Kimi Raikkonen yet to look into sprint qualifying format changes

Alfa Romeo

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Raikkonen yet to look into sprint qualifying format changes

The inaugural sprint qualifying event takes place at a much-changed Silverstone weekend

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Monday 12 July 2021 15:02

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Kimi Raikkonen has confessed to not having looked at the weekend format for the inaugural sprint qualifying event at the British Grand Prix.

F1 will use the Silverstone weekend as the first trial run of the sprint qualifying initiative, with qualifying as we know it moved to Friday evening after a single practice session, with a second practice hour slated before a 100km race on Saturday evening.

The main race will then take place on Sunday afternoon to complete the weekend.

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Asked how he was preparing for the trial, 2007 champion Raikkonen replied: "I haven't even looked how it is going to be run so that about answers the question about how's my preparation.

"But it is easy to go into the weekend, see how it pans out and go from there.

"I don't really have expectations for it, we will obviously do our best and whatever the programme is and hopefully do well."

On having an extra race, he added: "It is what it is for us. I don't mind, we obviously haven't done any of that before so I think I will wait and see how it is and if it is good or not, we will see."

Raikkonen says set-up not making difference in qualifying

Whilst Alfa Romeo's race pace has looked sharp across the first nine races of the campaign, Raikkonen has struggled in qualifying compared to team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi.

Asked if his set-up was the key to unlocking performance, Raikkonen responded: "Honestly, set up doesn't make any difference.

"It is not like we have a different set up for qualifying and the race, it is you try to make it as fast on one lap and if the balance is right for one lap it is going to be also good for the race distance and good for tyres and everything.

"I don't really get these stories always that there is a race set up or quali set up, I have never found that out as long as I have been in F1 but maybe it is different for some other teams or drivers.

"I want to do well and it might be better off qualifying better but if you are 15th or 18th, it is not going to make an awful lot of difference. The aim is to qualify as high as I can and so far it hasn't been very good but we try again."