Crunch Time For Kimi: Will 2009 Make Or Break The Iceman?

As recent Formula One world champions go, they don't come any more enigmatic and confusing than Kimi Raikkonen.

Ferrari's ostensibly senior driver, who replaced Michael Schumacher and promptly won the world championship that eluded him for so many years at McLaren, may well be driving in 2009 to save his career.

That is the thinly veiled opinion of Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali, who admitted to an Italian newspaper yesterday that Raikkonen's position on the team was up for evaluation.

Ever since Fernando Alonso departed McLaren at the end of 2007, rumors have linked him with the Italian squad.

In January, the media reported the Spaniard signed a deal that would take him to Ferrari in 2011, with an option for 2010 if Raikkonen under performs.

Often in F1, it is prudent not to listen to many of the rumors that circulate around the paddock, especially relating to driver movements. But equally, in F1, there is very rarely smoke without fire.

Though the 2007 world champion presents to the media a relaxed, indifferent demeanor, there is little doubt that away from the cameras he is an entirely different person.

Flashes of his refined Scandinavian sense of humor have been seen by the world at large, but most of the time he represents a closed book to the F1-viewing public.

Nonetheless Raikkonen must have heard these rumors. Whether they are grounded in reality, he knows he must prove himself in 2009.

There are a lot of drivers who would very much like a Ferrari seat, and filling one of their cars with an under-performing ex-world champion training on his past glories is not a hallmark of the Scuderia.

It is incontestable that Raikkonen's 2008 season was poor. He set 10 fastest laps, equalling F1's record for the most in a season, but very often those lap times were isolated peaks in a valley of mediocrity.

Quite why Raikkonen was so slow for much of 2008 has yet to be convincingly explained.  Some have pointed to his difficulty in warming the car's tires, but his teammate Felipe Massa was able to do this quite effectively throughout the year and even mid-race, when the tires were up to temperature, was still just as quick as the Finn.

Moreover, in the latter half of 2008 Raikkonen was driving not only without his trademark speed, but also lacking his usual consistency.

His bungling late in the season, such as an unforced error in the closing laps of the Singapore Grand Prix, almost cost Ferrari the Constructors' Championship, which is something that Domenicali will not have forgotten.

The team have worked with Raikkonen throughout the close season, developing the car more to his tastes and giving him the bulk of the pre-season testing to prepare him for the season ahead.

The ball is now firmly in Kimi's court: It is up to him to repay Ferrari's faith and trust in him by delivering the results.

His prospects for 2009 should be good, with a car that looks strong and an experience of winning, rivaled by few as the likely front-runners.

But he will have to be wary of a buoyant Massa, who has vowed to bounce back from the disappointment of being pipped to the world championship and fight for the title again.

Last season Massa came into the year doubting his own abilities as a racer, after being upstaged by Raikkonen in 2007.

This year, the Finn will have no such psychological advantage and must work even harder to establish supremacy over his Brazilian teammate.

2009 will, therefore, be an uphill struggle for Kimi, and it is becoming clear that this year could well be the year where we finally see what he is made of on the track.

Raikkonen is a rare breed of racer and he seems to perform even better under pressure. With Domenicali suggesting that his Ferrari seat is under threat for 2010, perhaps Kimi will pull something out of the bag this season and leave his opponents behind.

But then, Ferrari might well ask why he doesn't do that all the time.