Scaling Mount Ferrari
December 7th 2006 01:52
Kimi Raikkonen now stands at the foot of an imposing, scarlet mountain. Upon its peak flaps a German flag, planted by Michael Schumacher and emblazoned with the stars of five World Driver’s Championships won for Ferrari.
The Finn has the tools required to scale the heights of Schumacher’s achievements. He has the raw speed, journalist Peter Windsor reckons he is the “purest driver in Formula one right now” (F1Racing, Nov 2006). Raikkonen may not have chalked up any WDC’s yet, but there are very few who doubt that he lacks the potential. Mercedes engine reliability lost him a championship in 2005, the year in which the Kimi/McLaren/Michelin combination was by far the class of the field. In 2003, Kimi came within 2 points of being champion; losing out to Michael after a yearlong three way struggle with the Ferrari champ and Williams’ Juan Pablo Montoya.
Those missed opportunities however, were with McLaren. Right now, he is awaiting his first experience of a Ferrari machine. The machine that so often had McLaren and other teams scrambling for scraps while Schumacher devoured another 10 points. Kimi’s natural desire to succeed will no doubt have him seeing Michael’s vast Ferrari achievements not as an impossible act to follow, but rather as a challenge.
However, it must be remembered that Schumacher won with mastermind Ross Brawn in his
Successful partnership
The Ferrari Michael thrived within; Michael’s Ferrari will be far different than the Ferrari that Kimi will tentatively step into. Jean Todt will still be there – but not the way he was for Michael, Rory Byrne has already departed, Bridgestone exclusivity is null with the absence of Michelin in 2007 and Ross Brawn is unlikely to stay much longer.
Kimi won’t have young Felipe Massa fending off foes as his faithful sidekick either. Massa has expressed his desire to be the next Ferrari champion – and is aware of avoiding the pitfalls such comments that had his predecessor Rubens Barrichello grasping desperately at respect. No, Massa knows that without Michael, he is without a leash – and as the underdog, he is also without pressure. From years testing, and being managed by Todt’s son, Nicholas, the energetic Brazilian knows Ferrari inside out, and Ferrari knows Massa equally as intimately. With the iceman cometh at Ferrari, Massa may well be the favourite within the garage that famously teems with emotion and passion. Two qualities that are seldom used to describe Raikkonen.
Imagine plenty of this - with red overalls
If Kimi wants to supplant the German flag on Mount Ferrari with a Finnish one, he will have to do so his way. He won’t have the Sherpas that guided Michael, but he has the mind, talent and determination to blaze his own trail, right to very summit, and then some.
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Comment by charles
ZCars
Ponderous
Season 2007 is shaping up to be a very interesting racing calendar.
Charles.