Some of you have probably heard that Jacques Villeneuve has again talked about Kimi Räikkönen in a negative way. Usually I just laugh at his comments because he might say anything. I remember in 2009 when BBC was interviewing him and he didn't hear what they said so instead of saying "pardon" he said "I AM NOT A LIP READER!".
Now he is saying that Räikkönen should quit because it isn't going very well at Ferrari. Villeneuve is known for saying negative things about almost anybody except himself so let's now see how good he is compared to Räikkönen.
I will start with Jacques Villeneuve. First I will write the year and then how well he did.
1996 - He gets a seat in the best car in F1 (Williams) so it's obvious that he will get great results. He took pole position in his first qualifying session but got overtaken by Damon Hill in the race. Hill became champion in the end of the season and Villeneuve was 2nd 19 points behind. Hill retired more races than Villeneuve but was still better in the end.
1997 - Hill leaves Williams so Villeneuve's biggest competitor was no longer a problem. The car was still the best and Villeneuve's new teammate (Heinz-Harald Frentzen) was not as good as Hill. Villeneuve retired from 5 races in 1997 which 4 of them was his own fault. Villeneuve became champion in the end of the season when Michael Schumacher tried to crash him out of the race but retired himself.
1998 - Williams was no longer the best team so now Villeneuve got only 2 podiums in the whole year. You could say that Williams was in 1998-1999 as good as Lotus was in 2012-2013.
1999 - Villeneuve had to leave Williams to a smaller team (BAR = British American Racing) and didn't score a single point. He was 21st in the final standings.
2000 - This year the team was a bit better but didn't score any podiums. Villeneuve was 7th in the final standings.
2001 - Same as last year, 7th in the final standings but this year he got two podiums.
2002 - Now he was only 12th in the final standings and scored just a few points.
2003 - Villeneuve gets a new teammate (Jenson Button) and gets out qualified by him. In the final standings he was 16th and Button was 9th. Villeneuve had to leave the team after this.
2004 - Villeneuve got a seat at Renault after Jarno Trulli made a contract with Toyota in the end of the season. Villeneuve raced in only 3 races and was 11th, 10th and 10th. His teammate Fernando Alonso was 4th, 5th and 4th in those same races with the same car. Jarno Trulli had also driven much better than Villeneuve before he left.
2005 - This year he got a seat at Sauber and was out qualified by his younger teammate Felipe Massa. In the final standings Villeneuve was 14th.
2006 - Sauber became BMW and Nick Heidfeld replaced Massa who went to Ferrari. Heidfeld drove better than Massa and out qualified Villeneuve so badly that they fired Villeneuve and replaced him with Robert Kubica. Villeneuve drove in 12 races, Robert Kubia in 6 races and got only 1 point less than the 1997 world champion. That was the end on his career.
Now let's list what Kimi Räikkönen has accomplished.
2001 - Kimi got a seat at Sauber even though he had very little experience. Many said that this will backfire but he proved everybody wrong and finished 6th in his first race (started from 13th). He retired 7 times mostly because of technical issues and was 10th in the final standings. It was a pretty good result with Sauber in his first year.
2002 - McLaren were interested of Kimi and paid Sauber to get him out of the contract. In his first race he took his first podium by being 3rd behind Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya. Kimi was at McLaren to learn from David Coulthard and seemed to manage pretty good right away. Unfortunately Kimi retired 11 times because the car was not that reliable. Every time the car worked he took a podium except in Canada and Hungary because those times he was 4th. Jean Todt and Luca di Montezemolo has said that in 2002 they already knew that they wanted him to drive for Ferrari.
2003 - This year the car worked better for him because he retired only 3 times instead of 11. He took his first win in Malaysia and became the youngest driver to win in F1 (now Sebastian Vettel is the record holder). In the final standings he was 2nd just 2 points behind Michael Schumacher. Schumi retired only once so it was clear that Kimi would have been champion if they had both retired the same amount of times. Ron Dennis has admitted that it was McLaren's technical issues that made Schumi the champion in 2003.
2004 - A bad year for McLaren. Kimi retired 8 times, won once and was 7th in the final standings. His more experienced teammate David Coulthard was again behind Kimi in 10th place.
2005 - The car McLaren gave Kimi for 2005 was his all time favorite. It was perfect in every aspect! ..except one.. it had reliability issues again. He retired 4 times but was on the podium 12 times and won 7 races. He retired at least 2 times from the lead and once even on the last lap! Fernando Alonso was always behind to collect the jackpot when it happened. Ron Dennis admitted again that they had failed Kimi and was so sorry that another championship had slipped away because of their reliability issues. He was 2nd in the final standings and Fernando Alonso became the new champion.
2006 - McLaren's car was worse than before and Kimi could not compete against the Renaults and Ferraris. He was very often 5th and best of the rest taking all the points he could get. Now he was tired of waiting for his chance and made a contract with Ferrari. He was 5th in the final standings behind the two Renaults and Ferraris.
2007 - First GP with Ferrari and he takes pole position, race win and fastest lap. 2007 was one of the hardest seasons ever because there was 4 drivers fighting for the championship and they were all equally hungry. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso won 4 races each, Felipe Massa won 3 and Kimi won 6 races. In the final standings Kimi won Hamilton and Alonso with 1 single point and became the champion of the world in his first season with Ferrari.
2008 - This year was a bit harder for Kimi. He retired 4 times but won 2 races and was 3rd in the final standings.
2009 - A much harder year for Ferrari when the rules changed. Kimi won only one race and that was the only win Ferrari got that year because his teammates Felipe Massa, Luca Badoer and Giancarlo Fisichella couldn't win a single race.
2010 - Santander jumped onboard and wanted Alonso to take Kimi's place. Di Montezemolo had no problem of letting him go and ended his contract one year earlier. He didn't race at all in 2010.
2011 - Kimi was not interested of coming back to Formula One and said that he is sick and tired of the politics and bullshit that's going on in F1.
2012 - Williams and Lotus were interested of signing Kimi and he decided to drive for Lotus. He had changed his mind after trying NASCAR in North America. He needed to race in F1 and started by being the fastest in winter testing. In his first race he started from 17th and was 7th at the checkered flag. It was almost like he never left! Jacques Villeneuve started right away saying that a better driver would win a few races for Lotus. In Abu Dhabi he got a win and was in the end 3rd in the 2012 drivers standings behind Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.
2013 - Now Kimi won the first race of the season and had a pretty equal year compared to 2012. At the end of the season he got serious back pains which is common amongst "older" F1 drivers. Kimi got a new contract with Ferrari for 2014-2015 and wanted to sort out his back pains before that. He didn't care that he lost his 3rd position in the drivers championship and decided to leave Lotus early to have surgery.
2014 - His back healed just in time and he returned to Ferrari. At Ferrari nothing has gone as he had planned. In Spain he finally was in front of his new teammate Alonso but had to drop back because of a poor pitstop strategy. In Monaco Kimi was again in front of Alonso but got a puncture. This may probably be one of the worst seasons for Ferrari. Let's see if they accomplish anything this season.
So what do you think? Should Kimi retire? Is Jacques Villeneuve the right person to criticize Kimi? You decide and please share your opinion on our Facebook page.
