The FIA clears Räikkönen and reprimands Lauda

After reviewing Kimi Räikkönen’s accident on Sunday during the F1 British Grand Prix, the FIA reportedly determined that the Finnish driver did not rejoin the track in a dangerous manner, despite reactions from some observers, starting with Niki Lauda. Charlie Whiting also took the opportunity to dismiss the Austrian’s criticisms regarding the repair of the safety barriers.

No dangerous return to the track for Iceman

The three-time world champion of the discipline in 1975, 1977, and 1984, and current non-executive director of Mercedes, had not been kind to Kimi Räikkönen after his off-track excursion: « Kimi made a mistake. He simply went too wide, but why did he come back full throttle and then crash? Fortunately, nothing happened, but it wasn’t necessary. »

According to our British colleagues from Autosport, the telemetry analyzed by the stewards showed that after leaving the track at a speed of 230 km/h, the Ferrari driver slightly slowed down before returning to the Wellington straight. It was his passage over the boundary between the asphalt and the grass that caused him to lose control of the F14-T before hitting the barrier and being thrown into the middle of the pack.

Article 20.2 of the Sporting Regulations states that: « If a car leaves the track, the driver may return, however it can only be done when it is safe to do so and without gaining any lasting advantage. » The FIA admitted that by slowing down more drastically, Räikkönen would not have crashed, but the body believes that any driver, placed in this situation, would have rejoined the track in the manner the Espoo native did.

For Jo Ramirez, former coordinator of the McLaren team from 1983 to 2001, who spoke to our German colleagues from Formel1.de, Kimi Räikkonen should have been penalized: « You can come back carefully but, obviously, he didn’t want to lose time and didn’t slow down: he lost control and there was a big accident. He could have injured himself or hit Massa harder and broken his legs, or worse… but he escaped a penalty. »

He believes that the status of being a Scuderia driver helped protect the Finn: « I thought the driver steward was Derek Warwick, and I wrote to him, but it was actually Nigel Mansell. Warwick replied to me: “You are right; Räikkönen should have been penalized.” This is inconsistency in penalties. Räikkönen is a Ferrari driver and made a catastrophic mistake but got away with it. If it were Maldonado or Grosjean, they would have been suspended for the German Grand Prix. »

In a consultation published on MotorsInside, we asked for your opinion on this incident. Out of 241 voters at the time of publication, 127 of you thought that Räikkönen came back on track too quickly (52.7% of voters), 90 thought that was not the case (37.3%), and 24 did not express an opinion (9.9%).

Rail repair: Whiting sharply criticizes Lauda

The Finnish driver’s accident subsequently led to the replacement of a section of the rail at the impact site. The one-hour interruption did not sit well with Niki Lauda, who made his opinion known once again: « Why did we stop the race for an hour to repair a rail? There could have been a quicker fix, and [that] might mean placing some tires in front. There are other ways to do that. »

« They overprotect F1; being too cautious, over-controlling, it drives me crazy. And this small rail problem is another example. There are too many people involved in making F1 as safe as the road, which is bad. […] No other car would have hit that same rail. The delays we take, protecting the guys, not crossing the white line, being 4 seconds behind… it’s all bad and it has to stop. I talked about this with Bernie and he completely agrees. We need to return to normal racing, » he ranted after the Grand Prix.

Charlie Whiting, the FIA delegate and race director, apparently did not appreciate Lauda’s remarks: « Niki has clearly demonstrated that he knows nothing about track safety, and his comments are not very helpful. It is ridiculous to say that the chances of another car hitting the barrier in the same place are unlikely. If one car can do it, then another certainly can. »

« If you think back to Felipe Massa’s accident in Hungary in 2009, you could have said it would have been unlikely for another driver to be struck on the head by a spring, and we wouldn’t have the enhanced visor protection we have now, » he concluded.