F1 | Abu Dhabi GP | Raikkonen: Fire was "nothing Scary"
In second practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen maintains there has been nothing scary about his spectacular Formula 1 engine blast.
Towards the end of the evening session, the Alfa Romeo car suffered an engine failure and was brought to a halt with flames streaming out the rear.
Flames from the back of Kimi Raikkonen's car brought a temporary halt to FP2 #AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/cY1qi7Cr6d
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 11, 2020
A radio message from the pit wall of the Alfa Romeo to Raikkonen urged him to get out of the car as soon as possible.
The team radio cried out, "You have a big fire and get the hell of there quick"
But Raikkonen played down the drama of the occasion despite spending a few seconds attempting to disconnect his radio as he leaped out of the cockpit.
Raikkonen states, "There was nothing scary about it, it's just a shame that it gets some fire and gets all messed up, trying to put the fire down. It's one of those things".
When asked about how much damage the fire caused, the Alfa Romeo driver replied, "I don't speculate and we will see.
For sure there is some damage, hopefully it is mainly bodywork, but we'll see. Obviously it's a different engine and gearbox than we run tomorrow, but yeah, it's just a bit more work for the guys obviously."
Raikkonen finished 14th on the timesheets in the afternoon session in Abu Dhabi, but the day was affected with other drivers struggling to get the best out of the softer tyre compounds.
Raikkonen reconed that having stopped early, his running program was hampered by not being able to compelte a high fuel sprint.
Raikkonen continues, "Things seem to work pretty OK, and obviously the end wasn't great, but we couldn't do many laps on the more high fuel runs," he said. "But that's how it ends up. I think they [the tyres] were pretty OK. There's always things to improve, but nothing odd."
While the failed engine was not perfect, teams use older mileage power units in free practice sessions on Friday, and at the final race of the season these will now get to the end of their lives.
For the reaminder of the Abu Dhabi weekend, Raikkonen will have a fresher engine installed, which will be from his pool, so it wil not incur a grid penalty.
