Salo: “Raikkonen is also among the favorites for the title”

Kimi Raikkonen can fight for his second world title this season: Mika Salo, former Ferrari driver and now commentator on Finnish television MTV3, is convinced of this.

The Lotus Finn, 32, challenged Sebastian Vettel for victory at the Bahrain GP last weekend, finishing second for Lotus and five years after his title with Ferrari, he is 19 points off the championship lead. “The most consistent team was Lotus”, Salo explained. “They have been fast at every circuit so far. In this sense, Kimi's situation seems very good. I don't rule out at all that he could be in contention until the end of the championship, if Lotus is able to maintain the pace of development of the car.", concluded Salo.

Even from other parts there are comments in favor of the Finnish. Swiss commentator and former F1 driver Marc Surer, speaking on Austrian television Servus TV, questions whether Lotus has the resources to develop the E20. “Last year too they started well then got lost along the way”, explained Surer, with a past at ATS, Brabham and Arrows. “So the real question is whether they will be able to stay at the top: in that case I think they could fight for the title. I think Kimi has shown everyone that he is still capable of doing exactly what he was doing before he left F1 for rallying. He is much younger than Schumacher, and if you look over the last ten years, he is probably one of the best talents we have seen in F1. However, given the number of competitors, I can't say whether he is the number one favorite“, concluded the Swiss.

Lorena Bianchi