Kimi has a strong argument to claim he is the fastest driver in F1. That alone makes him a potential champion and the evidence of could be seen with his 10 fastest laps last year. I agree that McLaren didn’t provide him with the opportunity to win a championship given the failure of the 03 car, the perpetuation of the 03 car design into 04 which was against Newey’s advice, and the ill-calculated risks by Mercedes in power and performance seeking resulting in unreliability for 05.

Kimi seems very brave in searching for the lap times, he has shown bravery in passing moves too (as you say Fisi at Suzuka 05).

I will still maintain none-the-less that his skill set could be improved with the areas I mentioned and I say that taking into account all of his F1 seasons, not just last year.

I think he could take a leaf out of Hamilton’s book with passing, and to give an example – when in another car’s slipstream he needs to go further to the inside of the track instead of immediately assuming the outside line. Rarely does the guy in front block the full inside line, and even if he does, hold the slipstream and see if he moves back under braking to get a better angle for the corner – in which case Kimi can nail him up that inside passage under braking and hang him out to dry.

I would still like to see him build an ability to gauge and respond to grip levels and set up options, if he can do that as well as eg Alonso seems to he will be very hard to beat.

To use a recent story on another site Fernando was headlined as saying that Lewis was his “toughest rival” when he actually said was that he was “ONE of his toughest rivals. I also think that the Ferrari drivers will be better this year”. A small but interesting distinction.

I would hate to think you were falling into this rather tabloid trap…….

You have to remember that if Kimi had had the reliability that Hamilton has enjoyed all his career, we would be talking about a double if not triple world champion! It was McLaren who cost hm the 2005 championship, and most likely the 2003 title also.

His over taking over the years has been excellent (Suzuka in 2005 being a highlight, winning from 17th on the grid, and making a last lap overtake on Fisi).

The 2008 Ferrari was very poor in the wet conditions, and we had more wet races than any other season I can recall. This fell into the hands of Hamilton. It was also clear that Kimi just could not set up the car, especially over one lap though the ultimate pace was there in the number of fastest laps he had. Massa also struggled badly in the wet and it is unfair to call either poor wet race racers.

I hope that Ferrari have addressed what ever problems Kimi had on 08 and also have improved the cars handling for wet races. I think we all want to see lots of wheel to wheel action between all the top teams and having a fast Kimi is vital.

Drivers like Alonso, Hamilton, Schumacher, Prost, and Senna to name a few seemed hooked up in the car on the majority of days and they’ve been driving through different formulas, with different tyres, handling characteristics, circuits and through a raft of technical regulations. Some drivers seem to have a natural or nurtured ability to assimilate a technical feel and knowledge about the way they go racing in the car they’re given.

Kimi could well be the fastest driver in Formula 1 but I think he needs to add some things to his skill set if he’s going to beat Hamilton and win back the title. That includes racecraft (his overtaking particularly seemed lacking against Kubica at Fuji last year), plus technical knowledge, and also galvanising his team to support and help him more during a weekend maybe.