Raikkonen: F1 should be made more dangerous - MotorSportsTalk

Kimi Raikkonen believes that changes should be made to Formula 1 to make the sport both faster and more dangerous, claiming that it has become less exciting across the course of his career.

Raikkonen made his debut back in 2001 with Sauber, and has since experienced a number of different regulations, with the latest featuring the smallest and quietest engines of his career.

The V6 turbo era has come under intense criticism since debuting in 2014, and is set to be canned for 2017 when a seismic change to the technical regulations is planned.

Speaking to French TV channel Canal+, Raikkonen said that changes should be made to the sport to make it more exciting and win back fans.

“When I came in to Formula One, it was more exciting for everybody,” Raikkonen said. “It was like really the top, it was a long time ago.

“We would have expected that cars would be faster and more exciting, but there are the rule changes… They try to make it slower.

“I’m sure something has to be done to make it more exciting to people to watch and also to really see the speed and make it a little bit more dangerous. It is part of the game.

“We don’t want anybody to get hurt but it also makes it more exciting.”

After experiencing a difficult season in 2014 upon his return to Ferrari, Raikkonen has improved this year, scoring his first podium finish since the end of the 2013 season in Bahrain.

The Finn has already made his happiness with Ferrari in 2015 clear, and he spoke about this once again in the interview with pundit and former F1 driver Jean Alesi.

“There are many good teams in F1 but Ferrari is still different, it’s Ferrari,” Raikkonen said.

“Obviously, it was very nice to win the championship on the first year. After that lots of things happen but I’m back with Ferrari.

“I think the team this year is the best team I’ve been in, how it’s working, all that atmosphere. Like I said, Ferrari is Ferrari. You would always choose it if you can.”

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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports