Will Raikkonen finish the season as a Ferrari driver?

Poor performances all year, being absolutely dominated by his team mate even when he (Alonso) has a car which is down on power (Bahrain). If he continues like this, I feel like he's going to either retire or get fired nearer the end of the season. He really needs to improve if he wants to keep that seat. Get Hulkenberg in there!

If he finds his 03-07 form then he'll be alright, since his championship he's just seemed uninterested and just racing for the sake of it.


And yes, this is a serious question.

 

He doesn't look like he gives a toss. I struggle to believe that he actually made more effort last year when he wasn't getting paid, than he is making now.

 

I want to believe that around Spa time he will compete properly with Alonso... Since 2007 it has really been downhill.

 

I think towards the end they will take the risk on hiring Hulk towards the end if Kimi doesn't improve. Hulk in my opinion has proven weight disadvantages are overrated when he can clearly dominate Perez who is a midget in comparison. Only problem is that Hulk has a 2 year contract with Force India but I think Ferrari are more desperate than ever and will pay through the ear.

The F1 public deserve to see Hulk in a top car, his performances were even better than Daniels in comparison over the years so he might do to Alonso what Daniel is doing to Seb.

 

I can see him quitting. He doesn't have the attitude to fight for 9th place in a team that should be winning.

At Lotus, he was the underdog so good results weren't expected so they were more enjoyable when they came along.

 

I've always thought he was over-rated tbh, I'm unsurprised he's getting trounced by Alonso

 

There are still rumours about Alonso and McLaren - would Ferrari risk losing two world champions? In my opinion they will only consider replacing Kimi when they're 100% sure that Alonso will stay in 2015 (or they can sign Button). This means Kimi will stay at least until the end of 2014.

 

Alonso would have to be mad to join McLaren right now. With Ron back and their form in freefall i just don't see it.

As for Raikkonen it's too early to write him off yet. He could fix his brake by wire issues and be back on top form. However if this was to continue for much longer and i was one of Nico Hulkenberg, Jenson Button or Romain Grosjean... I'd make sure Ferrari have my number.

 

He'll bounce back. If it wasn't for his puncture in Malaysia then he could have scored some good points, that weekend he was stronger than Alonso until it rained in qualifying. So he has shown glimpses of good pace. He just needs to find the ideal setup.

 

I agree with Julius Caesar. I reckon his main problem is his confidence under braking, and once he has that fixed, he'll be back to normal.

The only thing I'm worried about is how different generation of rules suit different drivers. These new rules and regs seem to suit Hamilton perfectly well, which has surprised a lot of us, whereas Vettel seems to be struggling so far. I just hope it's not the same for Kimi

 

If Alonso does depart, the obvious 2 Ferrari drivers for next season are Vettel and Hulk... Even if they have to pay off Hulk's contract.

I still don't understand why Ferrari went for Kimi, they should be looking to the future imo. I could see Kimi walking before being pushed if he doesn't get on top of the car.

Edit. There was no option for walking.

 

The car doesn't suit him. He doesn't like the feel of the front end on turn in or the feel under braking and has no confidence in it as a result. We saw in Malaysia signs that if he gets the car more to his liking there's little between Alonso and Kimi but Alonso is just better with a car that isn't ideal.

The feel of the car is the biggest thing to any driver, look at Vettel v Webber (where it suited Vettel), now Ricciardo V Vettel (where it doesn't suit Vettel). Sometimes a car just doesn't fit how somebody drives and they need either time to adapt of time for the team to tune it more to their liking.

He won't be sacked, he'll get at least the season. He might walk/be sacked at the end of it should he not get anything more out of it though.

 

I find it hard to believe that potential World Championship winning drivers can be so dependent on the "feel" of the car. Maybe drivers towards the back of the grid, but surely, a world-class driver should be able to push his team-mate to the limit?

It would have been interesting (as an academic exercise) to see Sebastian Loeb up against Kimi, Fernando and the other Sebastian.

Back to the question. Either Kimi will improve or he'll leave early for more physiotherapy.

 

To a certain extent, i agree. There should be some adaptability in them, But the effect is magnified when a car suits one driver and doesn't suit another. I think this is the case with Alonso and Raikkonen.

If you look at Alonso's world championship winning Renault's, his car was always soft and very, very understeery. Always had a very numb front end and was set up for traction at the rear. He generally seems to do best in cars that are inherently numb at the front end. Now if you look at Kimi's driving style, it relies on a positive front end and looser rear, you can look at his McLaren days and even the Lotus in the last 2 years had a great front end on it (even though early days his complaint was with the power steering). With Alonso having been there so long, the car has been developed around Alonso's strengths (which happen to be the opposite of Kimi), For further evidence, look at last seasons Lotus when they changed to the LWB spec, it became a naturally more understeery car due to the airflow working the rear end better and Suddenly Grosjean was as quick (and in many cases much quicker) than Raikkonen. He seems very sensitive to the front end.

Kimi is basically driving Alonso's car in much the same way Webber was driving Vettels. When it's set up and developed to one drivers strengths, unless both have the same style, one will always get vastly more out of it.

That's not a defence of Kimi btw, i honestly believe that if it was the other way about and the car was developed for Kimi's style and Alonso was the one having to adapt and get the car to his liking, i think he'd be getting a lot more out of it than Raikkonen is currently, perhaps not beating Raikkonen but he'd be pushing him much harder than Alonso is getting from Kimi.

 

Maybe, but it doesn't quite compare to changing from a Vanwall to a Cooper...

 

Kimi is struggling, and I feel that when he struggles he just doesn't put the effort in. It may be his persona, but from the outside thats what it smacks of.

I think Ferrari will keep him to the end of the season as he will surely improve. After that however I feel they may decide to finally promote Bianchi.

 

Kimi is a top driver but Alonso is the best on the grid, its only a British record breaking rookie who has got the better of Alonso the champion and I cant see no other driver finishing above him in the same car apart from maybe Lewis who is when at his best is the best. Kimi can no longer rely on a car that was much better on its tyres than the rest, also Kimi found himself in a lucky place in 2007 as Alonso and Lewis took to many points off each other, the Fin was just in the right place at the right time, if Lewis and Alonso never had each other as team-mates Kimi would not have been 2007 champion and is no match for the best all-rounder in F1 in the Spaniards team.