Nope. Neither Lewis nor Alonso(and I'll add Vettel to that so far) has had any season where they didn't perform well. I've kinda gone over that already.
Actually only Vettel.
And yea, Kimi was disappointing in 2007. Sure, he won the WDC, and that was fantastic to see, but he certainly didn't do it like people expected. Massa proved to be just as good as him that year and small differences were the only thing that kept it from being Massa as the one to have a small shot in the last race. Thats not what Kimi was hired to do. He was to replace Schumacher and his salary reflected that. People thought he was 'the fastest man in F1', including Ferrari, but he clearly wasn't. I thought maybe 2008 would be different. After all, it would be his 2nd year in the team and they were banning traction control, so that was going to be an advantage for him. Except he actually got worse compared to Massa. After that, there was little denying that he wasn't nearly as good as people thought he was. And thats ok. He doesn't need to be the best for me to like him. 2009, again people said 'things would be different'. I had my fingers crossed. But they weren't. Massa matched him again, with all new regulations in place. It was the nail in the coffin for the 'fastest man in F1' idea. Only delusional people could still cling to that.
Those were the last Ferrari saw of the WDC and WCC cups. It's been lean season after lean season since then. You know what is stokin? Kimi's spread on the wall at Ferrari world in Abu Dhabi. Somebody over there is a massive fan. But I digress - the point is, Kimi wanted things fair and wanted there to be a challenge until there was truly a man to back - and he proved it wasn't all talk when he held to that philosophy in 2008. That allowed the duo to bring home the WCC bacon and nearly win 2 WDCs for the team.
I don't really see how any Ferrari fan can compare those days to the present and prefer no cups at all.
I cant buy into Kimi being a top driver anymore, sorry. Its just not in my ability to. If my 'wants' controlled my ability to think rationally, I'd probably be saying the same things y'all are saying now. I've said before Kimi has a chance to win the 2013 WDC, but I think its unlikely unless Lotus build a pretty special car. Ferrari built a special car in 2007 and 2008 and he only barely got a single WDC. I have little doubt Alonso would have made the season boring in the same machinery. I dont say that cuz I'm an Alonso fan, but because I respect how good he is.
But they don't give out cups for those things. In any case, I don't think everyone has to see Kimi as a top driver.
He is though.
Edited by bourbon, 16 January 2013 - 04:42.