Kimi Raikkonen: Angry with the Media

But I said all drivers are pretty sharp men; am I suggesting that the other drivers are unaware of the mundane interactions they must suffer with the media?  Not in the slightest! 

I fully believe every driver is aware of his situation, but that the other drivers are willing to put on the face the media wants to see.  When Alonso explains his car’s setup without revealing anything and in the vaguest of details, but with enthusiasm; he is jumping through hoops to keep those around him happy. 

Lewis Hamilton puts on a show for the press with Britain’s rabid media.  Kimi’s problem is that he simply won’t do the dance.

Maybe he doesn’t want to play the games because it requires effort, or maybe he doesn’t because he so rarely gets to say or do something interesting under the media’s watchful eye.  But the point stands that he doesn’t enjoy the mundane parts of the F1 circus.

He is fed up with the way the media treat him during the race weekend just as much, or more, than his loss of privacy, and these recent events are signs of the frustration that he and all Formula 1 drivers have to deal with.

To be clear, I am not ridiculing other drivers for putting on the show that the media often demands, but I do want it to be known that they are putting on a show that they all see through. 

Both Kimi and the other drivers are interacting with the media in the way that they believe best serves their ends, and I find no fault in the drivers for choosing one path or another.

However, I believe the roots of his actions are based in the poor standards and often poor performance of the media.  They make his job more boring and rarely offer insight.

As a further insult, Kimi sees the media occasionally bumbling around and interfering with his ability to win races, and distracting him in between practice and qualifying.  He might wish he were so lucky as to stop at sharing his night life!

To be sure, Kimi isn’t trying to lecture the media on its practices.  He doesn’t strike many as the type who wants to deliver a message, even more so if the message requires effort for a typically laid-back man to deliver. 

He doesn’t expect the media to change its ways; he just wants the simple and obvious questions and all the dead-end interactions to stop coming his way.

Kimi doesn’t see himself as someone who signed up to do public relations.  He might want to look good, but he doesn’t want to pose for the cameras. 

Kimi has a contract to race Ferraris.  Before that, he raced McLarens.  He sees that as his job and his passion.

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