Mark Slade reveals key aspect for which “Kimi Raikkonen is best driver I’ve ever worked with”. Mark Slade on Kimi.

2022 was, among many aspects, also the year of the return of a Formula 1 veteran in terms of technical knowledge. In fact, British race engineer Mark Slade, one of the most experienced track engineers in the recent history of Formula 1, joined the American team Haas.

It is no coincidence that before joining the US company, his career was marked by various experiences in high-level teams such as McLaren, Renault and Mercedes, thus working in close contact with the best drivers of recent decades. Among them, Mika Hakkinen, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher, before reaching the last and current chapter with Kevin Magnussen. Except for the Dane from Haas, all the others have in common the victory of at least one world title, just like another driver not previously mentioned and who, according to Mark Slade himself, was the best he’s ever worked with: Kimi Raikkonen.

In an interview with motorlat.com, the English technician explained the reasons why the 2007 Formula 1 world champion deserves this personal recognition, both in terms of aptitude for work and personality: “For me, Kimi is the best driver I’ve ever worked with on tuning the car – he said – he is absolutely phenomenal. His feeling with the changes was simply amazing: if you made changes, he would tell you what was better or worse. He could tell you: ‘If you can fix this I will go faster, so focus on this’.” – Mark Slade pointed out.

“I think for many it is more difficult to be so specific” – the British race engineer added – “Besides, he also had a sixth sense in understanding when something was wrong. Obviously he would not have been able to specify what it was, but if you looked and did not see nothing at first, you had to check again, and by then something was likely to be wrong. He returned to Formula 1 in 2012 with Lotus-Renault, and was still very fast. It was a really nice time, and it was an honor to work with him. He was just amazing and always working hard.” – Mark Slade concluded.

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