Is Kimi Raikkonen overrated?

[Moose]

Age takes it's toll on everyone differently. The Kimi of 2003-2006 was fantastic. IMHO he should've won in 2003 and not 2007 (that should've gone to Hamilton ). Not to take anything away from Kimi though.

It's a conspiracy mate, there was no way Bernie or anyone would let a rookie win a championship could you imagine what that would do for the sport? Would make it look like anyone could win in there first year.

On the contrary - it would have made it look like anyone with an excess of talent and a lack of fear could win the championship. That's exactly the kind of thing F1 needed, and still needs.

[evered7]

Age takes it's toll on everyone differently. The Kimi of 2003-2006 was fantastic. IMHO he should've won in 2003 and not 2007 (that should've gone to Hamilton ). Not to take anything away from Kimi though.

It's a conspiracy mate, there was no way Bernie or anyone would let a rookie win a championship could you imagine what that would do for the sport? Would make it look like anyone could win in there first year.

On the contrary - it would have made it look like anyone with an excess of talent and a lack of fear could win the championship. That's exactly the kind of thing F1 needed, and still needs.

In 2003 Michael had 6 wins against 1 for Kimi. Exactly why is there a discussion on who should have won that year?

[Andres125sx]

Age takes it's toll on everyone differently. The Kimi of 2003-2006 was fantastic. IMHO he should've won in 2003 and not 2007 (that should've gone to Hamilton ). Not to take anything away from Kimi though.

It's a conspiracy mate, there was no way Bernie or anyone would let a rookie win a championship could you imagine what that would do for the sport? Would make it look like anyone could win in there first year.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Age takes it's toll on everyone differently. The Kimi of 2003-2006 was fantastic. IMHO he should've won in 2003 and not 2007 (that should've gone to Hamilton ). Not to take anything away from Kimi though.

It's a conspiracy mate, there was no way Bernie or anyone would let a rookie win a championship could you imagine what that would do for the sport? Would make it look like anyone could win in there first year.

On the contrary - it would have made it look like anyone with an excess of talent and a lack of fear could win the championship. That's exactly the kind of thing F1 needed, and still needs.

+1.
Isn't Marc Marquez a great thing to have happened to MotoGP? Is MotoGP any less dangerous? Isn't Marc a great champion? 2007 was simply a great year for F1 to see really talented drivers slogging it out, without any team intervening to stop the battle between team mates. There can only be one winner for the prize, but for the F1 audience, all three were people's champions. Great cars, full on drivers and great battles.

[Emmcee]

I totally agree with this ^

[PlatinumZealot]

I ask this question as it has become a hot topic on the other forum iam on. Is kimi past his used by date? I say yes and no, he is still scoring well but seb has come into what was kimis team after fernando left and had hit the ground running and staked his claim as number one driver. Whats your thoughts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... da9v8#t=16

[Emmcee]

So kimi fails again, bad timing when contract talks are in the air, this makes the Canada spin look more like his fault, as its a issue he seems he can't deal with. Maybe it's the sudden torque response he struggles with.

[Silent Storm]

So kimi fails again, bad timing when contract talks are in the air, this makes the Canada spin look more like his fault, as its a issue he seems he can't deal with. Maybe it's the sudden torque response he struggles with.

He was on prime tyres and had wheel spin and Alpnso was too close to Kimi. Nobody at fault here it was a racing incident.
The confusing part was Kimi had wheelspin in 5th gear!!
Were the tyres not warmed up properly cuz they were Prime or is it difficult to warm up tyres when starting from the back of the grid?

[FrukostScones]

past his prime maybe but never overrated

[WaikeCU]

I don't think Kimi is the best driver out there, but one of the best drivers. I don't believe he would be an ideal test driver or development driver. He's a driver that extracts everything out of the potential performance of a car. That's the raw pace he has. Give him a championship winning car and he'll win you a championship. He's a thrill seeker, a guy that looks for excitement in his life. I don't believe he's a driver that goes to a team and takes that team to a championship. He's here when he has the chance to win a championship. Considering the teams he has driven for (except for his debut with Sauber), he has driven for Mclaren, Ferrari and Lotus. With all those teams he was in the race for a championship.

[Silent Storm]

I don't think Kimi is the best driver out there, but one of the best drivers. I don't believe he would be an ideal test driver or development driver. He's a driver that extracts everything out of the potential performance of a car. That's the raw pace he has. Give him a championship winning car and he'll win you a championship. He's a thrill seeker, a guy that looks for excitement in his life. I don't believe he's a driver that goes to a team and takes that team to a championship. He's here when he has the chance to win a championship. Considering the teams he has driven for (except for his debut with Sauber), he has driven for Mclaren, Ferrari and Lotus. With all those teams he was in the race for a championship.

The thing is Kimi was one of the best. He is past his peak, he is not young anymore. He has the pace but is not consistent and that's normal, no one can have the same performance throughout their entire life.

I don't agree that Kimi is not a good development driver. James Allison said it a couple of times that Kimi gives good feedback. His narrow working range bring out the faults in the chassis I believe

[Spoutnik]

Kimi isn't a worker, and I'm always convinced that Lotus, with Alonso or something like that could contest the win at everyrace, with this car, you only need to be in Q3 and save your tyre and you finished on the podium. It was surely the nearest car to the RB9 on overall season. It seems to me like a lack of motivation, he race only for a comfortable end of life.

[Silent Storm]

Kimi isn't a worker, and I'm always convinced that Lotus, with Alonso or something like that could contest the win at everyrace, with this car, you only need to be in Q3 and save your tyre and you finished on the podium. It was surely the nearest car to the RB9 on overall season. It seems to me like a lack of motivation, he race only for a comfortable end of life.

Raikkonen's race pace was not much off Fernando's race pace last year in clean air even though he was struggling. Most of the time he was stuck In traffic due to bad qualifying which meant slower laptimes.
So I don't think Fernando could have done any better in that Lotus. A couple more wins and more podiums yes, but win at every race NO.

[Spoutnik]

Kimi isn't a worker, and I'm always convinced that Lotus, with Alonso or something like that could contest the win at everyrace, with this car, you only need to be in Q3 and save your tyre and you finished on the podium. It was surely the nearest car to the RB9 on overall season. It seems to me like a lack of motivation, he race only for a comfortable end of life.

Raikkonen's race pace was not much off Fernando's race pace last year in clean air even though he was struggling. Most of the time he was stuck In traffic due to bad qualifying which meant slower laptimes.
So I don't think Fernando could have done any better in that Lotus. A couple more wins and more podiums yes, but win at every race NO.

Last year Kimi struggling everywhere, especially with save tyre and fuel I think, and get raped all the year in qualifying by Alonso one of the slowest driver on the top of the grid on this exercise is a bit annoying ..
I think he could done better, obviously no win at every race, but when I see the job did Alonso on the 2012 season with an awful car. Recently I take a closer look to this F2012, let's see the first 3 races only in qualifying, in Australia he is qualified in 1.26.5, then the pole is 1.24.9 which give us 1.6 gap .. This gap is of 1.3s at Sepang and 1.5s at Shanghaï, I know Fernando isn't a qualifying master but this car was awful

[PlatinumZealot]

I don't think Kimi is the best driver out there, but one of the best drivers. I don't believe he would be an ideal test driver or development driver. He's a driver that extracts everything out of the potential performance of a car. That's the raw pace he has. Give him a championship winning car and he'll win you a championship. He's a thrill seeker, a guy that looks for excitement in his life. I don't believe he's a driver that goes to a team and takes that team to a championship. He's here when he has the chance to win a championship. Considering the teams he has driven for (except for his debut with Sauber), he has driven for Mclaren, Ferrari and Lotus. With all those teams he was in the race for a championship.

But Vettel is showing that this Ferrari is championship fighting car if it weren't for bad luck. The way Massa has been performing and how Kimi is performing now, it makes you think that Ferrari dumped him for something not as good. Too many mistakes.. His steering control is one of the best but his throttle control is poor. Too many times he spins the car. Last year he spun in winter testing, he spun in Silverstone, he spun in Canada. This year he spun in testing he spun in Canada again.. I am waiting on him to spin in Silverstone now. It is almost as if he refuses to adapt his driving style. The gaps between his perfomance in "Alonso's car" last year and his tailor made car this year are almost the same.