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End Of A Career
He may not be the "it" driver of the moment but I still rate him as the most talented driver on the current Formula 1 grid. Of course I am speaking of Kimi Raikkonen. I am saddened to see him right now. All the antics in the World Rally Championship just points to the fact that his heart is no longer in grand prix racing.
I remember reading an article about Kimi some years ago where both he and Fernando Alonso both admit that breaking records ala Schumacher simply weren't in their plans. Being world champion, sure. Winning 7 world championships? No thanks. Three world championships would be quite enough according to Fernando. Just being world champion once would be mission accomplished for Kimi.
Kimi seems rather indifferent about his racing these days. I mean, look at the ice-cream incident in Sepang. Much as I get sick of hearing about it from commentators and writers, nevertheless, it clearly indicated a driver who was just in the team to fulfill his obligations. The passion simply wasn't there. Whereas a hungrier competitor would at least still be in racing gear, Kimi wasted no time in taking his off.
I can't help but feel that chance or rather bad luck has played no small part in wearing down Kimi over the years. Consider what has transpired in his career. He chose to join McLaren in 2002 in preference to Ferrari. But consider the machinery he got. McLaren if you remember couldn't build a car anywhere near the speed or reliability of Maranello machinery. 2002, slow car. 2003 updated slow car that kept breaking and ultimately couldn't keep up. 2004 saw a totally useless MP4/19. The 2005 MP4/20 was finally a car that showed what he was capable of. But of course, it kept breaking. The 2006 MP4/21 was a complete disaster. But Kimi had already made up his mind in 2005 to join Ferrari, to finally obtain a car that could win him the world title he so craved.
Still all those years in slow and/or fragile McLarens must have made Kimi rather restless. Give him a proper car as in the F2007 Ferrari and he goes on to take the world title. With the pressure of winning the title off his shoulders, one would have expected Kimi to run away and simply leave everyone for dead last year. And in the beginning he looked as if he would. His victories in Spain and Malaysia proved that when he is on it, that retard team mate of his simply couldn't keep up.
After Barcelona in 2008, something happened. That bloody imbecile Lewis Hamilton rammed him in the back in Canada, in the bloody pits for goodness sake, while it looked like he had the race well in his hands. Then there was France when a broken exhaust meant mister retard managed to steal victory. After that there was simply one misfortune after another. Some of which admittedly was his own fault. After these incidents, I felt like Kimi simply lost it. No amount of prodigious talent could make up for the lack of motivation. It seemed like he had simply given up. Like has was completely fed up. After the time he's gone through I wouldn't blame him.
Nevertheless, I feel sad to see him end his grand prix racing days in this manner. Disinterested, unmotivated and driving in manner unbefitting all that god given talent. We've seen it before haven't we? Mika's last days was very similar.
Of course, I am conjecturing that this would be Kimi's final season. We don't know that for certain. But I'd be very surprised given his current performance that Ferrari would not want to give his seat to one Fernando Alonso. And I'd be very surprised if Kimi himself could pull himself up and be back in the saddle for next season.
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