Will Buxton, who recently joined Formula 1’s in-house team, answered a question from the fans regarding Kimi Raikkonen‘s performance at the 2018 Canadian Grand Prix, as the Finnish driver could only manage sixth place, behind Mercedes and Red Bull. Commenting on weather the 2007 Formula One world champion is lacking confidence, the former NBC pit lane reporter said:
“Canada was a difficult weekend for Kimi. First of all it’s probably important to note that only Vettel had the upgraded power unit in Montreal. As such, Kimi’s besting of his team-mate in the early running should be applauded. It even led to Vettel dismissing any chance he had of fighting for the win at the end of play on Friday.
By far Kimi’s greatest problem this year is his qualifying. At times I’ve argued he’s driving better this year than I’ve seen him since his Lotus days. But how many more Q3 mistakes can the guy make before we take it as the norm?
On a race weekend where grid position proved itself to be everything, Raikkonen’s race chances were over before he’d turned a quarter of his final qualifying run. It has become a theme for 2018 and it’s not the Kimi we know or expect. Come the race, it is now obvious there was really nothing much that anyone could do to advance their position, and so Kimi found himself, in his own words, bored. One wonders how much longer he will continue to do something he no longer seems to enjoy as much as before. Perhaps part of that is seeing the bigger picture outside the sport. Or perhaps we just expect so much from him that when we don’t see him at his potential we seek to find answers that only he can provide.” – concluded Will Buxton, who joins the commercial rights holder, having previously commentated on F1’s feeder series GP2, and more recently was part of NBC’s F1 coverage over in America.
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