There is no doubt that the 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen is a popular driver. His directness and monotone I don't care attitude is loved by a good majority of F1 fans the world over and that has maybe created this current elephant in the room. No one seems to be asking the question so I feel I have too, and believe me I'm bracing myself because I know passions will run high. Are we currently watching Kimi in decline or was he maybe not as good as we thought?
Due to the battle at the front in Canada it went under the radar that Raikkonen trundled into 10th out of 11 finishes almost a minute down. The biggest surprise about the result is that actually its not a surprise, its kind of how Kimi's season has been going. His season seems to have been full of half collisions, untapped speed and funny little spins when he loses the back end through slow corners at the oddest time. Whilst we keep hearing about how difficult the Ferrari is its fair to say we haven't seen Fernando Alonso doing the same thing. After 7 races Kimi is 51 points behind Alonso (over 2 race wins) and this was billed as the closest team mate pairing of the season.
The question I have to ask is though should we be shocked that Kimi is so far behind, has he really been in top consistent form prior to going to Ferrari? Well the answer to that is a simple no because in their last 7 races together Grosjean beat him 5-2. You do have to take into account his back problems and fall out with the team but lets be honest even the wreckless Grosjean of 2012 was pushing him more than we all expected. So is it just a simple question that Kimi has not been as good as the great Kimi of his 'first' career?
There is no doubt how brilliant the Kimi of 2003 was or the fact that but for a Mclaren seemingly made of chocolate he'd have streaked to the championship in 2005 but when he moved to Ferrari things become a bit murky. Whilst the history books will record that 2007 was his title year we all know that the performances of Kimi Raikkonen will not be whats talked about when the 2007 championship is discussed. In fact it won't even rank in the top 5 of things talked about.
Which brings us to a main sticking point on Kimi's greatness argument - a driver by the name of Felipe Massa. Whilst Kimi beat Massa in 2007 I think a few will be surprised how close they were and lets not forget Massa handed Kimi the win for his title. Massa won hands down in 2008 and was certainly on his way to doing the same in 2009 before his accident. Kimi appeared lack luster and it was only when Massa was injured and Kimi became the sole focus of the team that he seemed to blossem again. By that time the damage was done and he was dropped by Ferrari as we all know. But it was all time to recover right? Sure enough he was back in 2012 and he seemed his old self again seemingly putting in great performances for the Enstone team. Meanwhile Massa was being shown up at Ferrari by Alonso and pretty much had everyone saying he wasn't the same driver as before his crash and shouldn't be in a Ferrari. Which is where now stands the issue we have to look at.
7 races in Kimi is in a worse place compared to Alonso than Massa was this time last year. So does that mean we were all being very harsh on Massa or does it mean we were all over rating Kimi? Is Kimi's current form a driver in decline or maybe, just maybe, Massa has always been his standard anyway and we've all been rating Kimi far higher than he should be because he is so popular.
I'd like to think its a decline or a bad patch as I don't see anything of that driver from 2003 I want too and would love to see it again but I can't help but look at the facts and think maybe Raikkonen was not up there with the Hamiltons and Alonsos like we thought.
Over to you guys to give thoughts and I realise I'll need a tin hat for this one.
Due to the battle at the front in Canada it went under the radar that Raikkonen trundled into 10th out of 11 finishes almost a minute down. The biggest surprise about the result is that actually its not a surprise, its kind of how Kimi's season has been going. His season seems to have been full of half collisions, untapped speed and funny little spins when he loses the back end through slow corners at the oddest time. Whilst we keep hearing about how difficult the Ferrari is its fair to say we haven't seen Fernando Alonso doing the same thing. After 7 races Kimi is 51 points behind Alonso (over 2 race wins) and this was billed as the closest team mate pairing of the season.
The question I have to ask is though should we be shocked that Kimi is so far behind, has he really been in top consistent form prior to going to Ferrari? Well the answer to that is a simple no because in their last 7 races together Grosjean beat him 5-2. You do have to take into account his back problems and fall out with the team but lets be honest even the wreckless Grosjean of 2012 was pushing him more than we all expected. So is it just a simple question that Kimi has not been as good as the great Kimi of his 'first' career?
There is no doubt how brilliant the Kimi of 2003 was or the fact that but for a Mclaren seemingly made of chocolate he'd have streaked to the championship in 2005 but when he moved to Ferrari things become a bit murky. Whilst the history books will record that 2007 was his title year we all know that the performances of Kimi Raikkonen will not be whats talked about when the 2007 championship is discussed. In fact it won't even rank in the top 5 of things talked about.
Which brings us to a main sticking point on Kimi's greatness argument - a driver by the name of Felipe Massa. Whilst Kimi beat Massa in 2007 I think a few will be surprised how close they were and lets not forget Massa handed Kimi the win for his title. Massa won hands down in 2008 and was certainly on his way to doing the same in 2009 before his accident. Kimi appeared lack luster and it was only when Massa was injured and Kimi became the sole focus of the team that he seemed to blossem again. By that time the damage was done and he was dropped by Ferrari as we all know. But it was all time to recover right? Sure enough he was back in 2012 and he seemed his old self again seemingly putting in great performances for the Enstone team. Meanwhile Massa was being shown up at Ferrari by Alonso and pretty much had everyone saying he wasn't the same driver as before his crash and shouldn't be in a Ferrari. Which is where now stands the issue we have to look at.
7 races in Kimi is in a worse place compared to Alonso than Massa was this time last year. So does that mean we were all being very harsh on Massa or does it mean we were all over rating Kimi? Is Kimi's current form a driver in decline or maybe, just maybe, Massa has always been his standard anyway and we've all been rating Kimi far higher than he should be because he is so popular.
I'd like to think its a decline or a bad patch as I don't see anything of that driver from 2003 I want too and would love to see it again but I can't help but look at the facts and think maybe Raikkonen was not up there with the Hamiltons and Alonsos like we thought.
Over to you guys to give thoughts and I realise I'll need a tin hat for this one.
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