There’s an aura that emanates from particular racing drivers; the hairs stand up on your arms and you feel like they are capable of doing something special, perhaps even achieving the impossible.
I used to feel this way about Kimi Räikkönen, but since he won the opening race of the 2013 season it’s been a slow and continual descent for the Iceman.
Now Räikkönen’s former teammate David Coulthard has declared that Ferrari should replace him and move on.
“I’m not anti-Kimi at all,” says Coulthard, “there’s a point in your career where you just stop getting better.”
I’ve defended Kimi in the past and still stand by that position. Perhaps his monosyllabic responses, especially when things go pear-shaped, are interpreted by critics as justification that he either doesn’t know what went wrong or simply doesn’t care. If this were true it’s understandable that the media don’t speak kindly of him.
It’s also true that Räikkönen has only delivered one podium since rejoining Ferrari 18 months ago. However, last year Fernando Alonso (one of, if not the most talented driver of the current generation) scored only two podiums for a constructor that finished fourth in the championship, so to fault him during this period is a bit rough.
However, Coulthard isn’t about negativity for negativity’s sake, and he proposes two potential replacements. I’ll give you a moment to guess which two he picked…
Yes, of-course it was Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hülkenberg.
Bottas has been the darling of the paddock since his debut two years ago, a familiar Finnish racer with the right stuff coursing through his veins, a man who has out-performed his teammate season after season. Similarly, Hülkenberg is a the crafty racer full of promise, once forgotten but now returning to favour on the back of a Le Mans 24 Hour triumph.
So why is Bottas getting so much attention over his more acclaimed and experienced Williams teammate, Felipe Massa?
Williams performance chief and long-time Massa compadre Rob Smedley has come to the Brazilian’s defence saying, “He is the guy who came within one point of the world championship. He didn’t get there by accident and the team let him down in that case in 2008.”
Naturally you don’t get to within one point of the championship without a metric truckload of talent, but 2008 was a long time ago. Some have noted that Massa doesn’t seem quite as fearless on the race track following his near-death accident in 2009, and while I don’t necessarily subscribe to that notion, it highlights the fact that his talent has not translated into results for quite some time.
Indeed, both drivers achieved their career peaks within twelve months of each other and an age ago. An entirely new breed of Formula One enthusiast has emerged in the wake of young stars like Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel that consider Kimi and Felipe veterans and hold only vague notions that they were ever heavyweights in the sport.
It’s strange, bizarre even, that people are so quick to defend Felipe and dump on Kimi. In their hey-day both excelled in cars that clearly out-performed their competitors. Generally speaking Massa tends to qualify reasonably well without progressing too far during the race, while the pain of watching Raikkonen struggle in qualifying is only eased by his laboured efforts to gain places through the midfield for an ultimately respectable race result.
Considering that Ferrari are currently the best of the rest behind Mercedes, with Williams not far behind, it would be fair to expect their results on Sunday to reflect this.
Räikkönen’s worst result this season (excluding retirements) is P6, and this includes a second place in Bahrain where reliability issues for the Mercedes saw him come close to snatching a win.
Compare this to Massa’s season thus far where five out of eight races have seen him finish in P6 or lower. His best result came in Austria – a track that was extremely favourable to the Williams package last year – where he inherited third position from Sebastian Vettel and was under pressure for the entire final stint.
Neither driver has out-classed their teammate, yet despite collecting more points from fewer race finishes Kimi is portrayed as a spent force whose motivation is waning, and Massa the man with untapped potential.
Perhaps this is because Ferrari banished Felipe for a lacklustre performance that Kimi is perceived to be perpetuating. But, on paper at least, both drivers are there or thereabouts and hanging on to their overachieving teammates.
The debate over which driver is best servicing their team is likely to continue on forums and around proverbial water coolers for the next few months, and it’s likely that Ferrari will again ask one of the Finns to eat at the family table.
If that happens to be Valtteri then Williams will be eager to retain the services of Massa, but if Kimi can prove his worth in the next few months then Felipe is in danger of being squeezed out of Formula One’s last remaining front running teams.
When originally faced with the prospect of losing his Ferrari seat to Räikkönen, Felipe clearly stated that he didn’t want to follow in the steps of fellow countryman Rubens Barrichello by driving for back-marker teams, saying, “I want to have a car that can give me some good possibilities to fight, not a car that I will not have a chance to fight. So if I have that I’m not interested.”
Again, as it has so often throughout his career, Massa’s future may lay in another drivers’ hands.
Looking for great odds on racing and sport? Get into the action with PlayUp today. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
Five-years is a long time in motorsport, let alone the general state of the world – especially given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic…
Red Bull and Max Verstappen vaulted right back to the top of the charts with a win in Suzuka, after his DNF in Melbourne.
Japan Grand Prix has been the most entertaining of the season to date, but Max Verstappen was back to his winning ways.
This season is only four races old, but Fernando Alonso needs to decide on his future beyond this year sooner rather than later. Formula…
It’s a pretty good time to be a Tasmanian sports fan right now. After years in the sporting wilderness with not much to celebrate,…
The question remains where the Australian Grand Prix winner will be in 2025 and whether it’ll be somewhere his value can truly be appreciated.
