Kimi Räikkönen has described Friday’s running at Silverstone for the 2018 British Grand Prix as a day of learning, despite finishing fourth on the timesheets.
Räikkönen trailed his pace-setting team-mate Sebastian Vettel by almost half-a-second in the afternoon’s session as Scuderia Ferrari tried “different things” on Silverstone’s new surface.
“It was a very normal Friday” commented Kimi, “We have been trying different things and solutions and learning as much as we could. For sure there’s still some work to be done, but so far everything is ok.
“The resurfacing of the track made it a bit bumpy, in a few small spots, but all the time you feel it chattering all around the track. It’s a bit funny, but in the end it’s better than it used to be.
“This track has many nice parts and the grip has increased with the new tarmac.”
Away from Silverstone’s new coat of tarmac, focus has been on the track’s third DRS zone, one that sees cars’ drag reduction system open through the fast turn one. Kimi sees little benefit in the new-for-2018 zone however, believing it to be “too tricky”.
“I don’t know if the new DRS zone is creating overtaking opportunities: I think it depends on what your car can or can’t do. I closed the wing during practice, I think it’s too tricky to keep it open and it doesn’t really make a big difference in lap time.
“Now we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”
