What about Kimi?

[airshifter]

Just curious as to the view on Kimi Raikkonen and his return to F1 this year. Though he obviously has a lot of fans there hasn't been that much discussion regarding him this year.

With all the fighting up front, he quietly managed a number of podiums, finished ahead of both McLaren drivers as well as the second Red Bull, and ended the season with more than double the points of his team mate Grosjean.

I'm sure his off track drive around in Brazil will be remembered by many, but overall he didn't make many such bonehead moves.

I think he drove a good season, and quite a good return to the track. Though not in the real fight for the title, he managed to place third without hardly being noticed. What does everyone else have to say?

[zako85]

Russia's motor.ru placed him in their subjective ranking as the top driver of all motorsports in 2012.

Indeed, Raikkonen was excellent, very much in the same equivalence class with Alonso when it came to performance and consistency. After all, to finish 3rd, ahead of both McLarens and Webber's RBR should mean something. Consider this: After spending two years mowing down trees and falling into ditches on varios WRC tracks, he comes back to F1, and it seems like he does need even a minute to adjust back to new F1 car, new tires, etc. He performed as if did not take a break from F1 at all. He finished EVERY race out of 20, and scored in 19 races out of 20. This is simply phenomenal IMO. Like Alonso, Kimi also showed a great ability to come through the field and usually to improve upon his starting position. The only problem that Kimi was having is that his Lotus was not fast enough in qualifying. If his Lotus was a tad better in qualifying, I think we could have seen him win 3-4 times this year.

I hope the Lotus will deliver a good car next year, and the show will continue to be good. Indeed, Lotus secured new sponsors, so they certainly have a budget now to build an excellent car.

[Robinho]

His qually pace was a bit lacking early on, but in the races I think he has been pretty much the equal of anyone this year, the lotus was a great race car over long stints and it complemented Kimi brilliantly. I was chuffed for him to get the win as well, he certainly deserved to be considered

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[Koz]

Kimi...

Perhaps he had the best car in the first half of the season, but clearly he a little was rusty, more so in qualifying than in races. And while that hurt him, his consistency and experience proved that he is still one of the best.
After Spa - when they were still in the running for the WDC, Lotus wasn't able to develop as well as the others.

I have to say he was near equal to Alonso this year.

I'll also add, Lotus pitstops seemed very slow to me compared to the other top teams. Sometimes more than a second slower than McLaren, this is something they really need to work on for next year.

[Tazio]

Kimi had a superb year, finished 3rd 74 points out of first in the WDC. He finished ahead of three out of four drivers of his highly rated former employers. What else needs to be said about a guy who did it while shaking off a little rust along the way?

[zako85]

Returning to F1 after a two year break is supposed to be difficult. The history of F1 has a lot of good drivers who had difficulties with adjusting after a lengthy break. In the light of this, to see Kimi qualifying and finishing in the top 10 and taking the fight to the top teams pretty much from the beginning of season, and then outscore both McLarens in WDC was very impressive.

[Natalie.S]

Bit rusty at the start of the season but really together with Alonso and Vettel in a class of their own.
I look very much forward to next season and hope the Lotus is competitive from the get go

[TMorel]

I still don't think that Brazil's trip down the side road was a bonehead move, if anything I was impressed that in that split second he remembered that the last time he raced there, the gate had been open and so he could have cut back onto the track. Sure, this time it had been blocked off, but that awareness I consider a good thing.

Am still gutted you got him back for your roundy roundy racing, I think he has something more to offer the WRC, and typical bad timing, for 2013 I think the WRC finally had something to offer him.

[wedge]

Kimi is most definitely 2012 Man of the Year.

I'm a huge admirer of Kimi so in terms of perception he has definitely come of age as previously he was a Marmite driver.



[youtube]oe73fex_E1Q[/youtube]

In case you haven't seen it yet search for "Kimi kidnapped" on YT...

[Big Ben]

This is a boring thread.... I agree with everything said so far : Go KIMI!