Name two other current drivers that you could put in the 2016 Ferrari who would be able to beat both Hamilton and Rosberg and challenge for the WDC! You could stick Schumacher and Senna in the car and it still wouldn't keep up with the Mercedes - Their advantage is that big! Let's not forget that Schuey had unlimited testing and far fewer regulations and technical restrictions to deal with back in his day. Had he been under the same restrictions as the drivers are today then he would have found it far harder to help develop the car and motivate the team. With any other pair of drivers in the 2016 Ferrari, the best result you could hope for in the 2016 WDC would be 3rd and 4th - Just as it is with Seb and Kimi! The driver's aren't the issue this season - The car is!
Exactly, the rules have beaten Ferrari and the rest. Mercedes has an advantage that can't be closed, so that's it until the rules change. F1 screws itself with the no testing, no developments, limited resources and all the rest, it should stop calling itself the pinnacle of motor sport as it can't be unles they allow more freedom to race. The 'races' for the last three years have not been races, just demonstrations of fast-ish cars and technology no petrol head cares for at all
I agree that the car is the issue, but I still think Vettel and Kimi's motivation is also an issue. Nobody likes consistently being beaten, but positive drivers surely will help. Pete
I don't think they're being that negative though? If anything, I find Vettel quite positive. Kimi doesn't say much publicly. Alonso, Grosjean...those two are the ones that are extremely negative.
I don't buy all this story about drivers motivating the team, etc... Drivers work just with a small group of engineers, not with the whole team of designers and anyway if you need to find motivation to work in F1 then you shouldn't be in F1. I've read an article about an ex-Ferrari engineer (I can't remember his name, now he works doing coaching about corporative organization, motivation and stuff like that) and he said that seeing Schumacher arriving early in the morning and leaving late in the afternoon at the testing sessions was good but that the "magic" moment at Ferrari was when Ross Brawn got all the team leaders in a room and told them that the engine was good, the chassis was good, and the aero was good, but the reason why the car was not good was that they were not working together as a whole system. Drivers must drive and engineers must build a good car, period. Vettel and Raikkonen probably are not the best, but with a good enough car they should be able to do the job, or at least get close. When we get one tenth behind Mercedes we´ll worry about the drivers.
SEPTEMBER 19, 2016 Italy hails Raikkonen after Singapore Kimi Raikkonen appears to be back in top form in formula one. Earlier, some questioned whether the now 36-year-old Finn was still fully motivated and at the top of his game during his second Ferrari tenure. But he has been re-signed by the Italian team for 2017, and after Sunday's Singapore grand prix the influential La Gazzetta dello Sport gave him a mark of 9 out of 10. Only winner Nico Rosberg scored higher, with 9.5. "Raikkonen was assertive, intelligent and topped it off with the Hamilton pass. Brivissimo," the Italian sports daily declared. Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene agreed. "With his experience and skills, he proved again that he is a great champion," he said. Raikkonen's body language, however, indicated he was not happy with a strategy call that arguably cost him the last podium spot to Hamilton. Arrivabene said: "We made the decision based on our data. We will now examine whether that information was correct, but Kimi drove like a world champion." (GMM)
I have always been a bit of a fan,hope Ferrari can produce the car for him to be on the top step again.
Its all about motivation. Internal or external doesnt matter. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts there is a performance clause in Kimi's contract. He used to be may favorite driver until he sat on his laurels.
IMO, Kimi's current "duties" in the Scuderia involve- keeping Seb "motivated" - helping to develop the car - validating the performance ability of the car - contributing as "potent 2nd driver", keeping the other teams distracted wherever possible - contributing maximum points for Ferrari - stepping in when Seb is unable to fulfill his "first driver" roleI think Kimi is doing a very good job in his current role. Age limits how well a driver can perform but I don't think he lacks motivation or sufficient skill. He is just playing his role.
At the moment. Motivation for Kimi is always a temporary thing, unfortunately. Would be one of the very best ever otherwise Pete
SEPTEMBER 26, 2016 Raikkonen leaving F1 future open for now Kimi Raikkonen is leaving open the door to extending his F1 career even beyond 2017. Ferrari has signed up the 2007 world champion for another season, but the Finn will turn 38 during the 2018 season and it will be his 16th year in F1. "I am thinking only of now, finishing the season well and starting next season in the best way," Raikkonen told the Italian newspaper La Stampa. "Maybe next year we are fighting for the championship, and who knows what will happen after that. Then we will talk about it with Ferrari, for sure." Raikkonen was also asked about his relationship with Max Verstappen, following a couple of on and off-track clashes this year. "I don't have anything against him," the 36-year-old said, "but I don't know if he thinks the same way."
Cool as ****. Doesn't care if max feels the same either! Top man Kimi, run him out of road a couple times iceman
I think Ferrari unable to win something... Kimi is a good guy, a nice pilot, many customers think to know everything, but at the end there s a lot of idiots who wants to be clever. If I remember Kimi was fired of Ferrari, and after Ferrari looking for him when they saw his results in Lotus... Hilarious thread, please continue it s facinating.
You remember incorrectly! Kimi was never fired from Ferrari! - Both parties came to a mutual agreement to end his contract early (for which he was compensated handsomely by Ferrari). An opportunity to hire Alonso came along, and at the same time, Kimi had become a little bit tired of F1 so it suited both parties to part ways at that time (Kimi made it clear at the time that he had no problems with Ferrari and would happily drive for them again in the future if the opportunity arose). After some time away trying his hand at rallying, Kimi felt refreshed and ready to go back into F1, and Lotus gave him the opportunity to return to the sport. Lotus then hit financial problems and were no longer paying him on time, and at the same time Ferrari were looking to replace Massa and so Kimi re-signed for the Scuderia. If you think Kimi would happily return to a team that had sacked him out of the blue previously then you don't know Kimi at all!
There was also a strong push by their main sponsor at the time, Santander, to have the spanish driver in Kimi's seat; Spain, and the whole spanish-speaking world, is an immense base of potential customers for a bank, much greater than Finland and the whole Finnish-speaking world (which is, err...Finland, that is a grand total of 5 million people). The partying of ways in 2009 was not "amicable", but was done, as said by "4rePhil", on a basis of "well understood mutual interest"; a few months later, at a Grand Prix when it was raining heavily, Domenicali already quipped: "Perhaps we should call Kimi back from rallying"...so indeed the door remained always half-open. The rumor has it that the only person towards whom (grammar?) Kimi kept a slight grudge for the way his contract was terminated in 2009 was LdM, and that Luca apologized to Kimi before he signed for the team again in 2013. It has also been said that someone at Ferrari's board said to Luca in 2013: "well...we paid Kimi 30 millions in 2009 for ending his contract early, and now we are paying him another 30 to come back" There was an interesting feature on Kimi in the last issue of Motorsport Magazine (or the one before the last, maybe; time flies...) and the reason why a man who was the fastest man on earth in 2005 could not find this speed back: the answer is very simple: tyre evolution. Anyone wanting to get slightly beyond the usual hollow answers of age, demotivation, etc, should really read this. Rgds
I don't really get the point of their parting ways. For me it was a huge blunder. I've never heard a driver gets paid 30 mil to take the year off. Crazy. Instead, Ferrari should have invested that money properly to hire and get the right guys to build a good car. Oh well..
I seem to recall (?) that they legally had to pay him what remained due from his original contract, otherwise they couldn't have recruited Fernando, who, as said above, had the support of Santander, which was their main sponsor. If my memory, etc...Kimi should have returned that 30 millions amount if he had found another seat for 2010; there was a strong possibility for him to return to McLaren for 2010, the deal was almost done at the time of the Singapore Grand Prix 2009, as said by Martin Whitmarsh (who is a Kimi fan) but it is rumored that it was vetoed by Ron Dennis eventually (who is not such a great Kimi fan). And J.B got the drive instead. Rgds
FEBRUARY 10, 2017 Raikkonen to open karaoke bar Kimi Raikkonen is set to open a karaoke bar in Helsinki, the capital of his native Finland. That is the claim of the Finnish entertainment magazine Seitseman Paivaa. The report said the Ferrari driver and 2007 world champion wanted to keep the precise location of the venue secret, but it is apparently close to where he keeps his yacht. Seitseman Paivaa said Raikkonen is a karaoke regular, and Youtube footage from 2009 indeed depicts the 37-year-old singing in his native Finnish in a bar. The report said work on the establishment will begin in April.
