F1 – Is Kimi Raikkonen Done?

I must admit that I am a fan of Kimi Raikkonen and that has rarely been easy. Has there ever been a driver with so much talent who appears to be so uninterested in what he is doing? With the news that Kimi will sit out the 2010 season, the legitimate question now seems to be whether he is done with Formula One once and for all.



There baffling story off Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari has finally come to an end. The story is baffling because it started so well. Kimi was brought in to replace a retired Michael Schumacher although there is some question as to just how voluntarily that retirement was. Regardless, it was thought that the driver with immense talent would finally dominate after leaving the unreliable machinery of McLaren behind.



Domination did not occur. Kimi was consistently the third best car on the track in his first season trailing Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton of McLaren Mercedes. Fortunately for him, McLaren made a mess of it with the team nearly falling into a three way civil war between Alonso, Hamilton and erstwhile team president Ron Dennis. Trailing by double digits in the points, Raikkonen was able to catch both McLaren drivers over the last two races to win the 2007 title by a single point. The future looked bright!



Alas, the future turned out to be fairly dim for Raikkonen. Everything looked good for a dominant 2008 season. Instead, Raikkonen provided pedestrian performances while his teammate, Felipe Massa, clearly outperformed him and missed winning the championship by a single point. Massa was now clearly the number one driver at the team. It was though Raikkonen would be motivated to set things straight in 2009. Whether he was or not was hard to tell as the car underperformed badly and neither he nor Massa could do much with it.



The end of the 2009 season saw what many thought was inevitable. Kimi was kicked to the curb so that Fernando Alonso could come on board. Kimi apparently looked to McLaren for his old seat, but eventually announced he would take the 2010 season off. The question is whether he will return to Formula One? No driver in recent memory has voluntarily taken a year off and then returned to be competitive. Kimi is young and may do it, but it is well known that he does not care for the duties that come with racing. It is also well known that he likes rally racing.



Is Kimi done in Formula One? Even as a Kimi fan, I would have to say that he is. He was an immense talent that should have won far more championships than he did, but perhaps he will give Sebastian Loeb a run for his money in the WRC!



Dirk Gibson is with DCJAutoParts.com - where you can find high performance auto parts for your car or truck at low, low prices.