Kimi has the Schumi Gene, not syndrome!

Despite struggling in the early stages, Kimi lands on the same
level as Michael Schumacher – Luca Baldisserri

Ferrari: Raikkonen at Schumacher’s level

Kimi Raikkonen has been as strong as Michael Schumacher in the
second part of the 2007 season, according to Ferrari’s head of track
activities Luca Baldisserri.

Despite winning the first race of the season in Australia, Raikkonen
failed to dominate teammate Felipe Massa in the early part of the year
following his switch from McLaren.

Since the French Grand Prix in July, however, the Finn has been the
top scorer, including four victories in nine races, and he is still
with a distant chance of taking the title in Brazil despite two
retirements.

Baldisserri reckons now that Raikkonen has adapted to the team and the tyres, the Finn has been at Michael Schumacher’s level.

"Michael is a seven times world champion and we’ve been working
together for 10 years, and at the end, with the relationship with
Michael it was enough to look into his eyes to understand where there
was a problem, to understand what he was meaning when he was speaking
about the car," Baldisserri said.

"Generally with Kimi, we were struggling a bit at the beginning
because he had some trouble to adapt his driving style to our car, to
learn all our systems and to learn the Bridgestone tyres but I have to
say that from mid-season to the race that he did today he can be at the
same level as Michael.

"A driver that can do a race like today, such difficult conditions, without making a mistake is a great driver."

Raikkonen is seven points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton
and will need to win the Brazilian Grand Prix, with Hamilton in sixth
and Fernando Alonso in third, to take the title.

Raikkonen kept his championship hopes alive by winning the Chinese
Grand Prix, from which Hamilton retired after a driving error.

Ferrari’s sporting director Stefano Domenicali said it is no miracle
that the Finn will be able to fight for the title in the final race.

"No, I don’t think it is a miracle, first of all, because if you
look, we have won eight races out of 16, so fifty per cent of that, we
have done great results," said Domenicali.

"Unfortunately this year, we have suffered from other problems but
we are still there and we need to be, as always, not too anxious and
looking behind at the last race, but we need to make a deep analysis
since the beginning of the championship and this is what we are doing
now, as an audit just to be sure that at the last race everything is
covered.

"But it’s not a miracle. We always said that we never give up, it’s
not just a way of saying it, it’s just what we feel and once again, I
want to stress the point that the team is very close together, we know
that from the outside, after one race, big pressure but that’s part of
the game."

I knew it was only a matter of time. Kimi has come into his own making – through finding the right balance with his Ferrari and understanding how to make it suit him rather than compromising his driving style (as the first half of the season would have suggested). For more interesting discussion on the Kimi and Schumi driving comparison, check out the articles from the F1Racing magazine- Oct 2007 scan.