Pressure already for Kimi

Glen · 15 Nov 2001, 17:36 (Ref:175000)

Jean Alesi, I've just read, has said that he expects really big things from Mclaren, but not a lot from Kimi Raikonnen. He also affirmed his expectation of a huge effort from Mclaren in 2002.

And lots of people have said that they don't see Ron Dennis' new driver choice as a good one. Fisichella, for example, has said:

Quote:

I have no idea why they (McLaren) made that choice, because there are a lot of good drivers around like, Villeneuve, Trulli (who replaces Fisichella) and myself.

(Interesting to see that Villeneuve's name pops in there.) I have to agree with him - if Mclaren come back strongly they'd be a lot more dangerous in my estimation with Fisichella driving. Heidfeld too, of course, would be a more intimidating prospect for the opposition.

Very much looking forward to the end of the testing ban, to see how Kimi's times look next to DC's.

ljakse · 15 Nov 2001, 17:38 (Ref:175001)

And I'm looking forward to see Fisi getting that idea!

Number Juan · 15 Nov 2001, 18:12 (Ref:175027)

im looking forward to kimi eating some good old humble pie...

ljakse · 15 Nov 2001, 18:16 (Ref:175032)

?!

Nicholas · 15 Nov 2001, 20:29 (Ref:175136)

Quote:

Originally posted by Number Juan
im looking forward to kimi eating some good old humble pie...

Makes perfect sense to me...

**Bononi** · 15 Nov 2001, 20:57 (Ref:175156)

Envy, one of the worst feelings...

Nicholas · 15 Nov 2001, 21:04 (Ref:175163)

Yes, I wanted it to be Villen... (Can't quite bring myself to say it as a BAR fan.) Okay, Heidfeld! Or Fizzy!

Nicholas · 15 Nov 2001, 21:17 (Ref:175172)

Okay. I'm a Villeneuve fan and I can't spell half his name.

Raoul Duke · 15 Nov 2001, 21:35 (Ref:175191)

Well personally I would much rather see Villeneuve or Fisichella driving that Mclaren, but in all seriousness, I think that Kimi is a good prospect for the futur, he's young and talented and I think will cause DC to have quite a few sleepness nights!.

**Bononi** · 15 Nov 2001, 23:36 (Ref:175247)

Quote:

Originally posted by Raoul Duke
Well personally I would much rather see Villeneuve or Fisichella driving that Mclaren, but in all seriousness, I think that Kimi is a good prospect for the futur, he's young and talented and I think will cause DC to have quite a few sleepness nights!.

Agreed.

facco · 16 Nov 2001, 00:03 (Ref:175262)

Quote:

Originally posted by Raoul Duke
I think will cause DC to have quite a few sleepness nights!.

The parties and the girls haven't do so?

I'd like to wake up tomorrow and discover that it's march 1, so I can finally know if Kimi is as good as he promises...

Wiki · 16 Nov 2001, 01:46 (Ref:175281)

Kimi should be quite pleased to see the rollmop porridge on the canteen menu at paragon HQ ... but somehow i don't think he has the people skills of Mika to make engineers like him. If i remember rightly Mika was quite a humble bloke when he started out in the red Mcl ... then again, I am a big fan of Nick, so I'm bound to be jealous on his behalf still.

Ron had a lot of options but i reckon he took kimi to annoy Jean Todt more than anything else

Full Boost · 16 Nov 2001, 02:20 (Ref:175287)

I think we will see DC outperform Kimi almost all season.

After all Kimi didnt do that much better than Heidfeld and driving a mclaren will be a lot different to driving a Sauber.

Wiki · 16 Nov 2001, 02:26 (Ref:175289)

Quote:

Originally posted by Full Boost
After all Kimi didnt do that much better than Heidfeld and driving a mclaren will be a lot different to driving a Sauber.

Kimi didn't do better than Heidfeld this season - he did worse.
I know you can still count Kimikins single seater racers on fingers and toes but Nick isn't exactly a veteran either.
Kimi is good but don't go putting him up on a pedestal while he still has the trainer wheels on.

BootsOntheSide · 16 Nov 2001, 03:10 (Ref:175295)

Remember that Kimi had to learn all the tracks (bar Silverstone I guess) from scratch, and get used to much mroe powerful cars, and a much larger and more professional operation, so scoring points 4 times was good. Nick did beat him on both points and overall form, but he had a better position with his Prost experience as well as the F3000. Both are great drivers, no doubt both will fight for championships someday, and declaring that one is better than the other is naive and premature.

RT · 17 Nov 2001, 19:17 (Ref:175933)

Kimi will handle the pressure just fine. It's true that Nick is an excellent driver but Ron chose Kimi and now it's time for the Finn to perform. I think Kimi is an example of a "mature" head on young shoulders.

He seems to have the quiet determination ("they can because they think they can", sort of)and raw pace to be a WC soon. I'm not certain that DC will keep up with him at all.

Alan Jones · 17 Nov 2001, 21:08 (Ref:175959)

I just hope one of them takes it to team Willy and Ferrari

BBKing · 17 Nov 2001, 22:15 (Ref:175974)

After I saw Kimi opening the door for Schumacher in Austria with no fighting spirit at all I realized he might be good drive-to-finish kind of driver. Since then I don't consider him as a potential title winner.

This is good news for DC who will have a season in the McLaren without having to worry about his teammate. It might be just what the doctor prescribed for him to fight for the title against Montoya and Schumacher.

ljakse · 18 Nov 2001, 03:14 (Ref:176011)

Quote:

Originally posted by BBKing
After I saw Kimi opening the door for Schumacher in Austria with no fighting spirit at all I realized he might be good drive-to-finish kind of driver. Since then I don't consider him as a potential title winner.

Couldn't agree more, but ...
There is a word in finnish - 'sisu' - it can not be exactly tranlated, but it means something like 'winning menatlity' and it's that thing that makes the rest of the world asking 'how come such a small country has so many world champions in 4-wheeling racing'.

EERO · 19 Nov 2001, 01:57 (Ref:176249)

Quote:

Originally posted by ljakse

Couldn't agree more, but ...
There is a word in finnish - 'sisu' - it can not be exactly tranlated, but it means something like 'winning menatlity' and it's that thing that makes the rest of the world asking 'how come such a small country has so many world champions in 4-wheeling racing'.

The usual English transalation is given as "Guts".

It implies a gritty tenacity, a willingness to do more than it takes to win. This is after all the tiny country of 3.5 million that held the military might of the massive Soviet Union at bay in 1940.

Sisu, Hakkinen has it, Rosberg has it, Salo has it, (just doesn't have the talent) Raikkonen: I don't think he's got it.

Heidfeld didn't gety the ride because Ron already has the little fellow signed for 2003. Kimi was the potential future at Ferrari. Ron Dennis jumped before the Scuderia did.

DC will beat Raikkonen consistently. Kimi may out qualify DC on occaission, but the races will be david's.

**Bononi** · 19 Nov 2001, 11:52 (Ref:176325)

Quote:

Originally posted by EERO

The usual English transalation is given as "Guts".

It implies a gritty tenacity, a willingness to do more than it takes to win. This is after all the tiny country of 3.5 million that held the military might of the massive Soviet Union at bay in 1940.

Sisu, Hakkinen has it, Rosberg has it, Salo has it, (just doesn't have the talent) Raikkonen: I don't think he's got it.

Heidfeld didn't gety the ride because Ron already has the little fellow signed for 2003. Kimi was the potential future at Ferrari. Ron Dennis jumped before the Scuderia did.

DC will beat Raikkonen consistently. Kimi may out qualify DC on occaission, but the races will be david's.

Kimi Raikkonen doesn't have sisu, so what's left for him ?

Glen · 19 Nov 2001, 12:35 (Ref:176346)

I think its much too early to claim that he lacks "guts". If he'd have come on the scene, with half the paddock slating him for lacking experience, and then caused trouble by crashing a lot, or blowing the car all the time we'd now be claiming that he was full of "guts" but had no common sense!

What he did in 2001 was brilliant, in my opinion. He had to learn more or less every circuit, get used to a totally different lifestyle (when he arrived in Australia it was the first time he'd ever flown long-haul!), learn how to set up an F1 car, deal with a lot of pressure and negative vibes around the paddock... loads of stuff. He still scored points consistently (key word -consistently). JPM had a bumper rookie year, but was already well used to the pressure of competing at top level in very fast cars (and, even then, was certainly not consistent!).

I'd say... if he can get 60% of DC's points score, and out-qualify him 30% of the time, and be level on race speed by the end of 2002 - that would be a major success for him and as much as anyone could expect.

Considering Jenson Button's dodgy, distracted year I'd imagine that Ron Dennis' "control freak" management style would be a good thing too - stop it all going to his head, keep him focussed on the job at hand. It's not often that I've got something positive to say about Ron Dennis, but he does run a very tight ship and would never let a youngster lose his way as has happened in Button's case. Kimi will drive as number two to DC, and rightly so - its what he needs to build up experience.

BBKing · 19 Nov 2001, 16:02 (Ref:176403)

Bernoldi out qualified the guy who was once Schumacher's teammate. To the point of making him cry the the heaven that he was the worse teammate he ever had. Bernoldi was on the same situation of Kimi as far as not having a permanent driver permit.

Sauber was a great car. Remember that is the great Ferrari engine that propelled Schumacher to the title in 2000 they had on board. How many times the Sauber boys retired for engine problems? Compare that to the times Trulli retired from point scoring positions that were taken by one of the Sauber drivers. In my opinion both Heidfeld and Kimi looked better than they are due to the car. Heidfeld was the only one that fought for position once in a while. Even Irvine was overtaking Kimi more than once during the season.

Raoul Duke · 24 Nov 2001, 07:17 (Ref:178377)

If the car is good enough, then I think it's a fair assumption that Kimi will win his first race next season.

However I don't expect Mclaren to be a factor in the championship battle. I think that performance-wise, being at the level they were in 1997 is probably the best that they can hope for next year. But even the 1997 car was good enough to win 3 GP's.

f1manoz · 25 Nov 2001, 08:16 (Ref:178640)

There should be pressure on Kimi. He took Nick's seat, which he deserved more on results and experience alone!

However, all is not lost. I expect Nick to be at McLaren in 2003. Replacing either DC or Kimi, it will depend on who screws up the most.

I do think Kimi is a naturally talented driver however. To jump from FRenault to F1 and adapt as quickly as he has is testimony to that. But will his head cave in under the pressure of the McLaren team? Is RD expecting another Mika Hakkinen clone? What about the relationship between DC and Kimi, will it be that of Mika and DC, or will there be friction? It has to be said McLaren was one of the best teams there for a while simply because they had two drivers that got on well together, which helped team spirit.

Kimi might win a race (perhaps more) at McLaren next year. Will he beat DC? Who knows. It's all speculation at the moment.

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