Scuderia Ferrari Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen has hit out at the current Pirelli wet tyres due to their inability to clear the standing water effectively at Monza. The qualifying session for the Italian Grand Prix, which took place Saturday afternoon, proved to be a true horror show for more than one reason in Italy as Scuderia Ferrari’s struggles were preceded by a two-and-a-half wait for Q1 to restart due to sporadic heavy rain showers:
“It’s stupid to wait many hours for the reason that we don’t have a proper rain tyre that can handle a little bit water, standing water in the straights.” – Kimi Raikkonen said, as reported at the end of the qualifying session by Italian national sports newspaper based in Rome Corriere dello Sport – “It is not good for spectators and any of us. We managed to do it in the end but not the easiest.” – the 2007 Formula One world champion concluded.
“Obviously when we started it was aquaplaning but to be honest we need to get better wet tyres because we wait for two hours, the spectators are out there, for to be honest not an awful lot of water on the circuit.” – the Finnish driver added.
Scuderia Ferrari struggled due to the wet track and Kimi Raikkonen went on to qualify all the way down in seventh place as the Maranello team was clearly not set up for wet conditions, especially on the full wet tyre compound, but will start in fifth position and one place ahead of Sebastian Vettel on Sunday’s grid, given the fact that both Red Bull drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, will have to take Italian Grand Prix grid penalties: “We are not fast enough.” Kimi Raikkonen explained in his simple assessment of Scuderia Ferrari’s problems on Saturday – “From my car, I don’t know about the other car, but I struggle a lot with the grip. Either we didn’t make the tyres work, or whatever it is, it’s very slippery, that’s for sure. Especially with the low downforce, you cannot put enough force in the tyres and it is a never-ending story then.” – Scuderia Ferrari’s Finnish driver concluded, as reported by the Italian media.
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