Kimi:it's not over yet

[Dare]

Kimi Raikkonen is confident his chances of winning this year's title are still alive, despite losing more ground to McLaren in North America.


Prior to the North American leg of the F1 World Championship, Raikkonen admitted the importance of coming home with a good points-haul.


However, instead he lost further ground to McLaren and Championship leader Lewis Hamilton.


While Hamilton grabbed both the victories in Canada and the United States, Raikkonen could only manage fifth and fourth places respectively.


But although the Finn is disappointed with his results, by no means does he believe he's out of the Championship fight.


"Of course, we expected much more than nine points from these two races, although it could have been much worse, especially in Canada," he said.


"I am disappointed. We have lost ground in the Championship on our main rivals but it's not over yet.


"This is a sport where things can turn around very quickly. For sure nobody in the team wants to give in. There's lots of pressure weighing on us, but the same is true of our main rivals."


Raikkonen also admitted that both himself and Ferrari need to work on their qualifying pace as well as the race starts, as that, he reckons, is where they are losing out to McLaren the most.


"We lost points especially because of our performance in the qualifying and then at the starts. Our performance was less than we had expected," he said.


"McLaren have taken a step forward. It seems that they are able to heat up their tyres, which gives them more grip and performance on the first lap.


"During the last two races I had to start on the dirty side of the track. That did not help. On top of that I started with hard tyres at Indy, while all the others started on the soft ones.


"Having said that, we need to improve in this part of the race, because when you loose positions at the start, it makes life very difficult."

[Willy]

So, here we are not quite half the 2007 season over and already there is talk about Kimi replacing Ralf at Toyota. If this is going to happen this year or next appears to be the big question, not if it will happen.
I can see frustration on all fronts due to the lack of performance from Ralf, Kimi, Toyota (big surprise) and Ferrari.
Ralf has not been the same driver since his first big shunt at Indy two years ago. Then he repeated the act the next visit. I say the guy's a tad gun-shy, and who can blame him. He has cheated the reaper twice now so why push it. He can always get a job as the delivery man for Cora's porn shop.
And lets look at Kimi.
Here is a guy that if given a good car and not asked to think about it too much, can drive the wheels off the thing if given the chance. He never will be the type of driver that will be an engineer's dream and spend hours giving feedback on setup. "Not my problem if the damn thing won't go, just fix it and call me when it's ready".
I like Kimi but he will need more help at Ferrari then he is currently getting to catch Felipe.
If and when he does make the move to Toyota, he will regret it as they can't seem to make a decision on anything as you can't rule by committee.
Just a few thoughts that I wanted to make.

[Lynda]

I'd say it's not looking at all promising for him.....and he does NOT like Michael hanging around, I'm sure...teehee !!!

Love Lynda XX 

[f1box]

Kimi Raikkonen is confident his chances of winning this year's title are still alive, despite losing more ground to McLaren in North America.

Not so much 'flying Finn' more a case of and pigs might fly!

David

[cosworth151]

I think he's glad to be at Ferrari. He'd far rather be competing with Massa than Hamilton.

[raindancer]

I think Kimi never really got his setup at Ferrari. He has wrung some amazing speeds out in the past. I don't think he is slower than Lewis in any way. Would have loved to see him in a present day Mclaren.

[Ian]

Think Kimi would love to see himself in a Mclaren too. Hello raindancer, welcome to THE site.

     Ian

[Steven Roy]

I can't see him winning the championship this season.  Not unless he wins the next three races.  I guess he now realises how good the McLaren team were.

You have to wonder why any driver would commit to a team a year and half before he can driver for it.  Things change quickly in F1 and 18 months is a long time. 

I am surprised he is struggling against Massa.  I thought he would take a few races to settle into Ferrari and then blow him away.  Instead of that he is nowhere and it looks like the team is self-destructing round about him.  The team clearly needs a driver to focus on who can effectively manage it in the manner of Schumacher or DC at Red Bull and Kimi is never going to achieve that.

[johnbull]

Have any of you noticed Flav's recent soft talk where Nando is concerned? How well we worked together. Ron doesn't know how to look after Nando. He is welcome back at Renault at any time.

So do you start to see things as I'm seeing them? I am seeing Nando back at Renault next season replacing Fizi, and Kimi back at Macca with LH.

Now that could be interesting.

[rmassart]

I'd say it's not looking at all promising for him.....and he does NOT like Michael hanging around, I'm sure...teehee !!!

Exactly! If we remember back a couple of seasons Kimi would have been world champion if it weren't for a few engine problems handing the championship to Schumi. And now the guy is sitting on the pitwall every race. I'm sure Kimi just loves that!

[raindancer]

Think Kimi would love to see himself in a Mclaren too. Hello raindancer, welcome to THE site.

     Ian
[/quote

Thanks Ian. Look forward to a good time here.

[Chameleon]

Alonso back to Renault - interesting thought.  Can't see it happening, however.

Put yourself in Fernando's place: twice world champion and famous for beating both Kimi and Michael in the process, now in the best car but being beaten by a rookie.  Problem: if he leaves, he will forever be the second best driver in the world after Hamilton.  I can't see him accepting that.  I think he has to stay at McLaren until he's beaten Lewis on sufficient occasions for us to be undecided as to which one of them is the best.

And, by the looks of things, that's gonna take some doing...

[Steven Roy]

In answer to johnbull's point I am not sure McLaren would prefer Kimi to Alonso so I can't see that happening unless they somehow lose Alonso. 

I think Flav has finally realised that he had an exceptional driver over the last few years and can't see where he will get another one although I still believe Kovalainen will be very good.  I think he is applying a little leverage to increase the distance between Alonso and Ron Dennis in the hope that he can get him back.  The fastest way for Renault to make their car a little faster is to put a faster driver in it and if he can direct the development that is even better.

I can see Ferrari throwing Philip Morris' dollars at Alonso as he is probably the closest thing to Schumacher.  I can see him acting as a focal point for the team and driving it in a way Raikkonen never will.  I am sure he would work well with Ross Brawn.  The only reason he may not go there is that if Raikkonen is struggling for pace against Massa he may think that the risk to his reputation is too great.  Being beaten by the next big thing is one thing but following that be being beaten by someone who was not that highly rated a year ago could seriously affect his reputation.

I read (I assume it is fiction) on a website recently that Ferrari had already approached Hamilton with an offer to drive for them at the end of his McLaren contract.

I can't see Renault's reason for keeping Fisichella for so long.  He has never shown any sign of being more than a midfield driver.  The same goes for his predecessor Trulli.  I don't know how they have kept getting good contracts.  Renault would have been far better off signing DC three years ago.  At least he has proved that he can win if the car is capable and the understeering nature of recent Renaults would have suited him.

It is interesting to speculate who will go where but unless teams decide to move one of their drivers out I guess no-one is going anywhere as their contract all started at the beginning of the season and presumably last for at least a couple of seasons.

[johnbull]

Well, Flav isn't half being nice to Nando recently. That's what would spark the chain reaction off.

Nando, great as he is, needs affection, and I think you'll agree that if there's one thing Ron knows FA (not short for Fernando Alonso ) about, it's affection. But Flav does, by the bucketload. And they are both Latins.

So with Alonso snapped up by Flav and happy again at Renault, and Kimi fairly p*ssed off with the way things are going at Ferrari, and Ron needing a quick driver to fill Nando's seat, I really do see it all falling into place quite logically.

Ferrari will have contacted every driver worth his salt at some time or other. They're like that. I'm sure they will have contacted Nando, on many an occasion, just like i wouldn't be in the least surprised about the Lewis story. Nando said quite publicly a few months ago that he would never go to Ferrari, but I suppose a few more dollars could soon change his mind.

As for Ross B, I'm sure he's looking very closely at the goings on with his buddy Nigel Stepney. It could be just the thing to put Ross off returning to Maranello.

Just me being devious, or do you think there's something in it?

[raindancer]

Alonso back to Renault - interesting thought.  Can't see it happening, however.

Put yourself in Fernando's place: twice world champion and famous for beating both Kimi and Michael in the process, now in the best car but being beaten by a rookie.  Problem: if he leaves, he will forever be the second best driver in the world after Hamilton.  I can't see him accepting that.  I think he has to stay at McLaren until he's beaten Lewis on sufficient occasions for us to be undecided as to which one of them is the best.

And, by the looks of things, that's gonna take some doing...

Its early days for Hamilton. He has not really been challenged for a myriad set of reasons. But the most plausible seems to a Driver's adjustment for a change of tyres. Both Kimi and Alonso are taking time as they are driving on the Bridgestones whereas they drove Michelins last year. while Massa and Hamilton drove on Bridgestones last year.