I think if there were any debate whatsoever as to whether Kimi Raikkonen were on the level of Michael Schumacher when Michael was in Ferrari, this season’s performances have shown that the Finn cannot possibly be considered to be as great a driver as Schumacher was.
Granted, I gave Kimi a free pass last season, even though he struggled to beat Massa on several occasions, and won the world championship by the skin of his teeth, thanks to some incredible self-destruction on the part of the McLaren team.
That’s because it was his first season at Ferrari, and he was feeling his way around.
I’m cool with that. Now let’s talk about this season:
Kimi got off to a great start after about four races, probably because he’s now racing with the added confidence that comes with being called “world champion”.
But this weekend’s performance at Monaco has proven to me that Kimi, as fantastic a driver as he is, is definitely not on par with the great Schumacher.
Kimi’s prone to having really bad “off” days (like at Monaco), especially if he’s not fighting for the race win, whereby he looks really ordinary. Yesterday’s Monaco race was particularly lacklustre, whereby he was not only uncompetitive and losing positions, he even committed the most horrendous act of crashing out and taking poor Adrian Sutil out of the race as well! That must have been the most heart-wrenching moment of this season thus far! My heart goes out to Sutil.
There are races whereby Kimi qualifies on pole (not many this season), and then just races off into the distance once the race starts. That’s great. There are races whereby Kimi gets out-qualified by Massa, but then overtakes him during the pitstops come race time (e.g. Sepang). There are races whereby Kimi gets out-qualified, then plays second fiddle during the race (e.g. Bahrain, Istanbul). And then there are races whereby Kimi gets out-qualified, then totally messes up his race (e.g. Monte Carlo).
In fact, Kimi has only out-qualified Massa ONCE this entire season, and we’ve had six races already.
Yes, Kimi is still second to only Lewis Hamilton in the world championship, but my point is this: You will never see Michael Schumacher struggle to out-perform his teammate the way Kimi is struggling right now.
Never.
When Michael was in the team, it was always a given – Michael was DEFINITELY going to out-perform his teammate, be it Irvine, or Barrichello, or Massa. There was absolutely no doubt about it.
Just look at how Massa struggled to even keep up with Michael when Michael was still in Ferrari. It was only on very rare off days whereby Massa could out-perform Michael in a race. And you hardly ever saw Massa qualify faster than Michael.
So what does it say when you see Kimi struggling on numerous occasions to keep up with Massa? You tell me!
These few weeks, thanks to a string of strong performances from Massa, people are talking about whether Massa could potentially have what it takes to be the world champion this year. When Michael was around, such a notion never ever existed!
The key aspect here is “dominance”.
Michael dominated the sport the way Kimi has never done. I hate to say this (even though I’m a Ferrari fan), but I wasn’t entirely impressed with the way Kimi won his world title last year. Sure, it was a legit world title, let’s not take anything away from Kimi. But it would probably not have been made possible had the two McLaren teammates not decided to go to war against each other at the detriment of the team’s fortunes. Somehow the world title that Kimi won felt more “lucky” than anything else.
Ok, I think I’ve ranted enough.
Time to end my case.
Schumacher had a history of spectacular and rather stupid crashes, not even to mention his rather calculated collissions with Hill and Villeneuve to win the championship;
one example should be enough although there are many (Google “Schumacher crashes” and you’ll find a dozen);
Argentine 1997:
“The silly business started even before the cars reached the first turn. Michael Schumacher had made a slightly better start than Panis and the two were alongside one another on the run down to the corner. Perhaps Olivier is not intimidated by Michael, though he may be after the vicious chop he received. It was a typically ruthless Schumacher (M) maneuver and Panis was clearly rather shocked at the World Champion simply driving into the side of him at high speed. He swerved dramatically to the right and was off the race track on some old tarmac beside the circuit. The impact had bent Panis’s steering but Olivier kept his foot in.
“It was a very dangerous maneuver,” reported Prost sporting director Cesare Fiorio. “I don’t know what Schumacher was thinking.”
Villeneuve went into the corner ahead, followed by Frentzen and a very fast-starting Irvine who had gone to the outside on the run down to the first corner. Then came Panis. On the outside of Olivier was Barrichello – who had profited from Schumacher and Panis getting mixed up with one another on the run down to the corner. Schumacher (of the M variety) was right on his tail.
Michael said that he had oil on his visor from Frentzen’s Williams ahead of him and so he could not see very well. Whatever the case he ran into the back of Barrichello, tipping the Stewart into a spin and they ended up nose-to-nose and it was all over. Behind them everyone was trying to avoid one another. In the course of the mess, Coulthard brushed Ralf Schumacher’s Jordan and his left front wheel was torn off. On the inside Verstappen and Magnussen ran into one another, while on the outside most of the backmarkers took to the dirt and picked it up on their tires.”
Here, Schumacher causes a very similar crash than Kimi with a terrible mess, and his career was littered with events such as this. And, he didn’t dominate the sport but often, won the championship with a few points only, and at the last race. He had plenty of bad races, as well.
I still think he’s so far the best racing driver ever, and anyone, including Kimi might find beating his records impossible. I’m just getting fed up with the ahistorical nature of many comments that tend to forget the reality of the past.
Maybe with Kimi, if he wins a few more championship, people will also forget his off days.