Although the FIA’s initially decided to tighter communication guidelines, team radio messages still brought about many interesting and entertaining moments during the last Formula 1 championship. As always, our very own Kimi Raikkonen proved to be straightforward and direct in many of the conversations with his race engineer. We have compiled a list with some of the best messages of the 2016 season regarding the Finnish driver:
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix:
From Kimi Raikkonen – “He got two times the blue flag and then it goes away and he doesn’t slow down, so..”
Brazilian Grand Prix:
To Kimi: “So we are on the crossover and lots of people are stopping for inters now Kimi, we need to think about coming in for inters.”
From Kimi: “OK but I almost spun again. I don’t know how you’re going to stay on the circuit that’s the problem. I have no rear end I’m aquaplaning all the time.”
Kimi: “Understood. We’ll get a warm set, maybe that helps, Kimi?”
From Kimi: “OK but I don’t think we’re going to stay on the circuit very easily if we change now.”
Mexican Grand Prix
From Kimi: “My left-rear is so [censored by FOM] poor it’s unbelievable.”
United States Grand Prix
From Kimi: “Why there was sparks at the rear?”
To Kimi: “K2 is available.”
From Kimi: “No, why was there..”
To Kimi: “There was a gun still attached as you left.”
From Kimi: “OK.”
To Kimi: “Stop, stop Kimi. Stop stop stop.”
To Kimi: “Sorry Kimi we think the rear’s not attached.”
From Kimi: “So what do I do? Switch off or go?”
To Kimi: “Can you come back to the pit lane? Roll back into the pit lane?”
From Kimi: “What you want that I reverse? I can just slide it down. It’s disallowed?”
To Kimi: “Don’t reverse.”
From Kimi: “If I let go the brakes it’s going to slide down.”
To Kimi: “Just let go of the brakes, Kimi.”
From Kimi: “So you want that I switch off?”
To Kimi: “You can reverse back. OK we need to switch off. Switch off, Kimi, we’re too hot, I’m sorry. So switch off Kimi, we’re too hot.”
Japanese Grand Prix
From Kimi: “Come on, move out of the way. They are seriously slowing me down, the lapped cars.”
To Kimi: “Understood Kimi unfortunately there are four or five of them I’m afraid.”
From Kimi: “Yeah when the first one doesn’t pull out of the way it doesn’t help.”
To Kimi: “Understood.”
From Kimi: “Come on I’ve been more than half a lap behind them.”
To Kimi: “We’re on it.”
To Kimi: “OK we’ve spoken to Charlie, he’s on the case.”
From Kimi: “Yeah I mean one lap it took [censored by FOM] one lap to let me past.”
From Kimi: “Come on ask him to move over. Everybody takes one lap, it’s ridiculous.”
From Kimi: “Come on give him a penalty then. It’s a joke now.”
To Kimi: “Charlie is on it. Charlie is on the case.”
From Kimi: “Come on it’s two laps now. If this is not a penalise [unclear].”
To Fernando Alonso: “We need to let Raikkonen past. Behind him close behind is Sainz and Jenson on 11-lap-old options.”
From Kimi: “Finally they let us past, it only took two laps.”
To Kimi: “Let’s get back in the rhythm. Hopefully Ericsson’s a bit easier. Remember Ricciardo’s got to go through all this as well.”
Malaysian Grand Prix
To Kimi: “So we need two seconds to Rosberg, you’re currently 2.4.”
From Kimi: “Yeah I’m going full speed so if he gets close I cannot do..”
To Kimi: “Understood, keep going as you are.”
From Kimi: “Yeah we have a issue with the SOC [state of charge] it doesn’t charge. It’s all the time low SOC.”
To Kimi: “OK the SOC is coming back up, Kimi.”
Singapore Grand Prix
To Kimi (Raikkonen passed Hamilton): “Awesome job, and all while we were having a chat as well!”
To Kimi: “OK Hamilton’s in, push push push.”
To Kimi: “So we are boxing this lap?”
From Kimi: “I’ll let you know, I’ll let you know.”
To Kimi: “We know how close it’s going to be, we need everything perfect.”
To Kimi: “OK we’re racing, we’re racing. Come on, Kimi.”
From Kimi: “What you want me to do on a pit lane? To go faster?”
To Kimi: “No, no. I know.”
Italian Grand Prix
To Kimi: “And we still need you to cool the engine, I’ll let you know when we’re OK.”
From Kimi: “Yeah but I can’t slow down, I’ll lose the tow.”
To Kimi: “Understood Kimi, we just want you to do half a car that’s all, half a car width different.”
Belgian Grand Prix
From Kimi: “Do I have to let the Red Bull past? Because it’s clear his only interest is pushing me off the circuit completely. If I wouldn’t go straight he’s just hitting me.”
From Kimi: “Hey come on this is [censored by FOM] ridiculous now, he’s just fucking turning when I’m going full speed on the right.
To Kimi: “Copy, copy, ridiculous.”
German Grand Prix
From Kimi: “Did you change the front wing because it feels like you didn’t drop it.”
To Kimi: “Confirm, we did the front wing adjust for these tyres.”
From Kimi: “OK.”
Hungarian Grand Prix
From Kimi: “He moved right and then back to left when I was going there. I took my [censored by FOM] front wing off.”
To Kimi: “Copy, copy, keep pushing on the way in.”
From Kimi: “He’s not stopping moving then we will hit each other.”
To Kimi: “Understood.”
From Kimi: “Because I move first so [censored by FOM] don’t move after that. I have nothing that I could do once I decided that I go inside and he turns after that in front of me.”
Austrian Grand Prix
From Kimi: “Come on, blue flags.”
To Kimi Raikkonen: “Copy copy he’s getting them.”
From Kimi Raikkonen: “He is not getting the blue flags.”
European Grand Prix
To Kimi: “Thank you Kimi, thank you.”
From Kimi: “Yeah but now you need to tell him to push because I don’t want these in front of me.”
To Kimi: “He’s been told.”
From Kimi: “If the handle is normal, it is the same like last race, let’s say?.”
To Kimi: “I can’t answer Kimi, I can’t answer, I’m sorry.”
From Kimi: “For sure you can say yes or no.”
To Kimi: “I can’t Kimi, I can’t.”
Canadian Grand Prix
To Kimi: “Take it easy Kimi, take it easy.”
From Kimi: “I cannot take it easy and keep them behind at the same time.”
Spanish Grand Prix
From Kimi: “Sorry guys I tried but once I got close it was so difficult to follow the car through the last corner.”
To Kimi: “Understood mate, we saw you were going for it.”
From Kimi: “Thanks for the good tactics I managed to recover after a pretty awful start again. Thank you.”
Chinese Grand Prix
To Kimi: “You are going to be racing quite a few cars in the next stint, but I know you can do it.”
Bahrain Grand Prix
To Kimi: “Okay great job Kimi, great job, good recovery from a difficult first lap. Good job.”
To Kimi: “Well done Kimi, great great job, well done.”
From Kimi: “Yea thanks, I got a pretty poor start, I think my finger slipped a little bit. It was really odd what happened. But good race and good tyre choices so thanks.”
To Kimi: “Copy Kimi, great job.”
