Mika Salo has backed his countryman Kimi Raikkonen’s radio attitude en route to victory in Abu Dhabi last Sunday.<\/p>\n
The 2007 world champion’s growing frustration with his engineer throughout his chase for Lotus’ first win of the season culminated in him saying “leave me alone”.<\/p>\n
But Salo, another Finnish driver, insisted Raikkonen’s attitude is actually “pretty normal”.<\/p>\n
“During a race you are so concentrated that you are fully aware of the situation if you’re in the lead and you see a red car in the mirrors,” he told the broadcaster MTV3.<\/p>\n
During that phase, constant radio messages can just be “a nuisance”, former Sauber and Toyota driver Salo added.<\/p>\n
“If the driver wants information, he can ask for it.\u00a0 That’s how it was for me.\u00a0 I asked what I wanted to know,” he said.<\/p>\n
Raikkonen, however, did not criticise his Lotus engineer for trying to feed him information in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n
“It’s the same with all the teams,” he said.\u00a0 “They are just trying to help but if you keep saying the same things two times a minute, I’m not so stupid that I cannot remember what I’m doing.<\/p>\n
“It’s a normal thing, they are just trying to help,” he added.\u00a0 “I know what I’m doing.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Raikkonen is facing some criticism for posing for Lotus’ post-victory photograph in Abu Dhabi with a bottle of beer in his hand.<\/p>\n
At F1’s Arab races including Bahrain, drivers spray non-alcoholic drinks on the podium, for cultural reasons.<\/p>\n
“To publicly celebrate in a Muslim country with an alcoholic beverage is not very appropriate,” said the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo.<\/p>\n
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