Max Mosley opens his piehole again

[KC]

Even after a near unanimous decision (24-1) by the F1 Commission approving Kimi Raikkonen a superlicense, Max has to be a negative influence once again. Even Gerhard Berger voted for Raikkonen. I trust Berger's knowledge of F1 much more than Mosley, after all he will be remembered for introducing narrowed cars and grooved tires.

[Splatz]

What did Maxwell say? I'm in the dark here.

[KC]

He said that Raikkonen did not deserve his superlicense as of yet because he had not raced enough in the lesser formula. The team owners, drivers, sponsors, and FIA delegates that make up the F1 Commission all (Mosley had the only dissenting vote) saw otherwise based upon his testing times, feedback and what they percieve as his ability. Berger commented that he only had 25 professional races under his belt before being let loose with a 1000hp F1 car and the majority of them was in AlfaSud sedan cars. He said that the only real way to determine if the young man is good enough is to let him race. If he is in over his head it will become self evident.

[Ralf's Girl]

Looks like Max is disappointed on this one. If the whole F1 Comission apart from him has voted that Raikkonen should have a superlicense, he ought to just accept it. As you said, KC, if Raikkonen is not cut out for F1 just yet, we will be able to tell without him sticking his oar in.

[Minardi fan]

Raikkonen decision was wrong, says Mosley

December 18: Max Mosley has blasted the decision to grant young Finn Kimi Raikkonen a super license.

The FIA president voted against handing a license to Raikkonen, who has only competed in 23 car races, and believes that the Sauber rookie’s inexperience could well lead to disaster.

“Unfortunately the F1 commission doesn't always do as I tell them, despite speculation to the contrary," he told Speedvision.

"I do not believe that they adopted a defensible position in giving an inexperienced driver like Raikkonen a license. It is quite wrong, given that we have strict criteria for graduation into F1.

“When there is a major accident caused by the presence of very inexperienced drivers in F1, I'm the one who will have to explain it to the world's media and television cameras."

----

Shut it Maxwell! Give the guy a chance. Tuero got his superlicence at only 19 and did a superb job in his one and unfortunately only season in F1.

[ma]

And how many races did Button have ?

[Minardi fan]

Slightly more than Raikkonen.

[Jay]

Actually, even Button said that Raikkonen did not have enough experience to be in Formula One.

I am not sure myself.

Kimi has only ever competed in 23 races before. He dominated Formula Renault. (Which I admit, I hasn't a clue about) After some searching, it appears to be something around F2000 in North America, which is about 2 levels below Champ Cars.

I have never seen him race, so I haven't a clue how talented he is. However, I have my doubts that 'Formula Renault' can come close to preparing a driver for F1.

Only time will tell.

[KC]

My biggest problem with his whole complaining act is that he can display all of his dirty laundry to the press, but if Ron Dennis or Jacques Villeneuve disagree with him they are called up on the carpet for immediate verbal abuse and villification. He can publicly disagree with the FIA Commission, but no one else (or only just a few anyway) can say anything. It might bring the sport into disrepute.

[Craig]

I was trackside for pretty much every Formula Renault meeting over the past two years and I have to say that, although Kimi is an excellent prospect, he did not dominate the series as has been claimed - at least not in the way that Pizzonia did the previous season.

Even if he did, Formula Renault to F1 is ridiculous. Fair play to the lad if he can pull it off, but racing against drivers such as Vincent Apple to racing against drivers such as Montoya and Scumacher is surely too big a gap ? A year in F3 would have been an excellent idea - and it would have given me the opportunity to watch him hone his skills against Sato, etc...

Having said that, Gerhard Berger only competed in something like 20 or 30 races before reaching F1 - and half of those were in an Alfa Sud! And that would have been before the popularisation of karting too...

Good luck Kimi. I fear you'll need it bloke.

[Liz]

Max is doing a Pontius Pilate - washing his hands in public so if the boy is killed it's "not my fault". I also think it's hypocritical of him; if the kid's name was Michael Andretti you wouldn't be hearing Word One from Max - and Andretti was an abject failure in F1 no matter what experience he had, who should not have been given the drive and it was a pure miracle he didn't kill anybody.

You can't tell what someone will do until he's actually had a go at it, so give the boy a chance.

P.S. I agree with KC that Max is doing what he would punish anyone else for doing. And personally I hope he falls flat on his face. Meaning Max.

[ma]

It's amasing how some people STILL want to ridicule Michael Andretti, even though all the evidence that has been posted in numerous places shows that his driving skill was never in question, just his mental attitude.

Give it up, people !