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Lotus team Principal Eric Boullier has said that the team cannot afford any further problems after Kimi Raikkonen’s Belgian GP retirement.
“We need to get Kimi back on the podium and consistently. His DNF in Spa was the first he has had with Lotus F1 Team and we certainly don’t want to see any more this season. He’s been on the podium six times so far this year and there are eight races remaining,” said Boullier.
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Raikkonen hasn’t won a race after the opening round victory in Australia, but the Finn emerged from the summer break as the nearest championship challenger to Sebastian Vettel with five second-place finishes.
However, the Finn was forced to drop out of the Belgian Grand Prix after his left-front brake disk overheated and ultimately failed, which proved to be the driver’s first no-score in 28 races.
The driver’s slip in the Belgian Grand Prix along with podium finishes to Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton now means that Raikkonen has slipped to fourth in the standings, 63 points off the pace.
“We all know that the gap to Sebastian [Vettel] is not getting any smaller, but behind Seb the battle is quite tight as we’ve seen over the last few races,” Boullier added.
