Poll Is Kimi Raikkonen in the same league as Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton in 2012?

[downforce]

We know how much sheer pace he used to have in his McLaren days, but is he still returning to full form after his 2 year gap?

After taking back to back podiums and closing in on Victory in the final stages of Bahrain and Spain I would have said he was performing in the same league as Vet, Alo and Ham.

But after a dissapointing 9th and 8th when his rookie teammate looked like doing better in Monaco and took 2nd in Montreal It suddenly looks quite different.

Despite crashing out of 3 races when Raikkonen has finished all of them his rookie teammate only trails him by 2 points.

Obviously he deserves his seat and is a more than competent driver, but is he still in the top flight that the leading trio are?

And will he be performing better next year with a full season under his belt since the break?

 

[Speshal]

I think he's doing an OK job in that car but I don't think he's up there with Vet, Alo and Ham.

Something about former champions returning

 

[MCLS]

I wouldn't say he was, but he's driving better than he did in 2008 and 2009, could easily have had a win or two already this season. I'd put him with the likes of Rosberg at the moment

 

[gethinceri]

He is as good as them in my book, this season he's doing a very good job while learning a new car, tyres and other tech. If he was team mate to any of the team leaders Alonso, Vettel or Button he'd be scrapping like crazy with them.

 

[Fenderman]

Yes.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

I personally don't think he was ever quite in the league of Vettel/Alonso/Hamilton but I like him very much as a driver. I feel there's a fair bit of untapped potential with him.

 

[Jos the Boss]

Fenderman I see what you did there! At this current point in time, no, as a whole, maybe so no from me!

 

[Fenderman]

 

[Mephistopheles]

Of course he is as are many other drivers...

 

[soccerman17]

Not quite but I think by the end of the season he will be there. He has looked fantastic at times but pedestrian at others. I think he will figure out the tyres and how to drive fast and still preserve them and be just as good by the end of the season.

 

[MCLS]

He has looked fantastic at times but pedestrian at others..

I think that sums up his career in one sentence

 

[Mephistopheles]

I reckon if you took the top 10 F1 drivers put them in identical cars (Not F1 cars.) told them to drive round a track for 20 laps each then posted their fastest laps, their wouldn't be a gnats cock between them.

Kimi's driving is not a matter of how great a driver he is, it is a matter of whether he wants to bother or not and that makes him cool.... life should never be taken to seriously, after all the joke is on us...

 

[Incubus]

I don't think he ever was to be honest.
I have nothing against the guy, if anything I find him quite likeable, but my opinion is that his turn of speed was always over-estimated and that people have somewhat a certain perception of the "flying Finn" image we have got accustomed to from drivers from that nation characterisedby spectacular driving styles.
A lot of people go on about his pace in his McLaren days but that was mostly apparent in 2005, a season when the McLaren at times looked half-a-second quicker than anything else on the grid even though it certainly wadn't the most reliable. I seem to remember Pedro De La Rosa standing in for McLaren in one race and promptly grabbing the race's fastest lap in his only outine in 2005....
I also believe the Ferrari to have had the best aero package in 2007, as showed by the fact the races that year where the Ferrari was dominant were also the most demanding in terms of dowforce in fast curves.
Very good driver but in my view never the greatest nor the fastest.

 

[Viscount]

Mephistopheles
Top Gear F1 leader board

1. 1:44.0 – Sebastian Vettel (S17E03)
2. 1:44.3 – Rubens Barrichello (S15E03)
3. 1:44.4 – The Stig II (Ben Collins) [37]
4. 1:44.6 – Nigel Mansell (S07E05)
5. 1:44.7 – Lewis Hamilton (wet & oily) (S10E08)
6. 1:44.7 – Jenson Button (hot) (S08E08)
7. 1:44.9 – Jenson Button (falling snow) (S14E05)
8. 1:46.0 – The Stig I (Perry McCarthy) (not listed on F1 board)
9. 1:46.1 – Kimi Räikkönen (very wet) (S18E07)
10. 1:46.3 – Damon Hill (S06E05)
11. 1:47.1 – Mark Webber (very wet) (S06E10)
12. DNF – Michael Schumacher (Got lost at Hammerhead, car was not seen after this)

 

[gethinceri]

All in the same car?

 

[Viscount]

Identical cars but not the exact same car.

 

[tranquility2k9]

I have felt that this year Kimi has been matched or bettered by Grosjean on several occasions, certainly in qualifying and also in the race too. I know he is on his comeback, but in essence, his position is no different to Grosjean, who himself last drove in F1 in 2009 too.

If Grosjean hadn't of had his accidents then he'd be ahead on points and even still is only 2 points behind. I realise that Kimi has had some bad luck himself though too. But all in all, I'd feel to be categorised in the same league of form as Alonso and Hamilton in 2012 so far, he should be doing better comparatively to his team mate, as both the former are.

As for Vettel, I haven't been as impressed with him. I guess he set high standards in 2011, but since the EBD has gone and his car isn't so dominant, he has looked like a very solid driver, but isn't in the same class as Alonso or Hamilton so far in 2012. He has looked 2nd best to Webber on several occasions this year.

 

[gethinceri]

Interestingly, if you apply the lap time adjustments for track conditions as listed on Wikipedia which is where I guess you've got the times from, Raikonnen's time would be fastest at 1.40.1
Respect due, and illustrates that he could probably be bothered that day.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Well my post was hypothetical and obviously the conditions would have to be exactly the same as would the cars which would make it impossible and so my point is about as useful as this poll or any poll which asks a specific question on drivers abilities, as people vote not with logic but with their allegiances, and then claim that their vote is logical, and for them it is.

Sometimes life is too long, that is why people fill it with trivialities, I know I do..

 

[Mephistopheles]

gethinceri