Kimi Räikkönen

Probably one of the coolest drivers ever to grace F1 alongside James Hunt.

His part life-style may not have been to some teams liking in F1 but you can't deny that Kimi was probably one of the best drivers on the grid from 2003-09. He should have won more championships than he did!

Kimi won his one and only F1 Championship in 2007. Kimi won 18 races, 16 pole positions, scored 62 podiums and claimed 35 fastest laps in his time in F1.

Kimi is probably the must unluckiest driver to ever grace F1 and the amount of retirements he had no fault of his own were lots.

Kimi won his first GP in 2003 winning the Malaysian GP and he claimed his last victory in F1 at the 2009 Belguim GP.

Kimi started his F1 career in 2001 driving for Sauber, he then went on to drive for Mclaren and Ferrari before quitting the sport in 2009.

Kimi produced probably the 2 most funniest moments to happen in F1 over the last 10 years, when he said at the Brazilian GP in 2006 when Schumi first retired from F1 and the other one at the Malaysian GP where the race was red flagged and he went to the garage and got into shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops and started eating ice-cream.

Whether you liked him or not you can't deny his talent, he produced one of the comebacks of the past 10 season by starting near the back of the Japan GP in 2005 and went on to win it! Probably one of his best race wins in F1.

Did you like Kimi or Not?

 

[teabagyokel]

He's practically won all the others.

 

[Bushi]

He never won at the Nurburgring,Interlagos and Suzuka aswell.

 

[teabagyokel]

He's won at the Nurburgring, in 2007 and he won at Suzuka in 2006.

He's scored 3 podiums at Spa compared to 8 at Interlagos, and never qualified on the front row at Spa. His worst circuit was probably actually Istanbul, but that's gone.

 

[Bushi]

Oh yeah, the Massa battle afterwards. The 2006 Japanese GP was Fuji if I recall correctly. Oh no, 2006 was where Schumacher blew his engine while in the lead.

Well he only retired 2x in Interlagos and 4x in Spa, while Spa has been 2x off the calender since he joined f1.

I always thought Indianapolis was his worst.

 

[Il_leone]

teabagyokel Kimi won Suzuka 2005 from 17th on the grid after Fisi choked with a big lead

 

[teabagyokel]

Il_leone - I was talking Alonso.

@All - I was just making the point that the difference is probably only in Raikkonen's favour, historically, at Spa.

 

[sushifiesta]

There's a big difference between pre-WDC Raikkonen and post-WDC Raikkonen. Up to when he won the WDC in 2007 he was right up there with the best of them. Since then he's sort of meandered between indifference and car struggles along with (quite frequent at Lotus) glimpses of his underlying talent.

 

[Jen]

He has proved his talent and should not have returned to F1.

Done it, been there, etc - honest to a point.

 

[Il_leone]

sushifiesta he is seemingly more motivated by the money at the moment. The fact he will quit next year does not leave Ferrari in a good position if they want to build for the future

his laid back attitude is probably not what Ferrari need now

 

[downforce]

I know some of the potential reasons for his anonymity this year.

With Raikkonen you could say

-Lack of motivation
-driving for money
-Alonso for a teammate
-car doesn't suit his driving style (not enough front end grip and rear end slide much like 2008)

But might there be another reason. I know the 2 sports Im comparing here are as different as hot and cold but the 2 men involved have very similar issues.

Both men were fantastic in 2013, both men had back surgery to end their seasons and both have been well below their best in 2014 following their back surgeries.

Kimi Raikkonen and Andy Murray. Could it be possible that the surgery explains at least some of his underperformance this year or do you think its more to do with the potential reasons I stated earlier in the post?

 

[FB]

If Kimi isn't performing well as he has a bit of a hurty back he should take a look at some of the videos of Niki Lauda being lifted out of the cockpit of his Ferrari back in 1976 and wonder why he can't drive through it.

In fact there have been numerous drivers who have driven through massive pain in F1 and still performed incredibly well. Johnny Herbert is another who springs to mind. When JH started at Benetton in 1989 he had to use a bike to get around the pit lane as he couldn't walk properly after his accident at Brands.

I think it's simply down to Kimi being to complacent and either not able or not willing to adapt to the new formula.

 

[Bill Boddy]

I bet he's quite willing to take the money though.

 

[teabagyokel]

Looking at his relative fortunes vs Massa and Alonso, it simply suggests that he's at the level of Massa and miles below Alonso. Which would explain why the superior Ferraris were beaten by Hamilton to the 2008 title.

 

[Incubus]

No no no nooooo!

It's just that Massa never got to grips with the Ferrari's front-end brakes that year.

 

[Il_leone]

A waste of space and money grabber - if it was not for the contract

 

[Incubus]

I wouldn't quite go that far though.

 

[Tuscan1969]

No matter how good he has been he's not producing now and so I just cannot see for the life of me why Ferrari would actually want to keep him????

 

[Road of Bones]

To lose one World Champion could be seen as careless, to lose your other one smacks of stupidity...

 

[Titch]

Not when he's as non productive as Raikkonen, I think losing him would be quite a smart move.

 

[RasputinLives]

Ferrari don't want the red face of having to pay off the same driver twice so they are pretending they are really happy with his performance.