As the announcement came that Kimi Raikkonen would return to Ferrari for 2014, the team he won his 2007 title with, many fans and pundits predicted fireworks between what could have been argued as the strongest pairing on the grid with the Finn partnering Fernando Alonso.
However, the main problem for Kimi is that Alonso is outperforming not only Raikkonen, but the car itself as he so often does, the Spaniard taking top 6 finishes in nine of the first ten races of the season on his way to 97 points and a 4th place position in the drivers standings.
Whereas when we look at Raikkonen so far this year it is a totally different picture, sitting 12th in the drivers championship with only 19 points to his name and in the last 5 races the Finnish driver has only scored 2 points.
Questions have been asked more recently of Raikkonen following the crash at the British GP following his entry to the track via a curb that would prove too much for the car to handle sending it off into a spin and on its way to the barrier, Kimi did escape uninjured but with a battered ego for he had only himself to blame.
The facts show that Raikkonen isn’t just being beaten by Alonso but humilliated, a 78 point gap between the pair, not only that but Kimi has been outqualified 8-2 by his team-mate but perhaps the big factor is that Raikkonen has not yet managed to outrace Alonso in any of the ten grand prix so far.
There have been rumours that he will quit F1 at the end of 2015 but if he continues to underperform then surely Ferrari will have to consider options for next season.
Already the Scuderia have tested the potential replacement, Jules Bianchi, the Marussia driver is a part of the young driver programme at Ferrari and went quickest when he tested for the works team at Silverstone in the absence of Raikkonen.
It would certainly be a shame to see Kimi Raikkonen leave F1, he has given us some incredible memories, his world title victory in 2007 being the main one but there is always a time to say goodbye and perhaps for Kimi, it is sooner rather than later.
