Kimi Raikkonen - Lazy, Indifferent, Or What?

To reach the highest level of motorsports as a driver, you have to have incredible talent and a will to drive yourself to the top. At least that is the case so long as we are not talking about Kimi Raikkonen.

If people are asked to discuss the most skilled drivers in the last 20 years in Formula One, the list is fairly small and simple to come up with. At the top of the list is Michael Schumacher. Fernando Alonso certainly comes second. Juan Pablo Montoya had his moments. Lewis Hamilton is the new kid on the block. For all their talent and success, however, not one of these drivers has more skill then Kimi Raikkonen...when he is motivated.

A hockey coach once gave a rather famous quote when asked why he had traded a high draft pick for a veteran player. He said, "High draft picks have a habit of becoming bartenders." This is rarely the case in motorsports. You have to be motivated because there are so few seats available. Every so often, however, one driver bucks this system and Kimi Raikkonen is that driver.

Kimi Raikkonen is known as the "Ice Man" and drives for Ferrari. He is an enigma to pretty much anyone but himself. He can drive with such sheer ability that he can dominate practically any race. His first race with the iconic Ferrari team? He almost through away a win because he got bored driving into a chicane!

By now, the contrasts of Raikkonen are well known. In 2007, he took a car inferior to the McLaren Mercedes and managed to win the driver's championship in the last race with a lot of help from an erratic Lewis Hamilton. Having sown up his first title, he was expected to dominate in 2008 as it was generally believed Ferrari would close the gap to McLaren. Well, the team did, but it was Raikkonen's teammate that came to the forefront and just lost the title in the last race.

As poor performance after poor performance was racked up by Raikkonen in 2008, many blamed the car. The theory was the car simply did not fit his driving style. There was one rather large problem with this theory. Raikkonen would plod around the course for the first seventy percent of the race. With 10 to 15 laps left, he would suddenly wake up and start driving like a bat out of hell. He set the fastest lap in 10 races! This pattern repeated race after race after race.

Perhaps the most amazing thing to come out of 2008 was the news Raikkonen would drive for Ferrari in 2009. Then word leaked that Raikkonen had merely exercised a clause in his contract. Given the current financial crisis, Ferrari appears to be willing to give him another year to get his act together. From the brave faces you see on the team, one gets the feeling they don't expect much and are completely mystified by the "flying Fin".

Will Raikkonen pull it back together in 2009? Will all the criticism motivate him? If you can figure him out, you are ahead of the rest of the world. About the only thing I can guarantee is his performance will be full of unexpected turns. One has to think Fernando Alonso has already been buying racing red luggage in anticipation of 2010.