• Australian Grand Prix - FP2

Raikkonen opts not to run new steering system

ESPNF1 Staff
March 16, 2012 « 'Difficult first day back' for Massa | HRT admits qualifying for the race will be difficult »
Kimi Raikkonen: "It would have been fine to run, but we knew that the base system would be better" © Getty Images
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Kimi Raikkonen has decided not to run a new power steering system on his Lotus after experimenting with it in free practice.

Raikkonen tried a new steering system during first practice but quickly told his engineers to replace it with the old one. It was a lengthily procedure that cost him some track time and he admitted it might take some time to get the steering working as he wants it.

"We tried a different steering rack in the first session," he explained. "It would have been fine to run, but we knew that the base system would be better. The set-up we have now is working well, it may take a while before we get it perfect but we'll make the best of it."

He said the wet/dry practice sessions meant there was little the teams could learn.

"We didn't really learn much from today due to the weather, but it's the same for everyone," Raikkonen added. "Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and we'll be happier after qualifying. I didn't push too hard today; if it's dry tomorrow we'll have a better idea of what we need to do."

Both Lotuses stayed in the garage for a large part of the second session and technical director James Allison explained that the team did not want to risk an accident in exchange for limited data.

"At this time of year your cupboards are not overflowing with spare parts so it would be foolhardy to risk damaging anything unnecessarily. The rest of the weekend is predicted to be dry, so discretion was the better part of valour. This meant we stayed in the box for most of the day. When it did look sensible to venture out on track we did so with both drivers and the E20 looked solid in the second session with a high fuel load."

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