And when Kimi has a bad run of things, there has almost always been something else going down that means he's not entirely to blame. Like when the team sent him out on exteme wets in Malaysia too soon. Or when they kept him in pit, assuming his time would be good enough to make Q2 despite having made the same mistake with Massa earlier in the year. People are looking for reasons to see Kimi go, but the problem with that is if you look closely enough at any driver - with the possible exceptions of Button, Webber and Vettel - you'll find stuff this year that suggests they shouldn't be racing. Hamilton? Costly mistakes in Monaco and Germany. Rosberg? Can't translate practice and qualifying pace into race speed. Glock and Trulli? Perfectly poised to deliver Toyota's maiden victory in Bahrain and blew it. They all have something.

Its a shame that Kimi doesnt get the respect he truely deserves.

One of the best F1 drivers of my lifetime.

Only Schumacher and Alonso are better.

If he didnt get wasted publicly I think he would get taken more seriously.

Yeah, I'd like to see Adam Carroll in an F1 seat. I don't know how feasible it is, but I think he'd be a good gamble for a team.
He's a sensible racer, and doesn't seem to succumb to pressure, well....from what I've seen anyway.

- wiki

If you're a person that is following F1 closely, I'm sure you know that Kimi's WDC wasn't due to his incredible performance on the track. It was McLarens' year and Ron Dennis f..ked up by not controlling his drivers very good. Bad leadership in my book. Therefore they lost it in the end (remember from China - 'we didn't race Kimi, we raced Fernando'). I'm not taking anything away from Kimi but it was McLaren's year and the Ferrari car was an evolution from Schumacher's work the year before.

Kimi didn't deliver last year still in a competitive car - Massa did. If you state your opinion as you do and mean that when Kimi came Ferrari became 2 WCC again and it was because of him, I respectfully disagree with your opinion.

//Per

2007 Kimi only won because of the fight at Mclaren and Ferrari only won the WCC because of Max Moseley.

And in 2008 Massa did not deliver. He lost more than 20 points due to his own bad performances at Australia, Malaysia and Silverstone and at the end of the year everyone was trying to blame his engine failure at Hungary and the fuel rig issue at Singapore.

And whose fault is that? Not Kimis,so his WDC was deserved.Mclaren fans want Alonso to Ferrari,because they think it will be like Prost vs Senna with Lewis and Fernando.Im sorry,but no one in the grid is not yet in their league.

I'm sorry but these points are just wrong.

Trulli didn't win in Bahrain due to awful tyre strategy, he flew away on the supersofts in the first stint only to be way off the pace on the mediums and then he was held up by Vettel for the entire last stint when he had to cope with the mediums.

Williams ran light in practices to ensure that they reached Q3 when their car was only 4th-5th best and it actually worked for Rosberg, he only missed Q3 in Germany and that Q2 session was a lottery, not a qualifying session. And bad race pace compared to quali pace? This is usually highlighted by trains of cars forming up behind just like a driver always being held up is a sign of the opposite. Rosberg IIRC hasn't held anyone up this year except for his 2nd stint in Monaco where they fuelled him ridiculously heavy as they were terrified of the supersofts, while he has been held up himself quite a few times.

So you say Hamilton is not up to Kimi's and Alonso's level?

Allright, Ferrari did extend Kimi's contract in 2008 - after a season that had been relatively worse than this one. Of course there could be some clauses that allow Ferrari to sack him. Ferrari might also pay him off if unable to duly fire him. (BTW, why would Kimi accept being sacked w/ only 50% of his salary!?)

Never heard of Occam razor?

Where did i say that? Lewis is most talented in a grid today IMO.

2008 Hamilton only won because Massa's engine problem at Hungaroring and fuel rig at Singapore.

Yes, if not better.

I think they've got similar speed, but Lewis is only in his third season.

I think his racecraft will soon surpass that of Alonso.

I think Lewis is mentally stronger out of the car too.

Not wanting to reheat Lewis V Fernando circa 2007, just my thoughts.

And because Massa had four self-inflicted errors in the races.

I felt sorry for Massa last year, but lets no rewrite history here.

Don't know about McLaren or Ferrari fans in particular, but people generally want to see Alonso in a competitive car.
As for the Senna and Prost comparison, it's more about the rivalry, their history at McLaren than putting them in the same league as Prost and Senna.

...and in 1986 Prost only won a WDC because the Williams drivers were fighting and taking points from one another and Mansell had a tire blow up in the last race of the season.

So 'for sure' this must mean Prost sucked and did not deserve a drive in a top team, winning a WDC in such fashion. Mclaren should have sacked him before 1988 season and fully focus on Senna.

Or not.

20 years from now nobody will care how Kimi won his WDC, but he will still be remembered as the 2007 WDC. Period.

Can we can get back on topic please and look less back and more into the future

Ferrari: Raikkonen/Alonso Massa
McLaren:Hamilton Rosberg
Renault:Kubica Alonso/Kovalainen
Williams:Hulkenberg Heidfeld
Toyota:Glock Trulli/Raikkonen
Red Bull:Webber Vettel
Toro Rosso:Buemi Alguersuari
Brawn:Button Senna
Force India:Sutil Kovalainen/Di Resta
USGP:Barrichello Rahal
Campos:De La Rosa Petrov
Manor:Davidson Carroll
New team:Di Grassi Trulli/Villeneuve

That they're wrong is kind of my point. See, people are constantly making cases for Raikkonen to leave Ferrari. It happens so much that I think it's gotten to the point where they're really just trying to convince themselves that he'll be leaving Ferrari. They say he's under-performing, that he doesn't care. But they're also choosing to ignore that there are a whole lot of mitigating circumstances leading up to poor performances. The team's choice to put him on extreme wets. The team keeping him in pit during the first phase of qualifying because they assumed his time would be good enough, even though they'd made the same mistake with Massa. Mechanical woes in Spain. Kimi has gotten the short end of the stick far too many times, but to blame his poor performances on him and him alone is just plain wrong. He has, after all, taken two podiums at Monaco and Hungary in a car that - at the beginning of the year - didn't look like it would be much of a threat.

So that's what I did: I took other drivers like Trulli and Rosberg and did to them what everyone else is doing to Raikkonen and made a case for them to be likely to depart their current teams based on performance, knowing full well that there were extenuating circumstances that meant both drivers have done nothing wrong. The difference here is that no-one is calling for their heads simply so that another driver can have a go.

McLaren has let their option for 2010 on H.J. Kovalainen's contract lapse, says Autosport.com today. He needs to "raise his game" to remain in the frame for a seat next year.

That's him gone IMO.

Agreed. He's toast. A shame for Heikki, he seems like a lovely guy. But he's had two pretty good chances in F1 and hasn't shown himself to be anything other than a competent journeyman. Harsh, but true IMO.

Nico Rosberg for McLaren, then?

Yeah, I met him at the 2007 British GP, a true gent reminds of Alexander Wurz's career.

Yes, another one who promised a lot but sadly flatlined.

I've met Alex Wurz and he is a very nice guy.

But like with Heikki, nice guys don't always finish first.

In fact, as Frank Williams once said, the top drivers are mostly total bastards.

You never know. I'd say a lot of Kovalainen's contract being renenwed depends upon McLaren's definition of what he needs to do in order to stay with the team. He's not going to be able to match Hamilton, but if he gets enough solid results now that the car is far better than at any point this season, there's nothing to say his services won't be retained for 2010.

I think there are sharper guys on the market at the moment.

There's Kubica, of course, but also Rosberg who has matured a lot in the past 18 months I reckon.

Just depends whether Rosberg is willing to take on Hamilton in the same team.

As I speculated a few pages back, I don't reckon Rosberg (or his Dad) were that keen to go to McLaren when they had a chance last year.

Dont ya just love the silly season. The discussions are sometimes better than the race discussions.

From all of the speculation the Finns are not having a good year.

I'll be suprised to see Kovi in a Macca next year. I also think NH would be better than NR. I can imagine fireworks between Lewis and Nico but not with Nick.

Nah, I think this has been quite a boring silly season. There's like one possibly interesting driver decision ahead, and that's who gets the second McLaren seat. With today's news that it probably won't be Heikki, everything's starting to look sorted for 2010.

Kubica, Rosberg and Heidfeld will likely take the available seats at Renault, McLaren and Williams (not necessarily in that order). Kovalainen will probably end up at Force India. Toyota will keep their current drivers and someone like Senna will replace Barrichello at Brawn. That leaves Fisichella, Barrichello and Räikkönen in the rubbish bin but in return we'll get some new teams and old test drivers back so I guess that's a pretty good exchange rate.

Nico Rosberg sounding quite realistic about taking on Lewis...


"It would be fun and very tough also, a combination - sweet and sour."

I think it will be closer than what many are predicting, I have been very impressed by Nico this year.

I would like him to stay at Williams though.

I'd like to see Rosberg have a crack in a topline car, see what he car do.

Four years is long enough at Williams, time to move on and up.

I'd say Heidfeld would be a good bet for Williams, they loved him in 05.

I'd like to see him in a McMerc.

I'd like to see Nick alongside Nico at Williams if at all possible, good experience for Nico to develop alongside and Nick's experience would be great for the team.

I know what you mean, but sadly one of those seats is reserved for a Japanese driver paid for by a company begining with T.

A possibility I reckon.

Obviously they'll go for Rosberg first.

But if Nico elects to stay at Williams and Kubica goes to Renalt, Quick Nick would be perfect at McLaren.

Would be eight years too late though.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77802

Rosberg interested in McLaren or Williams.

Whitmarsh was just on air and talking about the Alonso/ferrari move as if it was a fact. Saying Alonso moving to ferrari will have a knock down effect on the driver market and movements. He surely would be talking like that if he didnt think it was a fact.

Pretty much everyone in pitlane seems to be treating the Alonso to Ferrari move as a done deal.

Only sticking point is Kimi.

Joe Saward has some good news on a BMW Sauber buy-out. P.P. Sauber and Petronas are involved, while Ferrari should supply engines.

Should a deal come to fruition, indeed, I reckon that N.L. Heidfeld will stay on board, while R. Kubica might opt for an other (better?) seat at, say, Renault or McLaren, while current test driver C. Klien steps up to the plate. A genuine safe Sauber pairing, no?

James Allen on Martin Whitmarsh's Alonso call this morning..

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2009/08/mcla...-other-drivers/

You know, it will be a real shame if Sutil has to sputter around in a Force India in 2010.

He should replace Kovalainen if McLaren continues to be unhappy with him. That would be grand.

I think Sutil has talent but he's still too wild.

He's thrown away two good results this year (China and Germany) by either crashing or getting involved in silly incidents.

If he'd managed to make it home in either of those races I reckon his stock would be much higher.

All that talent is going to waste in a team like Force India. I think he could do clearly better than Kovalainen in that McLaren. The move would also mean a lot to the gay community and make McLaren a pioneer in both racial and sexual tolerance in motor racing - a big plus for an image conscious team like McLaren.

Is Sutil actually gay, or is this all based on his light-footed running?

I've read that there was a gay F1 driver during the 1990s but he was never named.

Not that it matters in the slightest.

He has a girlfriend I think.

Stop this shit talk please!

Sutil has a girlfriend and you call him gay? Maybe his walk looks gay you don't have the right to call him so

I didn't know gays had a gay walk.

IIRC Mike Beuttler was the first openly gay F1 driver - although he was only open about it after he left the sport (he left the sport because, well, he was rubbish).

Yeah, he was a bit of an arse....

Ferrari: Raikkonen/Alonso/Massa
McLaren:Hamilton/?
Renault:Grosjean/?
Williams:?/?
Toyota:Glock/?
Red Bull:Webber/Vettel
Toro Rosso:Buemi/Alguersuari/Loeb
Brawn:Button/?
Force India:Sutil/?
USGP:?/?
Campos:?/?
Manor:?/?
New team:?/?

I think that roughly is as much as I can deduce.