Raikkonen- driver of 2004?

[Knowlesy]

I reckon Kimi is doing an outstanding job this year.

This is the first time in his young career that he's had a dog to drive, but he is maximising his situation.


Remember, when Button first sat in a bad car, the Benetton B201, he floundered and was whipped by Fisi.

Coulthard should be beating Kimi off, as more experienced drivers should theoretically be able to make more of a bad car. This hasn't been the case.

[300kph]

Maybe we can say that he is the "driver of the year" for the slower and very deffective cars...

Let us wait and see if he can also be the "driver of the year" next year for the faster cars...

[Tweed]

If the new McLaren/next year's McLaren takes them back to the front expect Raikkonen to whip Montoya. We've got quite a few front-runners this year, but everyone seems to have forgotten about Kimi. Hopefully next year we'll have MS, Kimi, Alonso, Trulli, Sato, Button, JPM, Ruby and whoever's in for Williams all fighting it out at the front.

Back to the title of the thread, I think Kimi's certainly been more impressive than than other drivers in poor cars ( Fisichella, Heidfeld ), but I've always thought Fisi was overrated.

[shiny side up!]

I'm not tryng to take anything away from Kimi, I think he has put in a strong showing this year. But there have been a number of times this year when he was running with Heidfeld and Fisi on the track... and although his McLaren is not a world-beater, it is certainly a Jordan/Sauber beater...

[deeks6]

Can't be a serious thread, surely. Raikkonnen has been very ordinary this year and has even been outperformed on quite a few occaisions by Coulthard who is the epitome of ordinary. The drivers of the year so far are:

MS - of course
JB - consistent, smart, fast
TS - fast, entertaining, unlucky, having a go (Yay)
NH - putting a Jordan where it shouldnt be (incidentally, he also towelled hero Kimi at Sauber but the breaks didnt go his way, presumably because he has even less personality that KR!)
MW - still going quicker than you can in a heap of junk.
JT - rose to the challenge of Alonso and has performed way better than any of us expected. Would still have won Monaco even if MS was'nt punted.

The rest - very, very disappointing.

[Kicking-back]

deeks6 - you're a very harsh judge if you think 14 of the drivers are disappointing.

And to call Raikkonen "ordinary" is bizarre.

[deeks6]

... then tell me why they're not...

Minardi's - hopeless money drivers
Pantano - ditto
Klien - almost ditto
da Matta - rarely competitive with Panis who is, what, 38?
Panis - outpaced by Webber most times in surely an inferior car, made silly mistakes.
DC - no comment necessary - has always been a B-grader.
Kimi - covered in last post.
Alonso - clearly outpointed by Jarno this year...not good enough for a virtuoso. Made some mistakes. Yeah, been unlucky on occaisions but has been poor in qual compared to JT.
Rubens - so far behind MS it is'nt funny, but I suppose I'm being a "bit" harsh on him.
Ralf - just a joke...ridiculous mistakes, inconsistent, can't pass...you fill in the rest
JPM - unfocused, unfit, riddled with mistakes, inconsistent...too interested in whingeing.
Massa - can be quick but annoyingly inconsistent and has'nt managed to stop the errors (like Sato)...may never mature.
Fisi - I'm probably harsh on him but if last years Ferrari can't beat a Jaguar and sometimes a Jordan then the driver is the problem. I just don't think he's fast enough.

[Adam43]

That has settled that then!

[Kicking-back]

Hilarious! Best laugh I've had all day.

[Skam85]

Put me on the record here, I think still DC is in the top 5 drivers on the grid. If only he hadn't mucked up 1-lap quali last year he probably wouldve challenged for the championship. As Martin Brundle says: "no doubt about it".

[deeks6]

If I was about 10 seconds a lap faster, I could challenge for the championship...

[Ralf]

Beating Coulthard is no big deal.

[Seton Fanatic]

Certainly Kimi Raikkonen has done a creditable job with a car that is clearly not up to the task in terms of pace and reliability; but to suggest that he is the driver of 2004 thus far is drawing too long a bow.

[F1Pete]

Well, I would say he is definitely chef of the year for firing up that Mercedes grill on race day. It is hard to shine in a garbage car that lacks speed and reliability obviously. You could say he is doing surprisingly well in qualifying considering the equipment. Driver of the year 2004? C'mon, driving in this modern age depends so much on the car IMHO.

[gttouring]

i f for anything he is driver of the year for not complaining
afterall the maclaren or its mercedes is pure utter poop this year.
a real brown trout.
now Takuma Sato- he has been quiite a perfromer along with button...sad about the failures...

[climb]

Originally posted by gttouring
i f for anything he is driver of the year for not complaining
...

Rightly pointed out, gttouring, although I suspect that it depends on the fact that Kimi just says nothing as usual; i mean, even when driving a good car his speaking attitude was not very different.

[Utopian]

Driver of the year 2004? C'mon, driving in this modern age depends so much on the car IMHO.

EXACTLY! The car is slow and I am suggesting Kimi is the driver on the grid doing the best with what he has, i.e. driver of the year.

[oziengineer]

I think Kimi cannot be compared to David Coulthard. I like Coulthard heaps, but Kimi is on another level. But i don't think Kimi has been going very well this year. THe last few races, his places have been mainly due to attrition. But he is driving well, no question. He may be just be frustrated with the car and frustrated in general. I mean, no one without insider mclaren knowledge could have predicted just how badly they were going to go.

[alfasud]

Driver of the year has to be decided on what you have achieved... not what you *might* have achieved with a better car.

That doesn't mean that the world champion is automatically driver of the year - there is a very strong case to call Kimi driver of the year for 2003 - driving an update of the previous year's car and certainly not the most powerfull engine on the grid, he was still in the running for the championship right up to the last race.

But in my opinion, for 2004, he simply hasn't completed enough laps for us to be in a position to judge. Not Kimi's fault, but we can't simply call him driver of the year out of sympathy.