Stefano Domenicali about Kimi Räikkönen
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The author doesn’t seemed to be a happy.
http://sashaisnotmyname.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/stefano-domenicali-about-kimi-raikkonen/
Well, there isn’t much news in that…
We all know why Ferrari dumped Kimi. And what this writer thinks about it, is just an opinion of an F1 follower. Maybe a bitter Kimi fan.
The way Alonso performed this year answers the question about if Ferrari was right or not.
Actually firing Raikkonen was probably the worst thing Ferrari did for their 2010 hopes.
As much as Kimi’s motivation and abilities had slumped, give him a good car and he’d still do the job for you. It can’t have been fun driving that dog of a car around the world for a year. It turned a strange 2008 slump into a permanent feature.
The problem is the way Alonso was presented. For all the world to see, here was Ferrari’s new man, the chosen one to bring them back the world championship. Trouble was that Felipe Massa was also paying attention. The team had gone from an outpouring of emotion at his accident, constantly saying how they wanted him back with them soon, only to have a new favourite, the guy who had defeated Ferrari time and time again no less.
Now, even at full speed Massa wasn’t going to be a threat to Alonso over the whole season. But in individual races, he would have been a threat to others. Button may have taken points off of Hamilton in China, but he took them off of Hamilton’s rivals throughout the season. Massa barely did any of that. Maybe Kimi would have only got 90% of Alonso’s points tally (he certainly wouldn’t had the shockers of Valencia and Silverstone), but a competitive Massa could have made up for that.
“he certainly wouldn’t had the shockers of Valencia and Silverstone”
Valencia wasn’t a shocker it was simply appauling luck that the SC came out as Hamilton and Alonso were going past the pit exit, Alonso had good pace all weekend it wasn’t a shocker. As for Silverstone the Ferrari had a terrible get away and then the timing of the SC destroyed his race after when combined with a very controversial penalty. Those two race were terrible results but they were mostly due to circumstances rather than any error on Alonso’s part.
If you want to pick out errors Alonso made you could say China and Monaco, but Raikkonen hasn’t exactly gto an impecable record either with errors such as Monaco 2007 and a error strewn Melbourne 2008 to name just two.
As for the article it really says nothing knew we all know why Kimi was replaced, and I think in the second half of the season the remarkable run of form from Alonso showed exaclty why he was hired.
I say it was a shocker because of the way he fell apart after SafetyCarLineGate. Raikkonen would never have succumbed to that and maybe Kobayashi wouldn’t have caught him in the end. Could have ended up being significant for the WDC.
I don’t see that Alonso’s post-Silverstone form proves anything. Raikkonen would have beat Massa or been let past by him at Hockenheim, Kimi was 2nd in Hungary in 2009, he would have done much better than Alonso at Spa, Italy could have seen another victory, admittedly Alonso’s Singapore drive was something special but I see no reason to think Kimi couldn’t have replicated Alonso’s results for the remainder of the season.
Yeh, I know I was one of the chief critics of Raikkonen in 2009 but he could have proved us all wrong.
All three deserve a drive for Ferrari, but the seats are only two. Ferrari didn’t fire Massa because that wouldn’t have been fair considering his accident and decided for Raikkonen despite a good year in proportion with the car, including one win.
“Raikkonen would have beat Massa or been let past by him at Hockenheim, Kimi was 2nd in Hungary in 2009, he would have done much better than Alonso at Spa, Italy could have seen another victory, admittedly Alonso’s Singapore drive was something special”
I don’t think we can really predict where Kimi would have been. In 08 and 09 Massa usually was the better driver (or collecting more points) but it was evry close. In 09 Kimi may have been 2nd at Hungary but the year before he wasn’t really doing anything special at the track. Kimi also crashed out when it was wet in 08 at Spa. Form comes and goes. I agree that Kimi’s cool nature may have been more suited when the pressure was on but then again Fernando was delivering like noone else in the final half of the season.
Ferrari had been after Alonso since Schumacher left but as we all know F1 is never that simple. Here in Italy it was always a question of time before he came. Kimi did well in his first year but never escaped from the fact that here most people think he won because Mclaren threw it away. The 2009 car was a dog and Kimi lost interest, Massa showed him up and also showed that before Hungary the car was poor but not the worst. Alonso/santander were ready and willing there was no better outcome. Alonso showed that he will always try and give 100% where that did lack in Kimi. Ferrari will always accept not winning but they will never accept a driver not trying. Ferrari could not have a better driver at the present as a driver, spokesman and figure head.
Anyway, Raikkonen won a championship with Ferrari at his first year with them, and stayed three seasons. Massa won nothing, unfortunately, and stayed four seasons. Maybe they chose to sacrifice Kimi because Massa had recently been the best. But let’s not forget that from Hungary onwards Raikkonen obtained many podiums and a win. Massa in my opinion could have equalled him winning maybe in Europe, since he got a podium in Germany, earlier than Kimi.
If you are talking about 2009, then you’re wrong about Massa getting the first podium for Ferrari. Raikkonen came 3d in Monaco two races before Germany.
People keep going on about how Massa was the better driver for large parts of their partnership at Ferrari, but in 2009 particularly, this just does not bear out although it is difficult to judge as the team made some disastrous calls as well for both drivers and there was of course Massa’s big accident. Both had dismal results particularly in the first couple of races, but it was Raikkonen who scored Ferrari’s first points, first podium and one and only win of the season.
Raikkonen WILL be back, maybe not for 2011 he is busy playing in the WRC.
Letting the dust settle, but for the 2012 championship when everybody has forgotton about him (dust settled) he WILL return. As cool as ice.
When there will be less focus on him. He is simply letting Hamilton take
all the media focus. Letting M.Shu develop the Mercedes car.
I would highly doubt Raikkonen will return. I’d like him to, but he won’t. He has no reason to – its not like he needs the money and he simply doesn’t hold F1 in high regard anymore. Just like Montoya
I don’t think we can really predict where Kimi would have been.
We do. Kimi would have won every single race if he was at Ferrari and would have certainly done miles better than Alonso.
I can’t see how you can state the he would have been so much better than Alonso. However since he announced 2 days ago the he is going to run his own rally team (ice 1 racing) financed by his Finnish financial sponsor and using a renault DS3 works car the chance of him ever looking for a drive in F1 seems very far away.
No it’s fairly clear Raikkonen don’t care for F1 no more, and all power to him. I think in the end, because of his hordes of fanatical, overly passionate fans he’s always been rather overrated by some, while at the same time unfairly slated by internet warriors and others partly out of irritaition.
Don’t think Raikkonen was as good as Alonso, do think he was better than Massa, quite a lot better infact. Too highly paid though.
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