I haven't talked about F1, Kimi, Kimi, F1 in eons it feels like :) Just to be clear, I'm still F1Kimi obsessed, simply quieter. But I thought TIWFM was due an F1 post.
This weekend at the Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary, will mark the last race of the season before F1 takes their usual scheduled summer break - resuming only at the end of August for the final championship push. The story thus far is Fernando Alonso leads the driver's championship ahead of Mark Webber, Sebastien Vettel AND Kimi Raikkonen.
In the last race in Hockenheim, Germany, Sebastian Vettel, who finished the race in 2nd but was given a 20 second penalty for overtaking Jenson Button off the racing track for said 2nd place on the penultimate lap of the race, basically upgraded Kimi's 4th place position to 3rd and with those extra 2 points, Kimi managed to move into 4th in the championship standings ahead of Lewis Hamilton. I have to say I'm really impressed with kimi's comeback. And not simply because I'm a Kimi fan, he has shown that he has not forgotten how to successfully do open wheel racing. To come back from a 2-year hiatus and be FOURTH in the driver's race, that's just AMAZING.
Of course, there has been some minor teething issues as he reassimilates himself to F1. Qualifying has been a tad horrendous. He's only qualified in the top 4 once in the last 10 races and that was back in Shanghai. Which was a race that did not go well for him. It was the only race in which he failed to score any points. He was running in second and a couple of laps before the end of the race, his tyres 'went off the cliff', is what the F1 pundits like to call it. Basically, they just simply stopped giving him grip and he could not drive to the max of the car's capabilities without throwing himself (and the car) into the wall/off track/.
The pirellis. I don't think it's much of an issue for him. The tires were supposed to be the main 'hindrance' to Kimi's comeback but, aside from the China GP, he has shown that he's able to adapt to the Pirellis. That definitely surprised the whole paddock I would imagine. They were predicting a Michael Schumacher style comeback, lol. I never thought for even a second that Kimi would suffer the same fate as Schumi. I mean, I never foresaw the comeback being this good but I definitely knew he would not be so much on the backfoot like Schumi has been for the past 2 years since his re-entry to the pinnacle of motorsports.
Looking at how things have played out, it's my personal belief that if the whole situation at Ferrari had not gone down the way that it did, I'm positive Kimi would have stayed in F1. I believe it's his passion. I think that he only went rallying because he wanted Ferrari to suffer by taking the brunt of the full payout. I get that people say that his will to drive should be stronger than his will to punish Ferrari but Kimi is only human and if I was in that same position, I too would have taken the money, bided my time and come back as he did. He needed to wait out the 2 years, he did and now he is back with a vengeance!
In the first 9 races, Kimi was still on a learning curve but you could see the flashes of speed and brilliance of old. But in the last race in Germany, all I could do was be amazed at the driving he displayed. I think he did the most overtaking of the race and he wasn't as hesitant, lining up the car for what seemed like forever. He took the positions in a speedy and confident manner, making the maneuvers stick. I would usually get frustrated watching him being hesitant to do the overtake but in this race, bar for his move on Schumi which took him about 6 laps to line up, he took care of dispensing with the overtaking in a precise, concise and fair manner. If anybody is the most fairest driver in terms of overtaking in F1 right now, I'd definitely give that award to Kimi Raikkonen.
I'm really looking forward for this weekend. Considering that the McLaren Kimi made an appearance last race, I'm expecting to see more of him this weekend. I'm also going to be going stir crazy when it ends cos there's a month of F1 no-mans-land. And with Deadliest Catch airing it's last episode of the season this week too. Gosh, I'm going to be super bored.
