We live in a lucky age where it seems that we have legends in the making coming out of our ears.
Schumi is undoubtably a legend, then that up and coming Alonso beat him to become a legend ender. Next year after that Super Rookie Hamilton came along to be the next Senna, quickly followed by that rather spectacular Mini-Schumi Vettel!
So last year we had no less then 4 legends on the grid!
Not to mention Robert Kubica looked certain to reach the cloudy heights of "Silent but deadly Legend" (I'll copyright that one I guess) of Kimi Raikkonen. And we have Raikkonen back now from rally.
So in the last couple years we've had another 2 as well on top of the 4.
Wow how lucky are we?
But who really is a legend and who is just a damned good driver? And when it all comes down to it lets face it, who really decides who a legend is? What is so special about some of these drivers, and when we look back at legends what period actually has a LOT of legends like we seem to have now?
And what the hell is wrong with just being a damned brilliant driver? (Stand up and take a bow Nico Rosberg, Giancarlo Fisichella, Nick Heidfeld and the rest of you!)
I am only 24.
Why is this important?
Because F1 that has been branded onto my brain is dominance of Schumi and everything after. Personally I can't remember anything before that so I don't know who was being forced down our throat as the next Senna before that, and I wasn't even alive to know who Senna was the next of when he was driving!
All this blog is, is a thought. A long winded one to try and make people think about stupid things they say about drivers who aren't at the tip top end of the market today but who actually when you think about it show a lot more skill then some of the legends do every race.
Now I'm not saying that "normal" bog standard good driver is better than a legend in the making. Not at all. What I AM saying is a driver like Rosberg who will battle constantly for 90% of the races and only make a mistake (or have a mistake happen to him) about 1 in every 5 races should have a little more respect, not at the expense or compared to anyone else, just in general.
So first issue to be tackled. What is a legend?
Well at the moment I'm using the drivers being shoved at us as being Legends.
Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel.
Now all three have some really strong character and driving traits. Alonso is brilliant at in race strategy, Hamilton is fast and furious and Vettel is race clever and picks his way through at the best moment.
All three are very fast, very ruthless and also human. They make mistakes. Sometimes their mistakes have a lot bigger problems then just a retirement, a whole championship hangs in the balance. But all of them make mistakes and all of them have their flaws. Usually tempers.
For some strange reason even though he is just as talented and strangely a lot better thought of most of the time Raikkonen doesn't seem to always be in our face as a legend. He just seems to be the brilliant one. When people ask "why is this person a legend?" in the future one of the reasons was "they beat Kimi Raikkonen" but the question will never be asked "well then why isn't Kimi a legend?"
To be honest I think fans will remember him just as much as Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel.
You want to know why I think a legend is a legend?
The mark they leave. Some people think a Champion is a legend, but most people will forget Keke Rosberg or in the future (and sometimes now) Jenson Button are World Champions. Not because they were horrible, or that they didn't have fans. But because they didn't leave a mark.
Taking Jenson as an example he isn't ruthless, to be fair he was lucky to win his championship BUT luck is with every champion. He's remembered for having a car that was bullet proof in the first half of the season then fell apart a little near the end, but Jenson's strategic racing was what led him to the Championship and like all Champions he deserved it. But it didn't leave a mark.
Now take the other three for example. Alonso's two wins were against Schumacher, the first driver to beat him in years. They had some very passionate falling outs (Monaco....) and the seasons were some of the most exciting for a long time.
Hamilton was a super rookie that did something no other rookie had really done. Of course he was also one of the only rookies to go from GP2 straight to a race winning McLaren but he still handled that pressure. In his second year he won the championship, he'd upset double World Champion Fernando Alonso, divided fandom with his attitude and been in the middle of a load of controversial moments. That was within two years!
Vettel is different, he won a race in a STR and was immediately taken on by RBR. He grew a fan image of being the nice guy, the one that everyone could love. On track he divided opinion, not because he crashed or had a bad attitude (at first) but because there was a nagging doubt (and still is) that he couldn't overtake and that he needed a front, front running car or else he'd fall apart a little. But he dominated in a way that even Schumi didn't always do WITH ALONSO AND HAMILTON baying for his blood (metaphor) but still won 3 on a trot. Then of course comes things like Turkey (crashing into Webber) and this years scandal (Multi 21) and also some bad attitude has came out of him etc, etc...
All three left big marks on the Championship.
In between Alonso-Hamilton Kimi Raikkonen just about beat Alonso and Hamilton (amazingly) to the Championship when they had an inter-team battle.
In between Hamilton-Vettel Jenson Button won the Championship in a fairy tale like season.
OK Jenson's year was focused on them, but more on the team and how amazing it was that they came from nearly closing the doors on their team forever (as Honda left) and Brawn GP winning races. But Kimi's year was always about the battle of the McLarens. He snuck up on them both and won it by being consistent and brilliant.
Going back personally I wouldn't say that Damon Hill, Jacquez Villeneuve or Mika Hakkinen are legends. Personally I love them but in the grand scheme for me Senna and Prost with maybe Nigel Mansell (and of course the aforementioned Schumi) were the legends. Why? Because they grabbed the hearts of millions (like Valentino Rossi) and had a giant divide of opinion. You either love them or hate them but everyone remembers them, everyone knows when they won, everyone knows the stories.
As a Damon Hill fan I know about his career but ask most fans or causal fans about him and they remember MICHAEL SCHUMACHER beating him to the title. They might not even be able to tell you the year Hill actually won it!
Using this logic then no Raikkonen and Kubica will never be legends.
Kimi leaves a mark on F1 in a way no other does, he doesn't give a shit about anything but what is important to him but he won't let the world into that little world either. He is professional to the point of looking like he doesn't care. One of the best drivers on the track today, brilliant in so many different ways and just as, if not more, talented then any of the Legends in the making we have. But the mark he leaves is as a fan favorite, a guy people love to get behind. Yeah I'd call him a legend, sometimes a commentator will say it, but in the long run.... He'll be the one people beat and when they couldn't beat him then there will be something else that stops him being the one that people really remember.
Kubica we can but guess.
So we now know (in my opinion of course) why a Legend is a Legend.
So what makes a damned good driver?
I could name so many drivers who have been so talented, who could have done (or do) so much more in F1 then their equipment, era or luck let them do.
Giancarlo Fisichella (my favorite driver of all time), Nick Heidfeld, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Juan Pablo Montoya, Lucas di Grassi.....
They all could win races, some proved this others haven't. One of them on the list is a World Champion.
Think about it, when you dominate a race you have nothing to do other then drive carefully and intelligently. That takes something, but most of the time you have a gap to think these things over.
Midfield separates the men from the boys. When you have a driver 0.01 seconds in front of you and another 0.001 behind you there isn't that breathing space to think. Give yourself a second to think of either defending or attacking and you'll be overtaken, lose ground or crash.
When a driver lives in midfield for a long time I think it shows how good they are, not only how good they are but how important they'll be to a team. They are the ones giving the data about how a RACING car performs whilst RACING.
Of course Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel do fight midfield and have the same luck as some of the other drivers. They tend to have some more spectacular moves on them (and so does Kimi who is somewhere in between a Legend and a Good Driver) but they can live with it.
So I'm not saying because a midfield runner lives in midfield they are better. What I am saying is that it isn't as easy as some people think.
We don't get to see midfield fights that often, it always has to be at the front or with the most dramatic battle, but that doesn't mean there aren't just as many interesting battles going unnoticed. To be within the points you'll have to fight for it and if you do it on a regular basis then a good driver you are!
Of course an argument can be made that any driver that comes into F1 is a good driver, but that isn't what I mean. I mean that thin line between Legend and Good and there aren't that many in that place. OK bias might make me add di Grassi to that list but it is a point I will make some where else on this blog or else on another blog altogether, but most of the rest of the list is made up of consistent team playing, point scoring, race winning, talented drivers. Not just a bog standard driver.
To become a Legend you first need to have drivers who are worth beating. Would we really call a driver who was only beating other drivers who crashed out of every race or struggled to score points even when they are the only team on the grid a Legend? Of course not.
"Why is this person a legend?" in the future one of the reasons was "they beat Kimi Raikkonen."
OK not all the drivers are as good as Raikkonen is, but lets face it they are still impressive.
Out of the drivers today ones I think COULD win a Championship if it was only one of Alonso/Hamilton/Vettel/Raikkonen on the grid?
Button (proven), Rosberg, Massa (proven-ish), Perez, Webber... That is for certain. Drivers like Maldo, di Resta, Sutil and Hulkenberg could also be Champions (more along the vein of Button now).
The future (and a better car) will tell if Bianchi could ever be as good as Alonso, mid terms like Raikkonen, good driver material like Rosberg or just below that.
So what is my point?
My point is F1 isn't F1 without a mixture of GOOD drivers and LEGENDARY drivers.
Lets not forget just because they dominate and at the moment EVERYONE knows them doesn't mean in the future any of them will be remembered as a Legend. Vettel and Alonso have made the first real step by being multi-Champions but Hamilton could end up falling into the Hill type area and Button probably will be a Rosberg type area.
You can't have F1 full of untouchable legends. We are lucky to have so many REALLY brilliant drivers, a load of genius's behind the scenes and some very good racing. It is nice to be able to have a friendly spar with another drivers fan because your opinions can be so similar about your chosen driver but so wide apart about their favorite driver.
I see so many people saying "this driver never wins they should replace him with this driver instead" or "this driver isn't good enough" when actually they get into the points, into the top 10, they don't make many mistakes and to be honest their talent is there in front of them.
I'm guilty as the next person for this type of behavior but I tend to get into that position after they've had a run of bad luck (Massa and Sutil prior to this season), some people have it from day one. "Why employ Perez when you can employ Hulkenberg?" Well because Perez nearly won races last year, he was on the podium, he was consistent and made few mistakes and is a very good driver. Hulkenberg might be too and he might be your pick but don't try and make out that Perez isn't.
And what you really can't do is compare ANY of the drivers to each other. Their individual strengths and weaknesses are their own.
We are lucky to have so many drivers that are Legends in the making. We are lucky that we have such characters (in one way) in the paddock. We are even more lucky that each of these Legends have top notch team mates who can win, will win and could win Championships. We don't always get that.
Give the midfield a little more respect, they are just as good as any of their Champion partners and just as good as their potential allows them to be.
Give them a break!
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