Ferrari must drop Raikkonen if it's serious

If Ferrari retains Kimi Raikkonen for 2017, it would be a spectacular statement of Maranello's lack of intent.

Sport is all about results, and while the mechanical and political elements of motor-racing can muddy the waters it's impossible to build a convincing case that Raikkonen has been up to the standards Ferrari demands since rejoining.

Some will argue this is extremely disrespectful of a driver with a world championship and 20 grand prix wins to his name. He will rightly go down as a great and be respected accordingly. But past glories should never lead to you being granted tenure in F1, particularly with so illustrious a team as Ferrari.

Raikkonen has been back with Ferrari since the start of 2014, a total of 46 races. That's a more than adequate sample set for assessing his performance.

The statistics are damning for a driver of his record and pay grade. You can draw no other conclusion than Raikkonen is not up to the standard required when compared to Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.

While the two drivers he has been paired with are hardly easy opposition, he still should have been closer in what he delivered.

Raikkonen has not won since returning to Ferrari, during which time the team has won three races. He has taken six of Ferrari's 26 podium finishes and has scored 286 points to his team-mates' 535 - at close to half the rate (53.5%). For reference, his scoring rate relative to Alonso was 50.3%, and to Vettel 54.8%.

As for qualifying, the score (excluding sessions that were not representative) is 35-9 against Raikkonen.