Kimi Raikkonen’s resurgent form in Formula 1 has been helped by Ferrari’s decision not to pursue a complicated suspension set-up with its SF71H, suggests Motorsport TV’s technical analyst Craig Scarborough.
The Finn enjoyed a strong start to the season in Australia, qualifying on the front row and being Lewis Hamilton’s main challenger for much of the race before Sebastian Vettel’s pitstop strategy – made effective by a virtual safety car period – helped him jump from third to first.
Scarborough believes that Ferrari’s layout at the front of its car explains why Raikkonen’s campaign started so encouragingly in Australia.
“Ferrari, compared to any other front team, have the most conservative front suspension,” said Scarborough in the latest episode of the Motorsport Show.
“Other people are playing around with the angles of the suspension with these upper arms, lifting them up for aero reasons, and for geometry reasons.
“Ferrari keep that and that gives them quite a good front end.
“And for somewhere like Melbourne that was really helping, and for a driver like Kimi Raikkonen that is really important as well, that they have that confidence in the front end.
“There are lots of factors when you make these decisions and certainly it seems to work for Ferrari.”
Scarborough also suggested the suspension layout could give the team an advantage over rivals who have gone for more complicated designs.
“It is one of the trump cards for Ferrari and you wonder how that will start to play out with tyres as we go to different sorts of tracks, different temperatures and different compounds,” he added.
In the same analysis, Anthony Rowlinson, Editor-in-Chief of F1 Racing, also examines the back end of the car.
“It’s interesting, I think, in the context of what Ferrari haven’t done at the front, that Sebastian Vettel to date has not found the grip he wants for the rear,” said Rowlinson.