Mika Salo and Marc Surer see Räikkönen as champion in 2012

After two years away from the Formula 1 circuits, Kimi Räikkönen does not seem to have lost his edge. Proof of this is his second place in Bahrain this weekend, where he contested the victory with Sebastian Vettel for a long time.

A string of good results behind the wheel of his Lotus-Renault allows him to rank seventh in the championship, only 19 points from the leader, Sebastian Vettel. This is enough for his compatriot Mika Salo, now a commentator for a Finnish television channel, to predict Kimi as world champion by the end of the season: « Since the beginning of the season, the most consistent team has been Lotus. They have been fast on every circuit so far. In this sense, Kimi’s situation is very good. He cannot be excluded from the fight for the championship until the end of the season if the team continues at this pace of development. »

On his side, another former Formula 1 driver, Marc Surer, now a commentator for Servus TV, an Austrian channel, shares the same opinion as his Finnish counterpart, but with a slight caveat: They [Lotus-Renault] started last season in the same way, and very quickly they were nowhere. So the real question is: do they have the resources to develop their car and stay at this level all year?

However, Räikkönen’s level after two years of absence in Formula 1 surprised many observers: « I think he has shown everyone that he is capable of doing exactly what he knew how to do before leaving. He is much younger than Michael Schumacher. And if you look at the last ten years, he is probably one of the best talents seen in Formula 1 during this period. »

Surer therefore acknowledges that Räikkönen could be a serious contender for the championship title, even if he doesn’t want to make any predictions: « Everything is so balanced this year that it’s impossible to know which car will win the championship. »