Source: formula-one-speedtv.com | Feature written by Adam Cooper |
This week was supposed to be the calm after the storm as we all chilled out at the end of a long and very busy season, but it’s been anything but quiet.
On Wednesday we got an entry list that included as many as nine gaps, although in some cases we know what the missing names are. Then late last night European time Williams filled another hole when it confirmed that Pastor Maldonado will stay on.
Today we had the news that Ferrari and Red Bull Racing have signaled their intention to withdraw from FOTA, a move that leaves the organization in a state of disarray, and turns the balance of power in F1 politics upside down. An explanation of what it all means who probably take a book – I had a go in a column last week!
Not surprisingly many race fans glaze over at the mention of ‘Resource Restriction Agreement’ – don’t worry it has the same effect on us journalists! – so I’d much rather comment on the really big news of the week.
On Tuesday morning came confirmation that Kimi Raikkonen will be back in F1 next year with Lotus Renault GP. The Finn’s name had been connected with Williams for several weeks, on the basis that his presence as a former World Champion would help to attract sponsorship from the Middle East. Indeed his managers, father and son team David and Steve Robertson, were seen at the Williams hospitality building in Abu Dhabi.
But soon after that, the trail went quiet, and we heard that a Williams/Raikkonen deal was no longer likely happen. Instead the Robertsons pursued Plan B, with LRGP.
At first glance, it seemed unlikely for two reasons – firstly the team seemed to have no shortage of potential drivers. Secondly, Kimi lost patience with the management this time last year when tentative talks about a potential future together were revealed to the media by team boss Eric Boullier. An unimpressed Kimi thought that his name was being used to give LRGP credibility.
Thus when Robert Kubica was injured in February – and Kimi was an obvious choice – the two parties did not get together, and instead Nick Heidfeld got the drive. To be fair it was also very close to the start of the WRC season, and Kimi would have found it hard to back out at that time.
But anything is possible in F1, and when it became clear shortly before the Brazilian GP that Kubica was not going to make the start of the season, a marriage of convenience was quickly arranged, and any past problems were quickly forgotten.
The bottom line is that LRGP, which becomes Lotus F1 Team next year, badly needs a big name driver. And having run out of options with Williams, and yet decided that he really wanted to be back in F1, Kimi needed a team that at least has the potential to be challenging for podiums.
Even with a car that the team now admits was fundamentally flawed, Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov managed a third place apiece in 2011, and the team finished fifth in the championship.
In other words it was as good a car as he as likely to get. For all the changes at Williams, and the boost provided by the switch from Cosworth to Renault power, the team has a mountain to climb. Lotus at least has a head start as it tries to regain the sort of form that won a World Championship just five years ago with Fernando Alonso under the Renault guise. Of course, it’s not just the team name that is different, but there are still a lot of good technical people on board.
It’s impossible for anyone to predict what sort of car the team will build for Kimi in 2012, but the big question surrounds the man himself. As always, opinion is split – people either love Kimi or – I won’t use the word hate, because he’s not the sort of character to inspire that degree of negativity – have very little time for him.
The problem is the Iceman image that he has cultivated, saying very little in TV interviews, and keeping himself to himself. Then there are the offstage antics, and his well know preference for having a good time on a Sunday night after a race. Much of that is just a trait of his nationality – Finns are the first to admit that they are generally low-key characters who come out of their shells when they have a drink.
Kimi has always maintained that his private life is his business, and he performs better when not under the cosh. If you are winning, then you can get away with perceived misbehavior off-track. The problem is when you’re not winning, if you don’t live the life of a saint, critics will always be able to point a finger.
Kimi is going to have to work hard to shed the image he generated in his last couple of years in F1. In 2007 he had a brilliant, near faultless season, coming back from 17 points behind with two races to go to beat Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton to the World Championship.
In 2008 he was again fast, but he had a series of early setbacks that cost him momentum. Felipe Massa meanwhile kept piling up the points and became Ferrari’s title contender, and naturally, the team got behind the Brazilian.
In 2009 Ferrari built a pretty poor car for the new KERS era, and neither driver had much chance. More to the point, from a very early stage the team made it clear that Alonso was coming on board in 2010. It was in a three-into-two don’t go situation with Kimi and Massa also contracted, so much effort went into persuading Raikkonen that he should take a pay-off and walk away.
Everyone knows that a driver needs everything to be just right to be able to perform at his best. Getting into a car – a bad one at that – knowing that the team is working feverishly behind the scenes to turf you out would be tough for anybody.
The team was then turned upside down by Massa’s accident in Hungary, and Kimi was once again the main focus. He responded with a superb win at Spa – just what a good job he did with that car was demonstrated by how hopeless Luca Badoer and Giancarlo Fisichella were when they stood in for Massa.
In the end, Kimi took Ferrari’s pay-off. The way it worked it was better for him to step out for a year than drive another F1 car, as that would have compromised his severance package. There was even talk of a return to McLaren, but not surprisingly, Kimi preferred to walk away – and that tallied perfectly with the chance to pursue the interest in rallying that, as a Finn, he had inevitably held since he was a kid.
The appearance of Red Bull sponsorship on his rally car indicated that he still had a foot in the door in F1, and at one stage there was definitely a scenario whereby had Mark Webber stopped at the end of 2010, Kimi could have replaced him. Indeed I discussed that possibility with Kimi when he showed up in Monaco last year.
The snag was that on that very weekend Webber scored a second GP win in eight days and made himself into a title contender – and after that, retirement was never an option. And again earlier this year the Aussie added a further year to his deal.
So with the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne on the horizon, Kimi’s chances of a getting into a Red Bull began to recede. Not only that, but a third year out of the game would have made it proportionately harder for him to convince anyone to take him on. So he had to get back in 2012, in something, and possibly put himself in a position to step into a better car at a later stage.
It’s no secret that Kimi’s rallying ambitions didn’t quite pan out, but at the end of the day he wasn’t far off in a sport that is very different from the one he was brought up in. I understand that he also made quite an impression in the NASCAR world.
The point is he has not been lying on a beach, he’s been enjoying the cut and thrust of competition, and at a very high level. The style of driving might be very different in those disciplines, but it can’t hurt to have gone off and done something different – it will certainly be interesting to see how much his wet weather skills have improved after sliding around on ice and in muddy forests!
Kimi was obviously disillusioned when he left F1. Let’s not forget he was a kid when he signed for Sauber, with very little experience of the world at large. Within a year he was driving for McLaren, where not only was he in the spotlight, he had to deal with the quirky management of Ron Dennis. Then he was thrown into the cauldron at Ferrari, where initially he appeared to have thrived – only for the Alonso scenario to make him surplus to requirements. To someone who simply enjoyed the pure pleasure of driving, and preferred a quiet life, all the BS and double talk around F1 simply become too much.
He’s now had two years to clear his head, and in between the WRC and NASCAR commitments he’s doubtless found time to do other stuff, things that he never had time for within the relentless constraints of an F1 driver’s schedule. He’s also lost his father, and that would cause anyone to take stock and maybe change focus a little.
He didn’t have to come back – he doesn’t need the money, and one assumes he’s earning rather less than he did at his previous teams, possibly with a heavy accent on bonuses for performance. He’s coming back because he missed the racing, and it was intriguing to hear that, for all the joy he got from driving an WRC car on the limit, running with other cars in NASCAR reminded him of what he’s been missing.
He’s stayed pretty fit, he’s been driving all the time, and he – we assume – has pretty much got his head together. He’s also found a team that really wants him, and which one assumes, will shield him from the sort of PR duties that he always abhorred, and which helped to curtail any discussion of him going back to McLaren after Ferrari.
He’s also still only 32, an age when Damon Hill was only just starting his F1 career. He’s starting from scratch on the Pirellis, and inevitably, F1 has moved on in other ways. But he had KERS in 2009, and a button for the front wing which has now become a button for the rear wing.
He’s a far smarter and switched-on person that you might think, and he would not be doing this if he wasn’t confident in his abilities. Underestimate him at your peril.
And if he does show that he can get the job done, consider too where he might end up after Lotus. Given the long term deals all the big names are signing, not many drivers of his caliber will be free agents in a couple of years. Or depending on his contractual arrangements, possibly even in one…
FUCK ISRAEL 