Barrichello to be replaced by pay driver?

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by strider

As usual, we disagree. After Massa had his accident Ferrari started listening to how Kimi wanted the car.

Something else to add to my previous point is just to ask why he wasn't apparently pushing the team more. It is hard to know without being a fly on the wall what goes on, but Kimi sometimes seems too passive a character to get the most out of his situation. Sure, he's fast, but that in itself is not commendable because all these drivers are naturally talented (i.e. it comes easy in a way and ironically it is questionable whether we should praise someone for being naturally talented).

Why wasn't he pushing them to get things going his way?

[strider]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Something else to add to my previous point is just to ask why he wasn't apparently pushing the team more. It is hard to know without being a fly on the wall what goes on, but Kimi sometimes seems too passive a character to get the most out of his situation. Sure, he's fast, but that in itself is not commendable because all these drivers are naturally talented (i.e. it comes easy in a way and ironically it is questionable whether we should praise someone for being naturally talented).

Why wasn't he pushing them to get things going his way?

I refer you to a quote I put on another thread:

Talking to a Ferrari man in Singapore, there is no doubting the 2007 world champion's speed or talent. It's just that Raikkonen didn't pick up and lead a team, galvanise it, in the way that Alonso does.

A Ferrari team used to dealing with Michael Schumacher for so long was amazed by both Raikkonen's pace and his immediate grasp of Ferrari technical systems in 2007. It seemed there was spare mental capacity by the bucket load.

But, they say, the real Kimi is not the Kimi of popular perception. The so-called Ice Man, unfazed by anything, impervious to outside influences and very much his own man, is an illusion.

Thinking back, they say, Raikkonen did not feel comfortable when he thought Felipe Massa was becoming Ferrari's favoured son in 2008. While he doesn't need mollycoddling, he does need to feel that a team is behind him.

By way of example they say, Kimi, disappointing early in '09, was a different driver after Massa's unfortunate accident in Hungary involving the rogue spring.

The focus of the team again, Raikkonen was awesome in the second half of the year with a car that was not one of Maranello's best, taking podiums while Luca Badoer and then Giancarlo Fisichella were struggling to get the other car out of Q1.

[davyboy]

I don't mean to appear insolent, but something that starts "Talking to a Ferrari man in Singapore..." doesn't carry a great deal of credibility. Nevertheless, if it is to be believed, then it would seem that Kimi is the wrong person to lead the turnaround of a recalcitrant Williams team.

[strider]

I would have thought that a Ferrari man was well qualified to comment. The quote was from an article on autosport.com, but there's no point in giving you the link unless you're a subscriber.

I'm not bothered if you're insolent or not, but I thought the general idea was to attack the post, not the poster.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by strider

I would have thought that a Ferrari man was well qualified to comment. The quote was from an article on autosport.com, but there's no point in giving you the link unless you're a subscriber.

I'm not bothered if you're insolent or not, but I thought the general idea was to attack the post, not the poster.

I am an Autosport subscriber and I thought the general idea was to contribute rather that attack . In any event, I wasn't attacking you or your post... sorry if it cane across that way.

[strider]

Originally Posted by davyboy

I am an Autosport subscriber and I thought the general idea was to contribute rather that attack . In any event, I wasn't attacking you or your post... sorry if it came across that way.

I thought I replied to this last night. Maybe I didn't hit the Submit Reply button. There's nothing personal in this at all; life's way too short for that. It's just that there are a couple of posters on here of whom you are one whose opinions seems always to be the opposite of mine. We can keep having a drink to prove it's not personal, but this time I'll go for wine.

The link to the autosport.com article in full is: http://plus.autosport.com/premium/fe...is-not-a-risk/

[bjohnsonsmith]

It's a sport and people feel passionate about sport, or their particular sport but civility is something I think worth preserving in any debate.