Kimi Raikkonen is among the top five drivers on the Formula 1 grid based on recent form, ex-F2 driver Davide Valsecchi claims.
Despite being the oldest man on the grid and driving a largely uncompetitive Alfa Romeo, the 2007 world champion is proving class is permanent as he extracts the maximum, including his first points of the year last time out at Mugello.
Such is his performance, Raikkonen has only been beaten once by teammate Antonio Giovinazzi all year, something that surprises Valsecchi.
“I thought that maybe Raikkonen was too old and at the end of his career, and so I said that Giovinazzi could take a big advantage from that,” the Italian admitted on the F1 Nation podcast.
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“But Raikkonen just woke up and is delivering so well at the moment. I think that in the last four weekends, Raikkonen is in the top five on the grid at the moment.
“So Giovinazzi, against this level of Kimi Raikkonen – he cannot maintain it.”
And that could spell doom for the Ferrari junior’s future in F1, with Mick Schumacher now widely tipped to replace Giovinazzi for 2021 with Kimi considering if he’ll stay on.
“I think that if Raikkonen decides to keep going with his career, and it seems that Alfa Romeo is waiting for him, if he says yes I think for Giovinazzi it will be the end because Schumacher is performing very well in F2,” Valsecchi added.
“He’s showing very good maturity and is aggressive also. He looked a bit like his father at the last race. Then you have Schwartzman, very talented.
“So the places in Formula 1, there are not so many. Two in Alfa Romeo, two in Haas, and I think that at Alfa Romeo one is for Raikkonen, then you have to consider [Sergio] Perez, it’s not possible that he’s going away.
“So with not many places, I think that for Giovinazzi it will be hard.”