Bada Bing!

I heard they'll do one year after that to see if it was a fluke, and retire even if it wasn't. But I can't belive that if they dominate next year that they'll give up such good press.

A Clio V6 with a flappy paddle gearbox and F1 monicker along with an explosive "we won F1" ad campaign must surely be too good a PR excercise to pass up?

rmotegi

Renaults top hombre/head honcho/big cheese recently said that they would stay in

F1 'as long as they were winning'.

No pressure there then.

So I guess they'll be in for next year - subject to Alonso finishing the job off.

Shame about Raikkonen.

Despite his personality disorder (er, none) he is obviously right on it and deserves

better luck.

Michael should work on next years car or think about where to put the new

conservatory.

He'probably still the best tho'....

Bada Bing!

I think Raikkonen is the best driver in F1. As long as he has a half-way decent machine he always wrings its neck and pulls a fantastic drive out of the bag. He is for me, a driving machine. No fear, no pride, just pure racing driver.

His standout moments for me are driving flat out (telemetary data proved this later) through the zero visibilty conditions created by a blown engine on the downhill entry to Au Rouge at Spa in 2002. Some called him crazy, some called him heroic, I called him a f*cking legend. He earned my instant respect.

The other was his simple out-driving of Schumacher at Spa in 2004, in a 2 year old car in torrential rain. Schumacher with nothing to lose after securing the championship some races earlier, was determined to hold Kimi off, but was simply unable to.

Schumacher has only out-raced Kimi once, and I think that was at the Nurburgring in 2002 when Kimi slipped on a patch of oil and Schumi ran him off the track to ensure he stayed in front of the young pretender. I suspect he made a vow that it would never happen again, and it hasn't.

Unfortunately, McLaren have failed in every season since he joined them to provide him with a car which will hold together long enough to score a string of wins and secure a championship. I know full well that Ron Dennis is bricking it that Kimi is about to sign up with someone else in a bid for a reliable, championship winning car. Unfortunately for him, the only team capable of doing that is Renaultm ant I think Fisi is on a 2 year deal.

rmotegi

Yes Bada Bing I would agree that Raikkonen has the potential to be the best.

No one doubts his speed.

If you think of all the attributes necessary to become an F1 champion - maybe a

great F1 Champion - he seems to have many.

Cool under pressure, brave, fast when you need to be, the bandwidth to think in

the car and out of it, able to grasp the technicalities of the car and what makes it

easier to drive and go fast, the people skills to work with and inspire a team

around you.

Alonso seems to have this pretty well right now too.

My only doubts on Raikkonen would be on the people skills/inspiring side and a

small question mark against 'fast when you need to be'

If you check Michael against the above (admittedly arbitrary) list he's awesome on

all of it with maybe a slight question on 'cool under pressure'.

My view is that Alonso is the most complete driver - at the moment - after Michael.



My 2 pence.

zero_to60

MS is the BEST

Bada Bing!

I'd say the question mark over Alonso's head is his temper. Like flipping the bird at Ralf Schumacher when he ripped wheels ripped off his own car whilst overtaking him at Monaco 2004 (although it did make me laugh a lot). He also got noticeably angry (one pit radio rant was played over the live TV broadcast) at his team mate's tardy pace that he smashed into a wall at Montreal 2005.

It by no means discredits his abilities as a driver or his right to be the current points leader, but I can't help thinking that if Kimi had a half-way reliable car he'd have wiped the floor with Fernando this year.

We'll probably need to wait until 2006 unless his Renault's engines blow up at the next 3 races.

AlexC

I agree, if BEST =

Big-headed
Egotistical
Sauerkraut
Twat

rmotegi

Ice cool analysis there AlexC



Is sauerkraut an attribute or a german foodstuff?

I guess MS already has enough reason to be a sour Kraut this season.

Gazzer

I've only seen 2 races this season, am I lucky?

Anyhow, will he or won't he go to Williams, what do our panel of experts think?

I hope he stays put.

G

AlexC

[QUOTE=Gazzer,Jul 26 2005, 07:51 PM]I've only seen 2 races this season, am I lucky?