wsrgo wrote:i'll admit I found Salamader's sarcastic reply rather jarring, whilst a couple of others replied well, using facts and not resorting to sarcasm or stuff like that
If you want to legitimise an argument that not being able to overtake arguably the most difficult man to overtake in all of motorsports today in less than 13 laps makes you a hopeless overtaker, then by all means, you are entitled to do so. I, on the other hand, think that this is a stance which does not deserve such respect. Having an opinion is all well and good, but if you have an ill-founded one you should not be surprised when people respond in such a way. Also, I'm not sure if you noticed, but I did use a fact there, specifically the fact that Alonso's Ferrari could not have been as bad as SgtPepper was implying due to his early charge through the field.
Anyway, on the topic of whether or not Raikkonen should be nominated for RotR, what I will say is that the size of the crash or his general performance this season didn't really factor into the nomination for me. What did was the fact that he attempted to rejoin the raging midfield battle at more or less full speed, at a point where doing such was inevitably going to cause some form of incident. He wasn't wrong to rejoin there, because the kerb ended just before then and going over it in the direction he would have, would have risked a puncture, since I think those kerbs are raised on that side. His error was trying to rejoin at racing speeds - but it was a fundamental error nonetheless, and not one you would expect from one of the most experienced drivers in Formula 1 today.
As Will Buxton has pointed out, drivers conduct track walks to be aware what the track is like in these situations - obviously I don't know whether or not Kimi did this and looked at this part of the track, but the point is that if he didn't, then he should have, and if he did, then he should've known better.
What I would also like those that are defending Kimi to consider is this: If it was Pastor Maldonado who had attempted to rejoin the track there in that manner, and not Kimi Raikkonen, would you be so quick to come to his defence? Because let's be frank here - that crash could have been far worse than it was - even as it was,
a tyre almost hit Max Chilton on the head.
In the end, in spite of Kimi's poor season, I don't expect him to suddenly make such a poor call of judgement, given his years of experience. For me, it outweighed Esteban Gutierrez being, well, Esteban Gutierrez, Force India just having a poor day in general, the radio whining from Alonso and Vettel, which I maintain was completely hilarious, and Rosberg's gearbox ruining the race for the lead, but closing up the championship fight in the bargain.