Raikkonen: Team Permission To Leave Early

In an interview yesterday with Autosport, Kimi acknowledge that he asked permission from team management to leave early, and they granted permission to his request. He rushed home to watch the Finland/Canada hockey championship finals, unfortunetely Finland lost.

He also stated that he still feels his chance for the WDC are good. The effect of electrical problem that caused his car to fail and lose points will not be known until the end of the season. He indicated that he believes he would have passsed Hamilton during pit stops and Ferrari wouldhave finished 1-2.

After so many years of Michael Schumacher, I do not think most of us are used to Kimi's different personality and style. In hindsight, and since the season is only 25% complete, it would be prudent to cut Kimi and Felipe some slack.

 

Yep, roll on next race and lets see how that one goes.

Atleast we have lots to talk about this year .
Pete

 

That is one lame excuse...The hockey game started hours later and he could easily have stayed until the end of the race, attended the briefing and gone anywhere nearby and watched the game on satelite while drinking his favourite brew. There is more to it than we know. IMHO I think he is pissed that most of the cars he drives DNF and he still cant come to grips with the fact that he is the cause of most of the DNFs.

 

how was he the cause of the alternator wiring failure??? he could've easily done this , done that...blah, blah, projecting our own ideals of behavior onto someone esle as it should be the norm...his leaving is not the issue here, it's the belief that others should act/behave according to your personal script. it's the same thing with his podium and post race interview demeanor, y'all b1tch and b1tch about that, and it's the same thing... basically, 'he should behave how i would'... THAT is lame.

 

It is still too early to take kimi out of WDC. He is one of the fastest f1 driver or might even be the fastest so lets wait for next race and see what happens. My guess it that kimi will run all over massa later on the season when he gets used to new team.

 

+1

 

So I guess Ferrari isn't paying him enough to buy a TIVO?

 

+1 I've been choking back those words since Sunday.

 

Best response by far.

Carol

Comments regarding the apparent lack of Kimi's "team" behaviour are made by those of us who obviously participate in "teamwork" and know the benefits of said subject. (and to the contrary, it's "not our personal script" that we comment about, it's about TEAM (if you know what that means)).

Enuff said.

 

He probably didn't want to get stuck in traffic, no big deal.

 

+1

What he's basically telling all the people on the team is that it's not about Ferrari, it's about him (who wins the hockey game is more important to him than who wins Barcelona once he was DNF). How hard is the race team going to work for him with that attitude?

 

Hmm, sounds like he really doesn't give a shlt. He'll just hop in the car and drive the hell out of it and hope he wins. Hopefully the car holds up to his thrashing and in the meantime he's outta there when he's done. This is fine when you're winning but won't last long if he's not. Time will tell if it pays off or not.

He kinda seems like the Bode Miller(US downhill skier who just quit the team) of F1.

 

Being a team player is knowing when to contribute and when to get out of the way.

 

They're all professionals, are they not? I imagine that they will work as hard as necessary to provide him with a potential race-winning car.

 

I understand that we're discussing this here, but I'm seriously wondering whether anybody but us gives a darn about this? And whether it really has any meaning whatsoever?

Not trying to defend Kimi here, rather just wondering whether we aren't just overanalyzing things simply because we can and there is nothing else to talk about.

I remember reading German newspapers and magazines back in the early nineties and Berger was the press' darling. They even told you what the guy ate for breakfast and people could have debates (well at that time write letters to the editor) over it. Did that matter in any significant way? Maybe in ten years somebody stumbles across this threads and scratches his or her head why on earth people would even discuss a topic like this.

 

I concur. Much Ado About Nothing, as far as I'm concerned.

 

Sounds like the definition of the phrase 'team player' to me... not.

 

We're just a bunch of passionate F1 fanatics, sitting at work, bored out of our minds, waiting for the next race, wanting something to talk about...

 

Seems you're forgetting the other part of the TEAM gave him a car that didn't last the race. How come you're not screaming about that? At worst they both let each other down. At best the team felt bad about giving him a p*sser of a car and said "sorry mate take the rest of the day off, enjoy the game."As I said at worst the team head told him he could go and the mechanics then felt bad about doing their job without him looking over their shoulders.

MS stuck around not because he was a good driver or a team player he stuck around because it was his team, contractually (no 1 driver status on paper) and figuratively. Kimi is not MS and all of you should stop comparing him to him.

As for Kimi putting on some cloths and heading out to the pit wall... well MS was already there. While all of you see this as a big bonus none of you seem to realize this might be like having your ex-girlfriend hang out with you and then expect your new one to be fine with it 100% of the time. Race drivers are highly competitive and just because FM is keen on using MS to further his goal of winning the title it doesn't mean Kimi should be bashed for wanting to do it his own way, you know put his own mark on the team.

The best thing here is to let Kimi be Kimi. That's what's going to allow him to win races. The team should revolve around the driver, not the other way around. They should create an environment that allows him to drive to his fullest potential. It seems to me at this point from listening to you and Ron maybe Ferrari isn't doing so.

 

Who the hell cares? This is the same guy that went on his yacht after his McLaren burned up on him last year at Monaco. Is anyone really surprised? Ferrari sure as hell knew about Kimi going to the yacht instead of coming back to the pits.

The point is, the team let him down with the electrical problem. He could do no more. I would've left as well since traffic does get pretty bad right after a GP (this happens in Nascar as well with drivers leaving early fwiw). How can he "support" Massa during the race? He wouldn't be talking to him over the team radio. That's for all the engineers to be asking him questions about setup and how they can change the setup for him either in the pits or electronically while he's driving.

 

I think you stay and do whatever you can to help your team. If your team mate wins you are the first guy out there with the high 5. That's what class is all about.

 

+1...High 5 that man right there!

 

+2...... Dont remember too many top drivers leaving early.

 

That's the attitute of Kimi,This type of attitute can never be a world Champion.My guess will be with Felipe Massa to win 2007 World Driver Championship.