Raikkonen vs. Schumacher


By Thomas Chacko
August 11 2006

Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen both sign for the Scuderia for the 2007 season, who will come out on top? Many believe Raikkonen will show that Michael can not beat a competitive team mate, but Schumacher may very well come out on top. Ferrari 1 - Unofficial Ferrari F1 News and Views

Raikkonen
vs.
Schumacher
In a career spanning 15 years Michael has raced in 244 F1 races making him the 2nd most experienced driver of all time in F1. He is just 12 races away from equaling Ricardo Patrese’s record of 256 races. With that most of the records in F1 which Michael owns - most F1 wins, pole positions, fastest laps, podium appearances, points, being continuously on the podium and being reigning world champion for an incredible 1800 days! – seem to be unbeatable.

Now that most people feel that Kimi Raikkonen is most likely to be Michael’s team mate next year, it is perhaps time to look at their records. While it is not fair to compare them against the above parameters, an area that we must consider is DNF.

To date Kimi has competed in exactly 100 F1 races, but he has a DNF record of 35 races [35%]. Of these 11 [11%] have been caused by engine failures.

Michael has after 244 races in F1 a DNF record of only 49 [20 %] and of these only 9 were caused by engine failure [3.6%] His last engine failure was in 2000 in France.

Michael’s and Kimi’s record for off track excursions, collisions and accidents seem to be on par – about 9% each.

One aspect of Michael’s driving is his telemetry with the car and engine. He is capable of being as fast as, or even faster than, the best – his all time record of pole positions and fastest laps prove that. Even though we did not see it last weekend, Michael knows better than anyone else how to pace a race - when to push for it and when to conserve his car.

If the Ferrari of 2007 is like those of 2002 and 2004, there may not be much to choose between Kimi and Michael, but if the car has even a slight problem, I would put my money on Michael – assuming, of course, that they are both in Ferrari next year.

August 10, 2006

Bookmark or share this story with:

 

Ferrari F1 latest threads