Massa: Räikkönen should have re-entered the track more slowly

The British Grand Prix was marked, right from the first lap, by an impressive accident. Kimi Räikkönen, then in the middle of the pack, went too wide at Aintree corner, ending up off track, and in attempting to rejoin without slowing down, ran over an abrupt curb which caused him to lose control of his Ferrari F14-T. He ended his ride against the safety rails surrounding the bridge over the track, and his car then bounced back onto the track where Kamui Kobayashi’s Caterham narrowly missed him and Felipe Massa’s Williams made contact.

For the Brazilian, precisely, the cause of this accident is mainly linked to Räikkönen’s attitude. Thus, he thinks that the Finn should have re-entered more cautiously: « Obviously. Kimi went off the track, he was fighting—I think he may have passed a few cars at the start—and he wanted to come back without losing positions. »

However, he admits some bad luck: « He was unlucky because he was on a bump and lost his car [but] he did that because he didn’t want to lose places. »

« When you are in free practice you let go, but when you are racing and that’s how you try to come back, as quickly as possible, and that’s what he did, […] he lost the car, » he explains to Autosport.

Subsequently, the Williams driver explained that he mostly acted on reflex: « When he hit the wall, he just completely came back onto my car, I didn’t know what to do so I just turned completely to the right and the car went sideways and I hit him. »

The impact of Kimi Räikkönen against the barrier was measured by the team at 47 g, which is 47 times the weight of the driver. The barrier had to be replaced after the race interruption. « I’m glad he’s okay, I heard it was a 47 g impact. That’s impressive: I experienced 27 g in Canada. »

However, Felipe Massa’s Grand Prix did not start ideally: at the start, he was relegated to last position due to a clutch problem. « It’s a shame what happened at the start too, because my clutch didn’t work. All these cars were going very slowly during the formation lap and stopped on the track, and my clutch reached a very high temperature, so it didn’t work. »

At the moment when the red flag was raised, signifying the race’s stoppage, the Paulist could hope, in vain, that he might be present for the second start: « When I saw there was a red flag, there was a chance to bring the car back, but we had a driveshaft problem. There wasn’t enough time, it wasn’t possible to change it. The race was over. »

Valtteri Bottas’s second place demonstrated the pace of the Williams: « The car was flying, and today, we could have both finished on the podium, and we would have been third in the championship. So, it’s really a shame, » concludes Felipe Massa.