Kimi Raikkonen: So near yet still so far...

Regarded by many to be the best of the field, he seems to always be capable of winning. Nothing disturbs him and very little draws emotion. He is simply cool, calm and collected all of the time. He consentrates all of the time, very rarely makes a mistake, and simply gets the job done. Yet despite his amazing talent and expert skill, he constantly seems to loose out because of plain bad luck.

In 2003, only his third year as a grand prix driver, he came ever so close to winning the championship in a year which saw some amazing competition and rivalry within the sport. Yet, as admitted by Mercedes-Benz, an engine failure in Germany that year put him out of a race in which he was certain to score and ultimately cost him the championship.

However, his bad luck stems even further back than that. In Magny-Cours 2002, he was almost certain to take his first victory in only his second year. But, bad luck struck again when he hit the oil of a stricken Toyota and lost out to Michael Schumacher. It was the Malaysian grand prix of the next season before he would stand on the top step of the podium for the first time.

Going into 2004 everyone was putting their money on him to be the first since Mika Hakkinen to beat Schumacher to the title, including Bernie Ecclestone. But, it wasn't to be. McLaren got it horribly wrong with the MP4-19 and the car was slow, unreliable, and simply incapable of winning. It caused him to retire from five of the first nine races and only allowed him a best finish of fifth in the Canadian grand prix and score a total of eight points out of a total of ninety possible by the mid point in the season. It was awful for qualifying and worse for racing, because not only was it unreliable but it was unpredictable and difficult to drive as well. McLaren replaced it at the French grand prix with the MP4-19B, their "it's not a new car" new car. The totaly revised machine was easier to drive and faster giving Kimi three podiums and a win in the remaining nine races. However, it was still cronically unreliable, causing him to retire from three.

Coming into this season it looked like McLaren had sorted out their problems and were on their way to challenging for the championship. With Ferrari out of the way and only Renault left to fight, it looked like this year could finally be Raikkonen's. The McLaren is the fastest on the track and the easiest to drive, but once again the Iceman has had his season ruined by bad luck and unreliablilty.

The team had problems getting the optimum performance everyone knew was there out of the car for qualifying, and this inevitably led to dissapointing races. However, when they finaly sorted out the problems and everything looked set, Kimi was hit with even more bad luck. In Bahrain he looked certain for the win until his tyre failed causing him to have to pit in the closing stages for a replacement and end up third. In the next race at San Marino, he was once again dominant all weekend as well as in the early stages of the race, but a driveshaft failure caused him to retire. It finally came good for him in Spain and Monaco where he won two consecutive races, but by this time Alonso had already built up a massive lead in the championship. Again he looked certain to win at the European grand prix when his supension failed on the final lap handing the win to his Spanish rival, although admitedly this could be classed his own fault since it was the vibrations from the flatspot caused by him locking the brakes earlier in the race which caused it.

He won again in Canada but the fiasco of the United States grand prix did him no favours in his race to catch Alonso. In the next two races in Britain and France he so unfortunately suffered engine failures in practice causing him to have to start from the middle of the grid, yet still he fought his way up the pack to finish second and third in the two grands prix. Evidence enough he was not only the fastest man in both events, but could easily have won if it weren't for reliability problems. Then there was the German grand prix, another race he was destined to stand on the top step, until a hydrolics failure of course.

You would be forgiven for thinking there is some other force at work here which doesn't wan't Raikkonen to win the championship, very few drivers have been as unlucky as him. Clearly he is capable of winning the title, but we have to wonder if that day will ever come? Will he ever have a reliable car? Will his run of bad luck ever end? Or will he be just another one of those drivers who could have been?

Lets hope it comes good for him soon, because he is clearly one of the best, and the day he is given half a chance Formula 1 will be treated to some excellent racing like it has seem glimmers of recently when he gives Alonso and Schumacher a good run for their money and challenges them seriously for the top spot.