Raikkonen Critical of Marshals?

[ceanndubhain]

I am subscribes to Virgin's F1 text service and received a text today saying that Raikkonen was critical of marshals after a small fire broke out in practice and the marshals did not want to do anything.

I don't know what type of fire it was as the text did not elaborate, however as a new marshal I have been told over and over again that above all you put your own safety above anything else.

I have seen just how dedicated marshals are and the risks some of them put themselves at for the love of what they do. Anyone remember Montoya's spin in Spain??

Assuming the report is true do you feel Raikkonen is right to publicly criticise the Marhsals??

[F.O.F.]

something caught fire because the heat shield came off the exaust or something like that.
as far as i know monaco marshals are highly trained so i'm sure they had some reason for what they did or didn't do.
if he has a legitimate reason to complain then let him but i doubt it

[Pavaroti]

We stand there for the love of the sport, come rain, hail, sleet, snow. Don't get paid, very little thanks, but some cheeky b*****d that gets paid millions of pounds per year, helicoptered to and from races, and someone to wipe his a**e if he wanted, he has got a cheek to critisise anybody, let alone marshals!!!!

[Sheila M]

Perhaps Mr Raikkonen would do well to remember the reactions of the British marshals when Mr Tim Harvey referred to them as "amateur weekend warriors". A public apology did little to appease their sense of outrage.

At the end of the day marshals' actions are controlled by the Clerk of the Course or Race Director. If such senior officials felt it was inappropriate for marshals to deal with the incident, then so be it. No criticism whatsoever should be aimed at the marshals.

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by Sheila M

Perhaps Mr Raikkonen would do well to remember the reactions of the British marshals when Mr Tim Harvey referred to them as "amateur weekend warriors". A public apology did little to appease their sense of outrage.

What happened then?

[Sheila M]

Originally Posted by falcemob

What happened then?

It's a long story - suffice to say those in orange with long memories are not fans of Mr Harvey!

[Eric Ridler]

Originally Posted by falcemob

What happened then?

Jim Bamber created the 'Heroes' characters and hence the reason why it is still going - to remind these 'oiks' which side their bread's buttered!

[Hepatic]

All i've read about it is that the heat shield failed, something caught fire but (in Kimi's words) the marshalls failed to do anything about it and he had to take the extinguisher from them and do it himself. That resulted in more damage than "it should have" and cost practice time. Without TV evidence of the incident it's only his side of the story, but just based on that alone it'd seem a little odd that he had time to stop, get out and do it himself. It's totally impossible to judge on those comments alone tho, and who knows what race control told them to do?

[CombeMarshal]

Was it to much like hard work for Kimi to set of the on board extinguisher!!!

[chezza]

The on board one would have filled the cock pit with foam and thats about it.

[happyhammer]

Would have been funny though.

I recall an incident many years back when Jean Alesi accidentally set his fire extinguisher off and he had to retire from a race with a frozen bum.

[the.cosmic.pope]

Bit harsh ripping into Kimi when we have no quotes from anyone, nevermind anyone important, and dont know what context it was said in. If he said "The marshalls didnt put it out" then what he said was perfectly true. They didnt, he did. But that isnt bashing the marshalls is it?

If he said "the marshalls suck and should have put it out", well thats another case all together. But we dont have ANY quotes at all!

[scorch]

Drivers will always blame somebody else for any misfortune, in this case it was the marshalls.

[Neil Warland]

Looked to me like he wanted them to give it a quick squirt to put out the flames so he could then roll it to a place of safety off the track.

[Nighthawk]

Having just watched race and saw Kimi's incident the marshall did try to put out fire, after some small hesitaition and the car was rolling still which did not help him.
I dont think Kimi has anything to complain about.
Its little complaints and comments from his sort that just helps to diminish the number of marshalls.
Most club drivers i have found have the highest respect for us.
It sometimes makes me wonder is it all worth it !!!!!

[motorsportmarshal61]

im sure he will get a warm welcome well maybe not at the british gp soon lets hope he doesnt catch fire im sure a man/lady in orange will give him a squirt to remember the great orange brigade world wide by

[the.cosmic.pope]

Originally Posted by Nighthawk

Having just watched race and saw Kimi's incident the marshall did try to put out fire, after some small hesitaition and the car was rolling still which did not help him.
I dont think Kimi has anything to complain about.
Its little complaints and comments from his sort that just helps to diminish the number of marshalls.
Most club drivers i have found have the highest respect for us.
It sometimes makes me wonder is it all worth it !!!!!

Kimis comment was not in the race. It was in practice.

And we dont even have a quote, a source, or context. So its fine saying dont flame the marshalls, but i dont really think its fair to go off on a bender at kimi for something we know nothing about...

[Nighthawk]

I'm not as you say going on a bender at Kimi,
I can think of 2 occastions when Kimi has made comments over the marshalls.
Has he got any nice words to say ..!

[brands]

Originally Posted by Nighthawk

Having just watched race and saw Kimi's incident the marshall did try to put out fire, after some small hesitaition and the car was rolling still which did not help him.
I dont think Kimi has anything to complain about.
Its little complaints and comments from his sort that just helps to diminish the number of marshalls.
Most club drivers i have found have the highest respect for us.
It sometimes makes me wonder is it all worth it !!!!!

The incident in question didn't happen in the race but in practice on Thursday. I've seen pictures and it seems the marshall wasn't sure what to aim at and Kimi took the extinguisher that was offered and did it himself.

Watching the race today I thought both the marshalls and Kimi worked well, he stopped in a safe place, between them it was decided to drive across the track to a run off and park and then deal with the fire ( with a SC out the track was clear).

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by the.cosmic.pope

And we dont even have a quote, a source, or context. So its fine saying dont flame the marshalls, but i dont really think its fair to go off on a bender at kimi for something we know nothing about...

Well said. Get a grip people.

Since no one has posted what the quote was or what the circumstances were there's an awful lot of uninformed opinion here. Remember that these F1 new services like to sensationalise everything and make a big story out of what was little more than a throw-away comment.

From Autosport, I assume this is the quote in question

Kimi Raikkonen - 6th: "A bit of excitement for me at the end of the first practice. I went out with less than one minute to go to complete an installation lap and a practice start. However there was a small fire which caused some damage - a bit more than necessary as the Fire Marshalls were hesitant until I took the fire extinguisher myself."

Note that he didn't say that all flaggies are useless, or that all observers should go to specsavers, or even that all marshals are a waste of oxygen. What he said was that the fire marshals where he stopped were "hesitant". From the quote he's not even implying that the same applies at all posts. I'm not sure I'd even class the comments as especially 'crtitical'

[White flag man]

Redshoes,
I totally agree, Kimi Raikonnen, or anyone else, is entitled to make constructive criticisms if he feels it necessary. As long as it is not personal or insulting, which is certainly doesn't seem to have been, then I do not have a problem with it. So lets learn from our mistakes and not take it too personally and stop making personal remarks about him.

[jcbsrule]

how many times have cars had small fires on board and the driver tells us not to use a fire extinguisher on it
Dammed if you do dammed if you dont, springs to mind

[CombeMarshal]

Anyway, with Mr Monatone it would be imposible to know if he was serious or not!!!
I'm feeling sleepy just thinking of him!!

[JABWOA]

I've handed an extinguisher to a driver before. He knew the vehicle and how to gain access to the (small) fire much better than I did. He even thanked me afterwards. (I also had an extinguisher taken off me by a driver cause I was unable to undo the cabletie holding the pin - keywords: twist and pull not yank-yank-yank-burn-burn-burn) Always learning, this one.

[Hepatic]

I've found a clip of the incident in question, doesn't really show enough but here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9TZJ...ren%20Mercedes