Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Spa-Francorchamps, 2016

Raikkonen warns Verstappen will cause “a big accident”

2016 Belgian Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikkonen has warned Max Verstappen risks causing “a big accident” with his defensive moves.

The Ferrari driver said he had to brake to avoid hitting the Red Bull when Verstappen defended his position on the Kemmel straight during the race.

“I’m up for a fair battle and close racing,” Raikkonen said to reporters at Spa, “but when I have to back off after Eau Rouge on the straight I have to brake not to hit him because he turns after when I move first time that I think it’s not correct.”

“And unfortunately there will be a big accident because of that.”

Raikkonen criticised Verstappen strongly on the radio during the race, claiming “his only interest is pushing me off the circuit”.

While Verstappen rejected Raikkonen’s complaints the Ferrari driver insisted “if I have to brake from full speed, I haven’t had that with any other driver. If I wouldn’t have braked I would have hit him full speed on the rear when we are in the full throttle. So obviously something is not correct.”

Raikkonen declined to blame anyone for the first-corner collision involving him, his team mate Sebastian Vettel, and Verstappen. “It’s hard to say, obviously I haven’t seen the replay,” he said. “I was a bit stuck between two cars.”

2016 Belgian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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200 comments on “Raikkonen warns Verstappen will cause “a big accident””

  1. FIA has spoiled Max too much………

    1. My thoughts too. Can’t really blame a spoiled kid, blame mom and dad(FIA) for not enforcing the rules.

      1. Maldostappen. He is without a doubt the New Maldonado

    2. What i fail to understand is, we see FIA come out swinging with stop an go, drive threw and crap for MUCH less to other drivers, but for Max, nothing. Its insane, his behavior in front of Ria was dangerous at the very least. Complete lack of rule enforcement.

    3. If the Stewards refuse to punish him, why should he behave?

      I guess he’s just their Golden Boy, and they have high hopes for him….

    4. Yeah, but the penalties are so erratic so we learned not to expect much from the stewards. Maybe if we had the same stewards at each race …
      It has been almost one and a half season since Max crushed into Grosjean at Monaco and then accused Romain of brake testing him; people expect from other usually what they would do themselves. Jenson told Max then that “we don’t do that in F1”. What Jenson meant was “we race hard but we respect each other; we don’t go round wreaking people races on purpose”.
      He should have learned by now. And if he didn’t the people around him should talk to him; and if his dad can not, then Horner should.
      Luckily, today, we talk about wreaking peoples races and not hurting people in crashes.

    5. I agree its so typical the sporting world. Verstappen was clearly at fault, no one will win by allowing him to get away with driving other drivers would be penalized for. I have seen far less punished by other drivers. There seems to be clear favoritism in F1 and its ruining the sport. It was a dumb move by Verstappen, the room was not there at such a tight corner and with Hamilton starting last he should use more sense than to attack so aggressively, which hurt both him, Raikkonen and Vettel. And his response too is in denial and immature, just showing how few is even making him aware that he really needs to learn to discipline himself. I have seen at least 5 drivers the last year or so punished for less and this is not the first time he has done this.

  2. Kimi is spot on!!,

    1. Agreed. Really annoying. It’s not racing, not wheel to wheel, only scaring off opponents.

  3. Poor kimi….

    1. Indeed. It’s amazing how often he’s the victim of incidents like these.

      1. incidents like these = incidents like Max and Vettel

  4. Max finished exactly where he deserved today. Dangerous and shoddy driving from the anointed one at RBR. Great to see RIC completely outclass his teammate today.

    1. Loonie bin max at his best today.

    2. Agree with the first part, don’t agree with the second one. What did RIC have to do all race? No outclassing there, maybe with charms ;)

      1. he outclassed his teammate. That doesn’t imply he performed spectacularly. Logic.

      2. What did RIC have to do all race? – drive the car very fast, without mistakes, without taking stupid risks, without choosing the wrong strategy on Saturday, without messing up his own and others’ races. RIC had it easy today…

        1. exactly, he made it look real easy, while his teammate, who started in front of him completely wrecked his own race and never took any points.

          OUTCLASSED

      3. He kept a silver car behind him at a power track…..unthinkable a few weeks back.

  5. Verstappen on Dutch TV: “I’d rather drive them off the track then let them go in front of me”

    1. hes too much like his dad … how long until the police are called ?

      1. Police won’t be called cause the spoilt brat is FIA’s baby.

    2. I think that’s a quote from Bowser (Mario Kart snes).

    3. Really? He would say that? Can you source if because I think, is hard to believe. Maybe contextual?

        1. @paeschli

          Dutch TV > Dutch language. Oh.

          Mike said a dumb.

      1. It’s true. “They messed up my race in Turn 1; I’m not just going to let them pass; I’d sooner run them off the track.”

        1. Verstappen is stupid if he thinks only Ferrari drivers are to blame:
          He dove in a small gap to recover from his slow getaway, but was in a blind spot for Vettel.
          Vettel gave just enough room for Raikkonen, but Raikkonen needed more since Verstappen was inside.
          So basically, Verstappen was the only one who could’ve seen what was coming, and he didn’t think about playing it safe. He’ll lose a lot of points, credibility and parts if he doesn’t get this.
          The defensive moves from Verstappen are at least at the limit, if not very far over… Once again, it’ll end with Max getting smarter, or Max / another driver in the hospital, if he doesn’t learn some risk-reduction

          1. I don’t understand – it’s ok for Vettel to turn when a car might be in his blind spot, it’s Verstappen’s fault for not anticipating that Vettel might drive into him and getting out of the way? Really??!!

          2. Most sensible assessment of what happened at turn 1 in my opinion. Verstappen is a hot-head, and doesn’t have the experience to realise yet that a race is not won on lap 1, but it certainly can be lost on lap 1!

            Most of the experienced drivers would have backed-off in that situation, taken their medicine for the poor getaway, and rebuilt from there.

          3. @jerseyf1

            Getting hung up on laying blame in a situation like this is pointless, and in my opinion it’s where Max is going wrong. It’s a question of making smart moves, not feeling justified in pointing fingers afterwards. You said it yourself, Max was in Vettel’s blind spot. So knowing that the guy ahead can’t see you, is it smart to try and elbow your way through the corner just because you won’t be in the wrong if you collide? Trying to go three wide on that corner was extremely high risk for a limited reward. The smart move would have been to wait.

            If Max’s fans want him to be champion one day, then they better hope that he stops gambling his entire race result on these single high risk moves (including the sudden blocking maneuvers). He might be exciting with his current approach, but he’ll never be consistent.

          4. This was a repeat of China; while it is easy to assign blame on the red bull or on the outside Ferrari, i see them as a racing incidents since the outside Ferrari and the redbull don’t see each other and both assume there are 2 cars going for the corner. We see that all the time in the races.
            In both cases the accident happened because the guy in the middle had no space to maneuver against the aggressive moves of the cars beside him. Otherwise “middle” cars can turn tighter agains the car on the outside, or slow a bit and take a better line against the car darting on the inside. But when both happen, they are stuck.
            Now, that being said, the dart move over the inside kerbs of “La Source” is unlikely to succeed, so i put that to Max’s youth and “i lost the start i want that place back NOW!!!”; on the other hand Vettel has no excuse; he’s too experienced not to know to leave a little more space especially since it was Kimi on his right. Seb should know by now that it’s far more likely to lose the race(podium in 2016 case) in the first corner than to win it.
            Later in the race, blocking kimi like that on the camel straight, that is all on Max; we should forgive him in our hearts for doing it, since he is young and he was in front of the home crowds, but the FIA should not; they should have penalized him, then and there and they would have done the kid a favor.

    4. @mike From the Belgian sports network Sporza: http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/auto_motor/F1/1.2754445
      He basically says the same thing as mentioned above by @paeschli

      The last quote from the article says: “De Ferrari’s verzieken mijn race in de eerste bocht. Dan ga ik ze niet voorbij laten. Dan rijd ik ze nog liever van de baan. Laat ze maar lekker schelden over de teamradio hoor, dat is leuk voor de mensen thuis voor de tv”.
      Translated: De Ferrari’s destroyed my race in T1. So I’m not going to let them past. I’d rather drive them of the road. Let them complain over the radio, that’s good TV for the people at home.

    5. sunny stivala
      28th August 2016, 22:02

      ‘the FERRARI’S ruined my race in the first corner. then I will not let them past. i’d prefer to run them off the track instead. let them go rage over the team radio”.

  6. Maxonado got what he deserved today: no points

    1. He deserves some penalty points nonetheless.

    2. Nope he didn’t. He should have a race ban at list for all thing he have done this year with his on track moves.He should have been penalized in Hungary and Ros should NOT be punished in Ger cause MAD MAX again moved in braking zones messing us Ros braking point and that actually caused “push” of the track.What he did today at 300km/h+ is at list for one race ban considering previous moves mentioned. Btw F1 was letting Senna,Schumacher and some others to do that decades ago and this is what we have now even with “rules” introduced about defensive driving.

    3. I really don’t get why. He is allowed to defend his line. I think his move at Hungary was a bit shady, but today I did not see anything else than proper defending.

      Verstappen at the start; Verstappen feels it was both the Ferrari’s, I disagree. It was a racing incident. Max has a bad start, but gets in a gap we see people behind him take aswel (I believe Hulkenberg). There is nothing wrong with that line, nor the attack. However, Vettel never expected Verstappen there, so he thought Kimi would have enough space. Kimi had no space, so the end result was all three drivers punished for the situation. That’s racing.

      Kimi’s first overtaking attempt was nothing really special. Verstappen made the corner on the inside. Perez did the same to Massa I believe, however Perez was the overtaker, but the end result was exactly the same.

      Kimi’s attempt at the straight; Dangerous? Yes, but I doubt it is not allowed, racing is by definition dangerous. I always see complaints about drivers who are way to passive when defending, offering themselfs as a sitting duck. Verstappen waited for Kimi to choose his line and anticipated. Since this is not done in the braking zone, this is allowed. We have seen Kimi make similar moves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjjzgb9GIrM It’s defending 101.

      1. Just watched the video there is nothing like today’s move in there… That was an example of professional racers going at it

      2. That video nothing like what Verstappen did. Raikkonen did nothing wrong there.

        No one has a problem if the lead driver blocks a side of the track, the thing is Verstappen blocks a side AFTER the attacking driver has started his move on that side. He should pick a side, block that and then when the corner comes he can move back to the racing line. That’s how it supposed to be done.

        Verstappen should watch that video and learn how to defend properly and morally correct.

        1. I’m not saying Raikkonen does anything wrong, however hoes does catch Button each time. Today we saw the same, but at higher speeds. There also was a bigger speed difference, but that does not mean you can not defend it. It is not a classy move, and Verstappen should not portret his anger during the race, but he is allowed to defend. Kimi felt for the trick, and moved to fast to the inside line, making it possible for Verstappen to defend.

          Overtakes are not supposed to be easy.

          1. In the video Kimi indeed does the the defensive line a few times, at no point is he changing his line *after* Jenson would have made his move.

            The video shows how it is done right, (again) today Max showed how it is done wrong. In the first passing attempt Max gave no space in the corner, forcing Kimi off (and going off track himself). On the second the changed his line after Kimi made the choice. I do not get how Max can get away with repeative offenses like that, perhaps we need another dead driver before FIA wakes up.

          2. The video is completely different. Vestappen is watching the mirrors then reacting. Because the following car will always use slipstream it means that they pull out to attack very late. Because Max only moves after that, it gives the attacker very little time to brake or react to avoid him. That’s dangerous.

            Go and look at Max’s “defence” again, he moves suddenly into the path of a car that is closing.

          3. It’s dangerous, I agree, but it is allowed, because you can defend the line if you do not cause a collision. If Kimi would have hit him, that would have been crossing the line, but he did not. The question “what if Kimi did not break?” is not viable here, because Kimi had time to think and slow down.

            It is defending on the edge. Kimi might be right about Verstappen getting in a big accident if he keeps this up. But as long as he doesn’t he is racing on the very edge of the limits, which is what all drivers are begging for and is ofcourse allowed.

            The video is not thát different at all. I’m not trying to show a similar ‘incident’, I’m simply showing the art of defending. They both do the same, leaving a gap, but when the attacker goes in that gap, they pick him up. Yes, it was at much higher speed and yes, it was much more dangerous in Spa, but the essence of the racecraft shown is the same.

          4. It’s not on the edge, it’s ridiculous.

            If you pass a red light when you are driving, but there’s no crash. Is it ok? No, it is hideously irresponsible. There is no difference here. The action he took was incredibly dumb. It puts himself, other drivers and potentially spectators at unacceptable risk.

            The racecraft in the video was not the same at all. In the video, Kimi defended the inside lines, forcing the other driver to go around him. But there was always room and the driver never had to brake hard or suddenly change direction to avoid a collision. It is categorically not the same to wait until the last moment then cut in front of another car.

      3. LOOOL at Dutch fans who started watching Formula1 from Barcelona 2015.

        1. I watch Formula 1 since 1994, you were probably not even born.

          1. I was most likely born before you have.

            “It is defending on the edge.”

            If you have been watching Formula 1 since ’94 you would have known the basics of defending.

            You don’t EVER wait for another driver going 340KPH to take an overtaking line so you can just blindly turn there and block him. It’s life threatening.

            It’s the Spa kemmel straight we’re talking about.

            “because you can defend the line if you do not cause a collision”

            Just what.

          2. yet it happened to verstappen last year in monaco, by grosjean braking earlier, max had to evade at ~300km/h. max ended in the wall. moral of the story, fia said that was ok… so dont blame max, he learned it there…

          3. @maxv Car data showed that Grosjean had braked later than the previous lap.

          4. Duncan Idaho (@)
            29th August 2016, 4:59

            @ carwars – 2.5 Things
            1. After Grojean did it to him, forcing him to crash, Max thinks its a good tactic?
            2. Not many people look to Grojean for racecraft lessons (unless they want reinforcement of the ‘can’t win spa at first corner’ lesson).

          5. @maxv, as Mike noted, all the evidence pointed to Verstappen causing the crash in Monaco. The GPS data which the stewards referred to showed that Grosjean actually hit the brakes 5m later than he had on the previous lap, so Verstappen’s claims that Grosjean braked 15m earlier than before were blatantly false.

            Verstappen was so obsessed with looking for a way past Grosjean that he missed his braking marker and drove into the back of Grosjean – that was why he was deemed guilty of causing the crash. The thing is, even after he was publicly revealed to be wrong about Grosjean braking early, he still refused to apologise to Grosjean for falsely accusing him of brake testing him.

          6. If you were born before 1982, you sure don’t act like it.

            Last time I’m going in this discussion, yes, a driver can do this when not causing a collision. I’m not saying that that is a rule, I’m just pointing out the border in this situation. We have seen a similar situation earlier this year, Sainz vs Perez at Austria. Only Sainz squeezed him off, where, Verstappen moved when Kimi moved. Yes, it is at higher speed, and again, it is far from classy and very dangerous. I can understand Kimi’s frustration, but he is allowed to do this. Hence the reason why both Verstappen and Sainz did not get penalized. Again, the edge.

            I can understand Kimi’s concern, but I don’t get the fans, who have been moaning about the boringness of F1 and it’s schoolboy drivers. Now we finally see some action at the very edge, and now the driver should be penalized.

      4. There was nothing similar, Kimi made his defense move just before the corner and Button wasn’t really available to overtake, because the straight ended and both had to brake.

      5. Arahones, If you think there was nothing wrong with that line you have never sat in an open wheel racing car, sat a few inches from the tarmac and and going at fast speeds. That gap is an illusion and was only there momentarily and was closing at a fast rate. Max was just too griddy and immature after having a bad start. his experience on this track is so poor that he forgot that even having a bad start, his patience (if he had one) would have paid off at the straight after the eau rouge corner where he would have had a lot of slip stream from the cars in front.

    4. Maldostappen

  7. Indeed. If Max is allowed to continue stretching the boundaries of what is deemed acceptable unchecked, he will inevitably go too far and well, it could be catastrophic.

  8. MAX drove like his age today…

  9. He is right

  10. Kimi is right. Max is a good driver but sometimes he crosses the line while defending.

    1. Jelle van der Meer
      28th August 2016, 15:44

      No line was crossed according to the stewards and I am fairly sure Ferrari reported it to be investigated – they have all the data, all the camera angles and know the rules. The stewards did not penalize Verstappen so no line was crossed.

      1. yeah, I think Horner confirmed that the Stewards did consider investigating but didn’t.

        Who was the driver steward this weekend?

        1. Jos Verstapen?

        2. @bascb, it was Danny Sullivan this weekend.

          1. thanks Anon. Interesting, in the past he was quite strict on defending behaviour I thought.

      2. Inconsistency by race stewards does not mean “no line was crossed”. When Max was at Torro Rosso I had a lot of admiration for the lad but since he moved up to RBR he has not endeared himself to the fans or covered himself in glory, apart from his lucky win he has been less than impressive.
        Many of his moves are questionable and I feel he is being looked after by Bernie and Jean Todt, as a result he has become an arrogant little brat, the trouble is that he has a huge amount of talent but he believes his own publicity and seems to think he is untouchable, if he is not brought into line by RBR and/or the FIA he WILL cause a big accident.
        When someone with the experience and success of Kimi criticises another driver for dangerous driving then I feel there is some justification, especially when you consider how fair Kimi normally is, and if the other report I read about Max’s statement on Dutch TV is true that “he would rather drive someone off the track than let them get in front” the kid needs to grow up and start acting like the professional racing driver he is supposed to be.

        1. He’s very talented, too bad his attitude is not as shiny.

      3. Seratia marcescens
        28th August 2016, 16:23

        Stewards, and commentators alike, are so in awe of ‘the next Senna/Schumacher’, that they are excusing him of some pretty shocking defensive driving.

        Plus, the stewarding is not consistent: Max forced Kimi AND Sergio off the track at Les Combes but no penalty was enforced. Nico got a penalty for the same thing at Hockenheim…

        1. Exactly.

        2. Spot on.

          1. Lol, the only one to blame for the first corner, was crybaby Vettel. Can you blame Verstappen for giving the Ferrari’s a hard time.

            Look back to Senna..real drivers (Hamilton, Max) defend their spot, we have seen to many weak push over drivers these years.

        3. Well said.

    2. I honestly do not see what the hype with this kid is about. “Talented”. Maldonado was fast also but that kinda of speed comes at a reckless cost.

      I HATE when people compare this kid with Senna I find it insulting. Senna did more things then this kid in lesser cars. He comes in and in no time has a top seat.

  11. Whether you like Kimi or not, he’s one of the fairest racers on the grid. He doesn’t go for suicidal moves, and equally, other drivers know they can trust him not to take them out when they’re trying to pass him. So, despite his frustrations after a tough race which should have delivered a better result, I’m inclined to believe his verdict on Max. The pictures seem to back it up.

    1. *cough* Russia 2015 *cough*

    2. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      28th August 2016, 15:47

      I am starting to like Kimi more than I did. I think he is preforming much better than the past 2 years. I thought he had several stupid moves last year though. One of them being on Bottas in Russia.

      I thought that he was very fair on Verstappen this race though. He prevented several contacts that would have been caused by Verstappen as he chose to drive off the track.

    3. Later on the same race, Grosjean defended fiercely his position from Kimi and they touched, but there didn’t seem to be anything wrong from either side and Kimi did not complain. Kimi complains when he believes there was wrongdoing from the other driver and today I agree with him.

      1. Yes, he didn’t complain because he banged into grosean…

        1. Maybe Kimi is just not very good in overtaking?

  12. Max is on his way to doing a maldonado. Sky was the the limit in Spain for both, then downhill ever since.

  13. Yep, that’s what I predicted too. The FIA should hold a meeting with Verstappen before he causes a huge accident, but the FIA favour him over other drivers. Maxtor Maldostappen should be his new name, has a nice ring to it.

  14. Max Verstappen undoubtedly will be a world champion with that talent. Such a shame his attitude is kind of worse than Maldonado.

    1. He reminds me of Marco Simoncelli. I remember watching Super Sic (who I loved) drive and remarking to Mr Pink that he was dangerous and going to cause a big accident one day.

      1. Thankfully F1 cars are safer than moto GP bikes!

  15. I’ve said what Kimi has said long ago. Glad he’d finished in 11th place- a fitting place for a loser

    Because that’s the only thing MV is at the moment. If you can only prevail thru dirty means you’re simply a loser. If you win unfairly that’s not really a victory

    The biggest loser is the FIA though, for doing nothing to stop him

  16. Why do we need to have a serious accident before penalties are handed out to Verstappen?
    I do like close racing, I do like the wheel to wheel stuff. I do like young generation to get a chance.
    But today Verstappen breached the rules of racing conduct multiple times.
    Going off track several times, but maybe it was only in 1-2 curves FIA would enforce today?
    And then Raikonnen was forced off track, as Verstappen did not leave space alongside, despite Raikonnen had his front right wheel just behind Verstappen’s front left.
    And then Verstappen ‘defended’ a couple of times with multiple (and erratic) sideway moves.
    F1 is not karting or F3.
    Love the racing but would hate to see some of our F1 drivers get seriously injured because of such behavior.

    1. +1. Typical Fia waiting for incidents to occur before they act.

    2. I think Perez and Massa showed the way today. Close, tough racing without any silliness. Guys like Webber, Alonso can race side by side into Eau Rouge. That’s close racing.

      1. Guys like Schumaher and Raikkonen can race side by side into Eau Rouge and Senna Esses.

      2. Yeah we have seen good masters at this. In same class of sportsmanship as Webber and Alonso for wheel to wheel through corners’ racing I would add Button, Raikkonen and Mika Hakkinen.

    3. WeatherManNX01
      28th August 2016, 17:38

      Not going to happen until the FIA grows a pair and stop letting themselves be bullied over the rules. They can’t do anything without a team principal or even Bernie bitching about it. And then they do nothing, and they get bitched at anyway.

      I love Formula One, but it is very much a club of entitled, self-important elites who want everything their own ways.

    4. Even in karting you’re not allowed to change direction like that.

  17. If VES is going to have a big accident I’d rather have it happen earlier than later – he can then develop whatever GRO developed earlier in his career and hopefully win a championhip (if he hadn’t won one before said accident, anyway).

  18. Kimi is 100 percent correct. What if He hadnt braked and something like this would have happened?
    https://youtu.be/2kNZzqqdhM0

    1. Then something like that would have happened.

  19. People have completely forgotten about Schumacher and Senna. Shame.

  20. Verstappen is incredibly fortunate that it is usually Raikkonen he finds himself racing against. A younger/less experienced driver may not be so cautious or aware and the consequences could be catastrophic.

    He is a massive accident waiting to happen and his driving today was simply not on.

    1. Well said.

    2. When a ex-champion with 15yrs experience says you’re driving dangerously maybe there’s something to it. All the accolades have gone to Max’s head though and now he thinks he can do no wrong.

      1. I agree that the blocking move was out of order, unfortunately I don’t agree with your statement. A four time champion with nearly a decade’s driving experience also tried to pin the blame on him for a three car crash today too in which he was a victim – even champions try to shift blame and can’t be 100% relied on.

    3. @craig-o: That’s not quite correct. In the last race VES also combatted with VET. What IS true however is that it’s usually Kimi who is complaining about VES’s defending. I think it’s an interesting question: why is it always Kimi? Could it be a possibility that Kimi just is not a very good overtaker?

  21. The grid’s most experienced (and probably as good a driver as Vettel, Alonso & Hamilton) saying something about the youngest driver on the grid should not be taken lightly. This is significant stuff.

      1. Yeah and Vettel can’t take a first corner without ramming his team mate and max. So let’s listen to the German cry on the radio.