Raikkonen ran with a capped engine in Sepang

According what Marca found out, Kimi Raikkonen had an engined limited to 17,500 r.p.m. for all the race, whereas the rest were using 19,000 in normal conditions. This can sound Chinese, but according to the experienced engineers of the ‘F1 circus’, the loss of 100 rpm in a current Formula 1 engine means a 5 Horse Power loss.. Therefore, the Finnish pilot lost about 75 HP with respect to both McLaren and his teammate, which did not allow him to be on the pace in many phases of the race. In addition, he had to use less down force to gain top speed, which did not allow him to attack the car of ahead under braking.

The last third of the race was his best; he almost managed to catch Hamilton, although compared to Alonso his lap times were not better. “We knew that our engine was not running at one hundred percent, but we had to assure ourselves we finished. We were not perfect meaning we did not take stupid risks “, the Fin said.

The debate is also centered on knowing what would have happened if the decision to change the engine had not been taken. Many think that the position of Kimi would had been the same one in the end if had started from 13th on the grid.

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