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Alan Henry: Carry on Kimi.

Friday, 19th January 2007

To some extent, you've got to feel sympathetic towards Kimi Raikkonen. Michael Schumacher is certainly a hard act to follow in the Ferrari line-up....

Todt was being totally pragmatic here. Ferrari have just secured the services of possibly the fastest man in the business from A-to-B, potentially the one man capable of picking up the Schumacher gauntlet, so there was no point in de-railing the relationship before it had started. Hell, has nobody ever heard of a grand prix driver having a drink before?

In truth, I suspect that most race fans love the idea of a flawed heroes who are slightly larger than life. Over the past couple of decades, F1 drivers as a genre have attracted criticism in some criticism for being bland and uninteresting. Just because Kimi is frequently monosyllabic and generally uncommunicative, it would be a mistake to conclude that he's not a shrewd operator. Circumstances have conspired to throw him together with Ferrari. And it could turn out to have been the best thing that ever happened to him.

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