I guess it's a natural effect of Ferrari' s dominance that when the team is down, people line up for a swift kick. Some of the criticism is tough but not unfair, some is plain comical.David Coulthard's criticism on his Telegraph.co.uk column reaches a bit with:
" If Force India's Adrian Sutil had managed to bring the car home in sixth place in China, with just five laps of the race remaining, the 2008 constructors' champions would be the only team left on the grid still without a point this season; an unbelievable state of affairs for a team tipped to be the dominant force this year."
OK, and Massa would have been third if his electronics had not given up... His comment on Ferrari's drivers are more interesting even though I suspect some will say he still bares a grudge towards Kimi from their Mclaren days:"Kimi Raikkonen would never have been wondering about the pits with a choc ice and a coke, as he was in Malaysia when the race was still technically in session, had Todt still been in charge.
Then you have the drivers. I don't know Felipe Massa that well, so I can't really comment too much on him, but Raikkonen is a former team-mate of mine and the Finn has never shown me he can lead a car's development. Sure, he has blistering natural speed, but I suspect Ferrari will improve dramatically if and when Fernando Alonso arrives."
I can't disagree.
Now to the ridiculous, Niki Lauda. Lauda has traditionally kept his name in the news with a sort of automotive tourrette syndrome and today he came up with a great one!:"‘In those days, Ross, because he is English, was the ideal bridge between the Italians, with their spaghetti culture, and Schumacher, with his German efficiency. Now the Italians are running it all. Does it work? It could be chaos. That’s the problem."
Forgetting for a moment that Ross Brawn has not been at active at Ferrari for the past two seasons which saw Ferrari win in 2007 and come within one point in 2008, in 1974-77 Lauda won two championship when employed by Maranello and the team was run by Luca di Montezemolo and Mauro Forghieri. But I guess he liked spaghetti then!
And here is the rest of it.
I'm a big Lauda fan but I think he's gotten senile in his old/older age.
ReplyDeleteWell you have to admit that Kimi certainly doesn't seem to be fitting in with Ferrari. On paper it looked good, Kimi going from McLaren to Ferrari but it doesn't seem to be working out. He seems a bit immature but I have never met the guy so everything is all speculation.
ReplyDeleteTo the contrary I think Kimi is very mature when it comes to keeping his mouth shut and just getting on with it . . . can one truly fault him for Sepang or Shanghai ? . . . I think it is fair to say that he is at least trying. I actually think his driving has been more than respectable, even though he is struggling
ReplyDeleteI offer that it is the convenience of present tense that allows it to be simply laid in his lap . . . but time may tell differently.
Anyway, DC and Lauda . . . wow what a duo.
Lauda remains one of my if not all time favorite drivers, but I really wonder what may have been scrambled up stairs for him so long ago.
DC? His comments are about as valid has his last two seasons in a race seat. Filling dead air.