AFP/Spielberg, Austria


Angry Kimi Raikkonen blasted his Ferrari team after he missed the first cut and qualified only 18th for today’s Austrian Grand Prix.
The 35-year-old Finn said Ferrari changed strategy and sent him out too late with a revised plan.
He was heard to use an expletive on the team radio and later added that he had been given “wrong” information. “I was doing the same thing that I had been told when we went out and I never got the information that the first plan was not even possible and we missed one lap completely.
“I was basically doing the normal thing and I was not told that the plan had changed. The point is—they sent me out too late and we missed one lap and it cost us a lot.”
Raikkonen had looked strong during practice on Friday and Saturday morning and was a likely contestant for a podium finish. Team-mate four-time champion German Sebastian Vettel qualified third.   
He said starting near the back of the field was a setback, but added: “We’ll try to do our best. It’s a long straight, but also there are two very tricky corners. “So, to be in the middle of the pack, the chances of something happening are much bigger,” Raikonnen declared.
Ferrari have no sympathy
for Red Bull exit threats
Ferrari team chief Maurizio Arrivabene made clear yesterday that he has little sympathy with Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz’s threats to quit Formula One if his team remains uncompetitive and cannot win.
The swarthy Italian, a long-serving part of Ferrari who are the only team to have remained a constant in the championship since 1950, dismissed the Austrian’s comments with a withering response. “F1 is like this,” he said. “It is easy to be happy when you are winning four championships or easy to complain when you are not winning any more.
“You could have a couple of years when you are winning and a couple when you are losing and this is the beauty because if everything is predictable it is not a race, it is something different. You have to accept when something is gone wrong and happy when something is going right.”
Ferrari entered F1 in 1950 and have experienced highs and lows including six successive constructors’ titles from 1999 to 2004, but have been without a teams’ trophy for six years. Red Bull entered in 2005 and won four successive titles from 2010 to 2013.
To many paddock observers, it looks clear that Mateschitz was revealing his commitment to winning and putting pressure on Renault, a position he clarified Saturday when he suggested the French company is his only option for 2016, if he stays in F1.
Earlier in the week, he had said Renault’s lack of competitive performance had undermined Red Bull’s motivation and ambition. “We will not endure a third season in these circumstances,” said Mateschitz, following meetings at the Red Bull Ring circuit with F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone.
“Last year, we at least could secure second in the world championship and score three wins, but this season we are nowhere.”