Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Raikkonen 'is deeply frustrating'

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Kimi Raikkonen "is deeply frustrating" and will never realise his full potential, according to one of his former F1 bosses.

The Finn has been handed a new contract at Ferrari for 2016 and says he will stop racing in F1 when his time at Maranello comes to an end. Martin Whitmarsh was McLaren F1 managing director and CEO during Raikkonen's spell at the team from 2002-6, and he told Motor Sport magazine the 2007 world champion should have had much more success than he has achieved in his F1 career.

"Kimi is deeply frustrating, in that he's as smart as he is, and has all that pace - and it just pisses you off that he compromises it," Whitmarsh said. "He hasn't realised his potential - and he isn't going to now, which is a great shame."

However, Whitmarsh says the decision to keep Raikkonen at Ferrari is the right one.

"Kimi hasn't surprised me. I think perhaps the ultimate edge has gone - he had days with us that bordered on genius, as well as others best forgotten - but he can still do a bloody good job, and he's not making mistakes.

"Kimi's quite a misunderstood individual, I have to say ... He does like to party and drink, but he's actually much more disciplined about training than most people realise, and he's also very intelligent - one of the sharpest drivers out there, in fact.

"Because he doesn't say very much, and has a generally flippant demeanour, people wouldn't necessarily think that. Another thing is that, in my opinion, he's one of the best drivers when it comes to understanding the car, and communicating that."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.