it was in some of the practice sessions. I was struggling a bit and then for my final attempt obviously tried to make it happen and I did a mistake – and that doesn’t help to improve grid position!”
In addition to the frustration of qualifying behind Williams, who have already beaten Ferrari to the final podium position in each of the last two races, the Italian marque also trailed Mercedes on the Saturday timesheet by one of the biggest margins so far this season – 1.1 seconds.
But when asked if they felt the team was slipping back from the world champions, Raikkonen replied: “No, I don’t think so. Obviously every race is different and conditions keep changing but I don’t see that we’re on the slide back.
“We maybe didn’t get exactly what we wanted today but this kind of layout, these kind of windy conditions, we know it’s not very easy for us. But it’s not like disaster suddenly. We’re not happy to be fifth and sixth, but tomorrow is the race and we’ll try to do better.
“There’s no point to start talking that we’re suddenly sliding back. I’m sure we’re improving but maybe the times didn’t show it today.”
Vettel agreed that Ferrari probably underperformed relative to the SF15-T’s potential on Saturday and expressed the hope that strong race pace could still make it a successful weekend come Sunday.
“I don’t know much [development] they have done for this weekend,” the German said in reference to Mercedes. “I’m sure everyone tries to bring new bits and improve the car whenever they can, but looking at the numbers here I don’t think it is the complete story.
“If you take an average, we are behind the average and it feels also like we didn’t extract the best out of our car in the qualifying session today. So that’s why we’re not happy. I’m not happy in particular but tomorrow there’s the race and we have good pace, so there is still a lot of things possible."
