Michael Jordan was the best basketball player in the world but he came back with his tail between the legs from the baseball-fields with his revolutionary dreams crushed.What's in common for basketball and baseball is the ball - in a different shape and in a different material.
Rally and F1 are also two sports that differ completely from each other. Like sprint and orienteering.
I doubt it came as any surprise to one single expert that Kimi Räikkönen's debut season in WRC turned into a beginner's learning year even though the F1-champ had the best possible vehicle.
But who wouldn't have started dreaming for a moment about a miracle you see happening in the movies all the time and sometimes even on sport-fields. Räikkönen was afterall just a green fruit as a racing driver when he stepped into the royal class - he only had a fragile stone foundation of about 20 races in the smaller formula series. Yet the open-minded youngster whipped his Sauber into 6th right at his first attempt in Australia 2001.
In F1 Kimi didn't have any limits but in rally, where the top lead is remarkably smaller, he faced them very quickly in 2010. Even though he scored points in his 3rd rally in Jordan by coming in 8th and two weeks later in Turkey by coming in 5th.
Yet it didn't turn out to become a Cinderella story. At least not yet.
Should Räikkönen continue in rally then he has an exhausting long march ahead of him if he intends to satisfy his burning ambition in addition to his passion.
- One has to remember that experience-wise Kimi can be compared to a B-junior who rallies in the national village-rallies. His F1-history has none whatsoever meaning in these circles. A project like this requires an awful lot of work, time and kilometers. It will take at least two-three years at miminum before he even has a chance to rally in the top lead, Kaj Lindström has reminded many times.
And not without a reason.
Switching from F1 to a rally car and from a tarmac track to devious and lingering gravel paths is a challenge that can be classified as a mission impossible.
Fortunately almost anything seems to be impossible in this world...
In the big picture Kimi Räikkönen is a unique phenomenom in motorsport history.
John Surtees won the world championship in both MotoGP and F1. No other driver has ever been able to do that in rally and F1. And probably won't ever be able to do that either.
- Rally is an extremely difficult sport. I have to adopt a completely new driving style, learn to set up the car in a completely different way than in F1 and first and most learn to listen and take in the notes. But if this would be easy then anyone could do it, Räikkönen has admitted.
He has never wanted to be just anybody as a sportsman.
Räikkönen's Citroën has been on it's roof beside the road or in the ditch or in the hill but noble rally champions from Ari Vatanen to Marcus Grönholm have also searched for their limits through extremes.
In Germany Räikkönen got his first stage victory in WRC-level and in France he won his first rally, the Vosgien rally.
Small steps for the mankind but huge steps for Kimi Räikkönen.
Courtesy: Nicole
