Kimi Räikkönen knows how Giancarlo Fisichella felt as his team mate last autumn in Ferrari. When Räikkönen even won with a car that didn't go so well, Fisichella dropped to the back over one second slower.Fisichella had to race with a strange car and learn to know the tricky KERS-alphabet at the same time.
This year Räikkönen has had to experience the same difficulties in the strange WRC-world. There's been too much to learn during a short time. When the team mate is the super performer Sebastien Ogier, the rookie's know-how level is reviewed unreasonably hard.
And it's not about losing the talent, it's purely about the lack of experience.
Fisichella won three races during his career and was on pole before he moved from Force India to Ferrari. Räikkönen has already flashed his speed in a couple of rallies but he has made mistake after mistake - just like the man himself knew to expect.
Two work mates who know Räikkönen very well understand the difficulties Kimi has.
Andrea Stella emphasizes that rally differs so much from F1 that Kimi has as much to learn as his former team mates Luca Badoer + Fisichella together had.
Kaj Lindström compares the difference between rally and F1 as ice-hockey and figure-skating. The similarities are extremely few even though both are on ice and nobody learns anything completely new in a flash.
Robert Kubica has a higher and higher rally fever. He has already drove 8 rallies this year so it's more than a random hobby.
Kubica's training car is Renault Clio S1600, which is of a remarkably lighter caliber than Räikkönen's WRC-Citroën. The stronger the car is, the more highlighted the rookie's mistakes will be.
When Kubica will change from F1 to WRC permanently he has at least had time to practice in a remarkably smaller spotlight than Räikkönen has.
Mokpo/Heikki Kulta
Courtesy: Nicole
