“Not So F**king Difficult” – Kimi Raikkonen Lashes Out at His Racing Engineer During Portimao F1 Qualifying

There can’t be a race weekend without Kimi Raikkonen giving orders to his race engineer through the team radio rather than the other way around. And the Iceman managed to main this distinct record over the Portuguese Grand Prix as well.

During the qualifying session, the Alfa Romeo driver was quite displeased with his race engineer after he ended up in a corner with nowhere to go amidst a fast-approaching car on a flying lap.

Ultimately, Raikkonen ended up advising the team through radio to wake up, claiming that Alfa Romeo has enough crew to handle such situations, and that could restrain him from falling into such jeopardies.

What did Kimi Raikkonen say?

The radio message starts off with his race engineer warning of Carlos Sainz and Antonio Giovinazzi approaching from behind. And that is where it all started to go bad for Raikkonen.

“Yeah, but now you told me that Bottas is pushing and you slow down. And I had nowhere to go. I got stuck in the middle of a f**king corner. When Sainz came!” he said.

“You have to get it right. Which one is pushing and which is not. It’s not so f**king difficult to see it. We have enough people that we can… Somebody can figure out what’s happening.

With the varying altitude spilled throughout the circuit, visibility can be quite a hassle for the drivers, and teams subsequently had to be the third eye.

A difficult weekend in Portimao for Raikkonen

Raikkonen had a rather poor qualifying outing on Saturday; the Finn only managed P15, as opposed to his teammate’s much impressive P12. But it was all set to get worse on Sunday’s race for the senior Alfa Romeo driver.

Following a decent getaway at lights out, he ended up right on Giovinazzi’s tail as early as lap 2. However, Raikkonen misjudged the effect of slipstream, as he rear-ended his teammate on the main straight.

He consequently lost his front wing, part of which was stuck underneath his car, damaging the floor as well. What’s more, the debris was hindering his front tires from turning.

Hence, Raikkonen had no choice but to drive his car straight onto the gravel around turn 2 and parked his car alongside the barriers. Such was the weekend for the Iceman following a rather strong showing in Imola.

But can Kimi Raikkonen make a strong comeback in Barcelona this weekend and secure his first points finish of the season? Only time will tell.

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