Raikkonen will accept 'team orders'

Team orders is part of F1. Always was. Your "Sadly" gives off it as a frustration that F1 is not a sport, where everyone is given a fair chance. I am sure you know all of this as I am sure you would also concede that Bottas would "Let Lewis pass for the championship" if such needy circumstances would come by. I would love to see them all drive in equal machinery. Then we would truly see the pecking order. And in this, I am empathetic with you, and express my regret and say duly - "sadly" we will never see this. But if we had such a championship, we would only see man vs man type of competition. For instance, I am not interested in a type of competition where Alonso would be swinging swords with say Lewis. This is not what F1 is. IMO F1 is not and should not be limited to man vs man, its other main ingredient is the ability of different teams having different tech and philosophy to produce a machine that only %1 better or worse than competitors. It is this aspect that creates the mystery of F1.

However, I get the kick out of watching close, wheel to wheel racing. MotoGP is sensational in that regard. And in those moments, it is the drama and characters of drivers that matters, not the machinery. But you see, to produce such close action, they have to produce somewhat equally performant machinery. I suppose the way it works is that after each season, over winters, I build expectations, for months and months and thus get invested in the upcoming season. If the racing proves to be close - I get the reward. If not, since I invested so much of my time I still watch it because of my disbelief of what is going on (I am looking at you McLaren). In my vain hope of the impossible I keep watching boring races until the end. Actually, I think I better stop indulging with F1. It is ultimately fruitless. Besides, my team is not winning.

Naturally, its common in all team motorsports, and I see the strategical value of it, but it doesnt mean it has to be something I like. And for Kimi Räikkönen, Iceman, to just let himself become a second driver... Times sure change.

After 17 years as a McLaren fan, I've switched to Red Bull and Toro Rosso. Its not the same McLaren anymore, and I really dont like what it has become. 2017 was the last nail in that coffin for me. If you like close racing I would recommend Super GT. Its a pretty fun series, and free to watch on Youtube.

Amazing how you like so much to make up your own narrative.

Yet he has a point. Look at how lenient he has been towards all of his first drivers this Ferrari stint. Its just not the same Kimi anymore.

Oh yes, definitely underestimated. Massa was never a bad driver, and if anything he was more consistent than Kimi currently is. But I'd say Kimi and Massa is about even as of present. And yeah, I dont think age impacts your performance in F1 as much as the pundits like to say. You could probably do a good enough job past 40 even with the current cars. But thats not a pretty narrative, apparently.

Thats fair, and his quali performance has improved, but rarely do he manage to keep that up during races. So no, we arent watching different races, we are just taking note of other things than you. Which is fair enough. But he isnt where he needs to be to be a serious title contender.