Shouldn't Raikkonen Be Keeping His Eyes on The Prize?

Kimi Raikkonen is planning on driving in the World Rally Championship at the end of July. This, surely, is not the obvious move for a Formula 1 driver who is currently 54 points behind the championship leader.

You might think that his current situation would inspire Raikkonen to work harder, so that he might gain some ground on Button and co., but apparently, in the world in which Raikkonen lives, a world which surely only he understands, the thing to do now is go and drive other cars. It would be like an office worker who cannot cope with his workload requesting to be given more. That is, assuming there are office workers who make $51m per year.

Of course, the car he has been given this year has been uncompetitive in all but one race, and this has contributed to his lowly championship position. But the fact remains that, for the second straight year, he is being outdone by his team-mate; a fact which does not seem to bother the Fin in the slightest. If it did, why on earth would he be distracting himself from his day job by going rallying?

He has rallied in the past, in non-championship races, but then, he also used to win Formula 1 races in the past. A winner can do whatever he or she wants, so long as they win, but a man who is the second best player in a team of two has no such freedom. Or shouldn't have.

If Ferrari have any sense, they will stop paying huge sums of money to a man whose commitment to their team is, at best, changeable. One cannot imagine Michael Schumacher being satisfied with any less than the World Championship lead, which is why he was able to command the top salary in the sport.

Raikkonen, as has been well-documented, is less driven than a 2002 Arrows, and as such does not deserve his phenomenally high salary.