Kimi Raikkonen – right or wrong to stay?
- Richard Baxter
- Oct 5, 2018
- 3 min read
It was recently announced Kimi Raikkonen will be leaving the Ferrari team and he has signed a contract with Alfa Romeo Sauber to race for the next 2 seasons, alongside the young Italian driver Antonio Giovinazzi.
There has been a lot of debate about whether it was correct for Raikkonen to remain in Formula 1 or if he should retire. The fans of Raikkonen are delighted he is staying, mostly because of his ice-cold demeanor. But others have doubted he still has enough ability.
Raikkonen has firmly said in press conferences he still has the hunger and drive to continue racing, but others have said that at his age he should step aside and make way for other younger talent. At the end of the 2 year Sauber contract Raikkonen will be 40 years old. And this is somewhat older than most drivers retire these days.
Going back to the early days of Formula 1 there were still plenty of drivers racing in to their 50’s. The sport has evolved a lot since then though. The cars have become much faster, the increase in cornering speed and the resulting lateral G-force has therefore made driver fitness a really major thing. The physicality required in the sport making it more difficult for older drivers have resulted in doubts to if Raikkonen can still compete.
Comparing Raikkonen to other drivers there are not many that still race past 40 years old. Damon Hill who didn’t start his Formula 1 career until the later age of 32 retired at the age of 39, just one season after winning the 1998 Belgium Grand Prix for the Jordan team, and just 3 seasons after winning his World Championship.
Rubens Barrichello, a driver who seemed to be around forever was dropped by Williams also at the age of 39. It’s quite well known he was keen to carry on racing at the time but wasn’t offered a drive. But given the opportunity I’m sure he would’ve raced in to his 40’s.
Michael Schumacher on the other hand retired for the second time in his career at the age of 43. Whilst he wasn’t the same driver he once was he was still scoring points and podiums.
On this evidence drivers can still compete at this age so there is no reason why Raikkonen can’t. He hasn’t exactly been underperforming the last couple of seasons; in my opinion he has been further forced by the team to play a number 2 role to Vettel which has damaged his results. Whilst he might not have won races he has still attained points and podium finishes, which if he managed for Sauber would be very important. Given a decent car I’m sure Raikkonen could achieve this.
I think there is only criticism simply because of the highly talented and young drivers such as Esteban Ocon who look to miss out on a 2019 race seat and people see Raikkonen as ‘in the way’.
Personally I don’t see it this way – the problem is much bigger.
Formula 1 has always had a history with ‘pay drivers’, it’s always been a rich mans’ sport. There’s no doubt that if some of the lesser talented ‘pay drivers’ made way there would be some brilliant young talent on the F1 grid. Another problem though is that we only have 10 teams on the grid. Forget all the nonsense of 3 car teams, more teams would be better.
Ultimately if Liberty can make progress on the massive issue of team funds then surely this would pave the way for new teams, new teams would mean more drives available and then we could have the perfect mix of experienced and young and most importantly talented drivers.
Looking at the Sauber line up for next season though, I expect Raikkonen will spend his 2 years essentially mentoring Giovinazzi similar to what Massa did for Stroll, and we saw Stroll have some decent performances in his first Williams season. This could turn out to be a very shrewd move for Ferrari, especially if they are eyeing Giovinazzi as a future Vettel replacement.
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