HAS THE ICEMAN MELTED?

Kimi Raikkonen. The Iceman. The favourite for the 2007 world title. It started well enough. An easy win in Melbourne. Then, well, its been downhill since then. And is there anyway for him to recover? Well yes drive quickly again! I mean where has Kimi gone? His super drives like Monaco 05, his race at Suzuka The same year. In fact any race in 05. His race to 3rd from p22 in Bahrain last year. The raw speed that we know he has. As this is being written one story doing the rounds is that Ferrari is prepared to swap Kimi for Williams Nico Rosberg and pay Kimi not to race at Ferrari. While this story maybe far fetched how has the Ferrari dream turned so sour?

The pre season talk was how Kimi had his best chance this year for the title and would his teammate Felipe Massa cope with him? In winter testing it was Massa that had the upper hand. Though it was thought Kimi was holding back and saving his best for the season itself. That much did seem to be true as Kimi took pole easily from Alonso. But Massa's car had failed him in Q2 leaving him 16th (that would become p22 after an engine change) so it was hard to really compare the two drivers. In Malaysia Massa took pole but made some mistakes that left him looking amateurish Kimi was able to finish 3rd with Massa 5th at the time of writing post usgp It was the last race Kimi beat his teammate. Massa winning the next two races and getting pole in both too. Kimi well I could note each error but basically it went like this, Fell asleep in Bahrain losing two and a half seconds behind the saftycar whilst everyone else in front pulled away. He had a DNF in Spain after losing places at the start. Destroyed his Monaco race in qualifying hitting the wall. Then in Canada bounced of the track got passed by Sato and had a messy race. In the Usgp his form did improve he set fastest lap and was right behind Massa at the end of the race. But he lost two places at the start.

All in all Kimi has just not seemed on it. A lot of the talk is of how drivers running on the Bridgestone’s now instead of the Michelins from last season. This maybe the case but he had said before the Spanish gp that he had found a set up break through and was a force to be reckoned with. But he was outpaced by Massa again. The pressure is on as well with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo saying this past week he wants the "real Kimi" back the one who used to strike fear into his rivals. After all The Ferrari boss is rumoured to be paying him the highest driver salary in f1. Its not only money though. When Michael Schumacher announced his retirement last year it was felt Schumi was forced into making a decision. That team principle Jean Todt had wanted him to do another year but on Montezemolo's insistence that Raikkonen should take his place and lead Ferrari for the future. If you look at the celebrations after Schumacher won in Monza he was happily hugging Todt but there was less warmth towards Montezemolo. So the Ferrari president sees Kimi as a team leader and expects him to lead the way as Schumacher did before him.

And there lies a problem within that. It is very clear that Kimi does not have the same leadership qualities as Michael. Now that is not said as a criticism, it merely reflects on the way the two drivers operate. It would be unfair to judge Kimi on every thing Schumacher had done in his time for the prancing horse. But you can’t help thinking Kimi could be more involved with the team. For me it seems that Kimi is happier to go out drinking or watch ice hockey than spend time with the mechanics. After his car failed him in Spain he was gone way before the race had finished. Now he said on his website that the team gave him permission to leave the circuit early because of the traffic. But really would it of hurt him to stay behind and spend some time with his team. Ferrari are like a family and the fact he is fighting to earn the right as number 1 in the team against Massa it would be in his best possible interests to spend as much time as he can with them. This motivates the team pushes them and it can all help to push the team forward. It also seems that he turns up to testing because he has to not because he wants to. Whilst Massa has used the fact Schumacher has been around the past few races for advice has surely helped him. He even said that he rings Schumacher after practice sessions or testing to hear his thoughts on what to do. This isn't Kim’s way, he prefers to do it alone it seems. I cant help but also notice how Kimi doesn’t seem to warm to Schumacher anyway, When in Brazil for the final race Pele and several other F1 drivers gave Schumacher a special goodbye ceremony just before the race. When F1 racer turned commentator Martin Brundle asked Kimi if he had gone to watch the ceremony Kimi's reply was that he'd been "Taking a s**t" at the time. So maybe Kimi's Ill do it on my own approach work? Maybe but im sure it would benefit him more if he was to at least seek some help from Schumacher. Maybe admitting to himself he is struggling and working more as a team would benefit him. Some people have said that Schumacher being around the team on race weekends is distracting him. But I find this hard to believe. If he didn't care about Schumacher on the track while he was racing him then why should he care now he's retired?

Two more possible things I think could be hurting him are the car and No Ross Brawn. Ferrari have been building a car that suited the driving style of Schumacher since 96, slowly getting it better each year so that Schumi could push it to the way he liked to drive more and more. Maybe Kimi drives in a different way than Michael did. And the fact is the car is still going to be more around the style of last year’s drivers than how Kimi personally would like it. Kimi was able to deal with the under steer nature of the Mclarens something his then teammate Montoya couldn't cope with. Schumacher’s style was more aggressive at the front, Johnny Herbert remarked Schumacher’s exteammate from Benneton had trouble dealing with the Pointy nature of the b195 (Bennetons 1995 car) that suited Schumacher’s style. With Kimi's contract situation with Mclaren he wasn’t able to drive the Ferrari until mid January and by then the car had been designed and built. Where as Alonso was realised a month early from Renault giving him more vital time to acclimatize to the new team on the other hand Kimi's first few tests were in the f248 last years car not the f2007. So as time goes on Kimi can change the car more and more to his liking. Also Ferrari really need Ross Brawn back he has the know how and the technical knowledge that could be what the team is missing. Ross is currently on a years sabbatical and it is unknown if he will return to Ferrari. He has said that he would like to but in a more senior roll.

When it became official that the fast Finn was joining Ferrari I was excited but wary at the same time. For me its great to see the drivers jumping up and down being excited seeing Massa after he won in Brazil last year was great. The excitement and emotion running through him. With Kimi after a race if you were to turn the sound down on your TV and just look at his face you wouldn't know if he'd run the race by 5 laps or crashed out on the first. People say he is a totally different character away from the track. The media reports into his off track activates would confirm this. So why is it he has to be so bland and dull on race weekends. In this day and age F1 is crying out for personalities, so why doesn’t Kimi liven up a bit? I think this for me is why im struggling to accept him as a Ferrari driver. Think of past names that have driven for the Scuderia. Jean Alesi, Gerhard Burger, Eddie Irvine, Gilles Villeneuve etc. These guys were lively and had personality by the bucket full. I know you can argue that a lot of the current drivers lack the charm of those drivers and id agree, but Kimi is almost painful to watch. I feel like screaming at the TV demanding him to smile or laugh or something to show he is not a robot. Even the terminator tried to have a personality.

Now this may seem a bit harsh and people could be reading too much into the situation at the moment. Trouble is because Kimi was expected to win and the fact he isn’t means people will start to look where the problem lies. It also doesn’t help that his main rival Alonso who also changed teams this year has won twice and even though Alonso himself is being pushed hard by Hamilton the Mclaren driver has 2 wins to Kimi's 1 and is clearly ahead in the points of the Ferrari diver. If Kimi can turn it around for the last 10 races and be the leading driver all this will quickly be forgotten. You’re only as good as your last race in F1.

So I think that maybe Kimi could learn a few things from Schumacher and spend more time with the team in this respect he still is the Iceman. But I feel he is being the Iceman with the wrong people, his Team which then makes him suffer on track and melt on the circuit it would probably benefit him if he melted behind the scenes a little and froze back up once he is on the track rather than vice versa.