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Kimi Raikkonen’s comeback after missing two Formula 1 races thanks to testing positive for COVID-19 yielded his best result in nearly two years, showing the value of his vast experience by making the key call that allowed him to take a rare points finish for Alfa Romeo.
Raikkonen finished eighth, but prior to the late-race rain he was on course for 13th place. Then, after being overtaken by Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly on his 48th lap, he made a late call to pit for intermediates before diving into the pits.
Crucially, the team had informed him earlier in that lap that they were “expecting the rain to increase in one or two laps” but had also told him to stay out. But with Raikkonen now down in 15th place and seeing George Russell and Bottas ahead pitting, he radioed the team to inform them he was pitting.
He then chased fellow intermediate runner Russell’s Williams after the stops and following his initial attempt to pass in the penultimate corner led to him running wide, he pulled off an opportunistic move at Turn 14.
He then passed Sergio Perez through Turn 3/4, after the Red Bull driver made his pitstop, to earn eighth, his best result since finishing fourth in the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix.
“Luckily, we made the right call,” said Raikkonen. “I felt it was too wet already and we were one of the early ones to come in to change tyres. It paid off in the end.
“Our car is normally not the best in wet conditions, but luckily we pitted at the right moment at then we had decent speed in the last couple of laps. I managed to pass some cars, so not too bad.”
Raikkonen made his return at Sochi having missed the Dutch and Italian Grands Prix as a result of COVID-19, with his place taken by Robert Kubica.
He will retire from F1 at the end of the season but showed his determination to add to his points tally, as well as his record for F1 starts of 342, with what is his third top-10 finish of the season.
That experience paid dividends when it came to making the call for intermediates, something that was made more difficult for team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi given he had suffered a radio problem and couldn’t communicate.
“The rain came very late and everything changed very quickly,” said Alfa Romeo head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar.
“We knew that we needed to be ready in terms of the driver call because they are the ones out there and it would be very difficult for us to understand from the pitall what the conditions are.
“We just tell the drivers ‘let us know when it’s too much and we need to box’ and it was a good call from Kimi so we managed to gain positions.”
Even Raikkonen was uncertain while on his inlap, but was able to react to the fact cars directly ahead of him were also making the move.
He was also aware of the forecast being for more rain, and knew that to have a chance of points he needed to gamble.
“When the track is getting wet, you need to rely more on the driver,” said Pujolar.
“The forecast is also important but if the driver is telling you I’m not able to keep the car on track, you need to react. It’s not an easy call because you have only a few laps to the end of the race, it’s only raining on one side of the track so can you keep the car on the track losing four or five seconds or will you destroy the inters on the [dry part of the] track.
“Today it worked well, but another day it will go another direction. You can go from hero to zero very quickly in these kinds of conditions.”
The result keeps alive Alfa Romeo’s slender hopes of being able to catch Williams for eighth in the constructors’ championship.
It still lags 16 points behind having only taken seven points this season.
“We keep pushing, we will do our best every race and fight to the end,” said Pujolar. “Then we will see after Abu Dhabi if we did it or not.
“At the moment we just try to get the best of everything and focus on [getting] the best of ourselves.”
