Driving with Kimi – Kaj Lindström; Back to asphalt

After a break of a few weeks work in the rally car continued with a two-day asphalt test. The first test day we drove a week ago on Sunday in Germany and the second one last Friday in France.

It's nice to go do another tarmac rally. Rally Bulgaria already showed us that asphalt is a familiar surface for Kimi. Although, Rally Germany is a peculiar rally in the sense that the character and the grip of the roads is different on each race day. The first day is driven in the middle of the vineyards of the Mosel valley on narrow, bumpy and quite dirty roads. On the second day we go to the area of Nato's military base in Baumholder where the special stages are uneven and in some places very dirty and slippery roads paved with concrete. The rally's longest stage, the 48 km long Panzerplatten SS, will be driven twice on those army base concrete roads. We went there to test last week just because there are no such roads anywhere else in Europe.

The rally ends with style on Sunday with a super special stage (4.37 km) driven in Trier's Porta Nigra. The area is one of UNESCO's world heritage sites. The old buildings there are magnificent.

We got the car into good shape in the tests. Kimi has his own vision of what kind of a car fits his driving style on tarmac and we believe that we have a car like that available during the weekend.

The roads in Rally Germany are so different on each day that we have to make daily changes to the suspension. This rally is a again new experince for Kimi so our goal has not changed: let's drive to the finish line and avoid mistakes.

In Rally Germany we mainly use the PZero one-type tyre designed by Pirelli for asphalt. We also have a limited option of the same tyre with a softer compound in case the weather suddenly gets rainy or cold. In Rally Germany the weather often changes unexpectedly so based on my experience I believe that we'll use both tyre choices in the race.

This rally wasn't driven last year but when compared with 2008 the special stages are almost the same. There's only one new SS on the route and it's driven on Saturday. There's quite a huge amount of SS-kilometers, 407.31 km.

I'll get back to you in a week after we've made our trip to Germany.

Best wishes
Kaitsu

Source: Kolmeks.fi
Courtesy: Dracaena

Räikkönen takes heart from Bulgaria

Bulgaria was by no means an easy event for ‘the iceman’, but Kimi Raikkonen is encouraged by the lessons learned so far on asphalt

Red Bull driver Kimi Raikkonen has been encouraged by his progress on the Rally Bulgaria, despite losing 10 minutes after missing the final stage of day one as the result of an accident.

Up until SS3 the former Grand Prix champion had been running in fourth place, until a gravelly right-hand corner caught him out. His Citroen went off the road and landed on its roof, but the damage was only cosmetic and the Finn was eventually able to continue under the super rally system, finishing 11th.

Now he feels that the experience gained will stand him in good stead for the three remaining asphalt rallies this year, in Germany, France and Spain.

"Some things were up and down but on the whole it was a good weekend," said Raikkonen. "The most important thing was to get used to driving the rally car on asphalt, which is obviously a completely different experience to driving a Formula One car. I feel a bit more comfortable on asphalt than I do on gravel, but rallying is still a totally different sport compared to racing and we have a lot to learn. Bit by bit the feeling is coming though, and I actually liked a lot of the roads here in Bulgaria: they were quite flowing with a nice rhythm."

Raikkonen will now get back to gravel with a two day test in Finland next week. "It will be nice to compete at home again and also to come back to a rally that I know a bit already," he added.

Citroen Junior Team manager Benoit Nogier said that he was impressed with Raikkonen’s progress on what was only his first World Championship asphalt rally. "If you consider his lack of experience, the times that Kimi has set are remarkable," he commented. "I think he has a lot of potential and this experience will definitely have helped him prepare for the remaining asphalt rallies."

Source: WRC

Driving with Kimi – Kaj Lindström; The asphalt is hot

In the coming weekend one of the season's most interesting and most anticipated rallies will be driven. Rally Bulgaria is a new race for every driver in the series and it's the first asphalt rally of the season. So we finally get to the proper surface: hot asphalt.

Hi all again.

A couple of weeks ago we drove a two-day finishing test which went well. We managed to improve the car's set-up significantly compared to Italy. Kimi was able to try his own ideas with the set-up in peace and with their help the car became different and clearly better and faster. The test was all in all a very positive event and Kimi drove the rally car nicely on asphalt. We both feel really good about taking part in Rally Bulgaria.

On asphalt Kimi is like at home. He likes to drive a car whose behavior is neutral and which slightly oversteers in the corners. The main thing is that the car turns well into corners. In the tests, as well as the test race in Italy, we were in good speed all the time.

During the coming rally we are allowed to use 40 different tires which we have to choose from 40 hard and 20 soft compound tires. In the tests Kimi was able to drive on such a soft driving line that our tires wore a lot less than for example our team mate Sebastien Ogier's tires. Kimi's action behind the wheel was expressionless but extremely efficient: when he brakes he does it once and we accelerate he immediately presses the pedal to the floor. He does nothing in vain. In the tests it was easy to see that Kimi has driven on asphalt all his life: the tires don't become heated and ware as much as usually with rally drivers on asphalt.

So the Rally Bulgaria route is new for everyone. It's possibly also easier to pace note since asphalt roads usually miss those crests after which the road takes a turn into some direction. Asphalt roads are usually more logical in nature than gravel roads: you can usually always see from the car what is coming.

In the asphalt tests it showed from Kimi's driving that he didn't have to think about the basics of rally driving anymore because on asphalt they came from his spine. Therefore there's one variable less for Kimi compared to gravel. We feel confident going into the race.

Rally Bulgaria starts on Friday morning at 9 am and it ends on Sunday at 2 pm. The centre of the rally is the city of Borovets which lies about 100 km south of the capital Sofia. The concentrated service park of the race lies about 25 km away from Borovets at the Dolna Banya airport. There are 14 special stages in the rally, the combined length of which is 354,10 km. All the special stages are asphalt covered: some of them are in better shape on the surface, some in worse.

Let's hope that there's still vacation weather in Finland after a week. I'll get back to you then.

Kaitsu

Source: Kolmeks.fi
Courtesy: Dracaena

Räikkönen ready for action after successful asphalt test

Former Grand Prix star Kimi Raikkonen has been encouraged by an extremely successful two-day asphalt test in the south of France, as he prepares to make his WRC competition debut on sealed surfaces.

Raikkonen, who won the Formula One World title in 2007, has only ever driven his Citroen Junior Team C4 WRC on gravel, with a best result so far of fifth on the Rally of Turkey in April.

However, both he and his team believe that the Finn has turned a corner after running his car in asphalt specification for the first time: a surface he is much more familiar with from his years of circuit racing.

He led for the majority of the Rally della Lanterna, a small practice event that the team undertook in Italy, and he has also been quick in Citroen’s latest asphalt test prior to the Rally Bulgaria at the beginning of next month.

The two-day test took place on narrow asphalt roads close to Mazamet, in the south of France, with Raikkonen and his team mate Sebastien Ogier using the car normally earmarked for Italian privateer Felice Re - who also took part in the Rally della Lanterna.

Observers reported that Raikkonen and Ogier were closely matched on pace, with the Finn appearing the more aggressive of the two. Citroen Junior Team manager Benoit Nogier commented: “We expected Kimi to feel more confident on asphalt, as this is more his background, and we’re very pleased to note that this appears to be the case.”

However, Raikkonen will face quite different conditions in Bulgaria, as the roads are expected to be more broken up in places and notably faster. This should still play to Raikkonen’s strengths as in Formula One he always favoured the quicker circuits, with his favourite track being Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

Source: WRC
Courtesy: MomoD