Does Raikkonen deserve to stay in F1 beyond 2020?

It's easy to see when a driver in Formula 1's leading teams is succeeding/failing (delete as appropriate).

In 2020, with the championship's unofficial 'Class A' down to just Mercedes and Red Bull, if one of the quartet that effectively translates to is absent from the podium it stands out. The others can bask in the champagne and take home the silverware.

In the crowded midfield, it's harder to see who really shines - but the feats of reaching Q3 and scoring points make this simpler. They are tangible, historical facts. But at the back of the grid it's easy to get lost in the grind to escape Q1, which in any case will leave little trace down the years.

For the drivers at Haas, Williams and Alfa Romeo that's the best indication of a standout performance this year. So far this season, George Russell has managed it four times, followed by Romain Grosjean for Haas on two.

Last weekend, Kimi Raikkonen became the first Alfa driver to escape the opening segment of qualifying in 2020, and eventually lined up 14th ahead of Renault's Esteban Ocon.

He even thought a stunning Q3 spot might have been on, if he had fresh softs available - Alfa having opted to use an extra set in practice and keep hold of the hards it ultimately never used. He backed up this fine achievement with P14 in the race, heading the order of the self-contained group those three squads represent as the lower half of the current midfield.

But points are what it's all about - and so far only Kevin Magnussen has reached that plain, thanks to Haas's controversial (but praise-worthy) strategy call in the damp Hungarian race, and Antonio Giovinazzi riding the chaos to ninth in the season-opener. When the race is long and largely uneventful, as last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix was at Barcelona, the battle becomes about finding a way to head what is effectively 'Class C'.

That's quite a long way from Raikkonen's glory years - when he took breath-taking wins and lost championships to unreliability at McLaren, when he did take the title at Ferrari, when he mesmerised and stunned the bigger teams at Lotus, and when he tried but failed to recapture the magic at the Scuderia, nevertheless taking 25 more podiums and one more win in red.

He signed for what was then called Sauber at the end of 2018, after Ferrari had finally called time on his uninspiring second stint and promoted Charles Leclerc from Raikkonen's destination squad. The move made sense - Raikkonen loved racing in F1 and the team wanted someone experienced to aid its push forwards, which it found in a driver familiar with the squad from his debut 18 years earlier.

Last year he scored 43 points in a classic up-and-down midfield campaign, but the start of the current season has been tough. The task is now to escape Q1, with Alfa (like Haas) suddenly hamstrung by the Ferrari engine deficit, while Williams enjoys - until the next race at least - the boost from the Mercedes power unit in qualifying.

"Obviously we are too slow," Raikkonen said of Alfa's start to the year and the problems with the C39 ahead of the Spanish race. "Where did we go wrong? I guess the design of the car. Obviously we hoped that we were where we started last year, we were obviously a lot better off compared to other teams. This year [is] definitely not where we were hoping or expecting to be so there has been something going wrong.

Raikkonen's weekend performance last time out at Barcelona was exceptional

"Obviously we need to improve the downforce, having efficient downforce. The engine as well but it is what it is. If we have the best car, the best chassis, we should be up there but obviously we don't, so we need to improve on that side. The difficult part is always that it's not an easy fix, it's not the quickest fix - it takes time. But hopefully step by step we can turn it around.

"We need more efficient aero and [to] go faster around every corner. The balance can be quite good but the lap time is not there. So, it's not easy to say what we need, but the most difficult part of F1 is probably the aerodynamics, so it's not an easy fix."

So far this season Raikkonen has had more pain than gain. He's losing the qualifying head to head with Giovinazzi 2-4, although he's ahead 4-1 in the races they have both finished - Raikkonen's DNF coming in the season opener, where Giovinazzi took ninth and was ahead even before the right front wheel flew off Raikkonen's car.

Things got better at the second Red Bull Ring event, where Raikkonen came home just outside the points in much calmer overall race, and he was the lead Alfa home in Hungary despite getting a silly penalty for over-shooting his grid box. But the British GP was a nightmare. He had a lap one off and was running last even before he went wide at Copse and damaged his front wing.

That race also included an equally painful and amusing radio exchange, with Raikkonen snapping at his engineer for trying to keep him out of the pits during the early safety car.

But since then, Raikkonen has climbed back up. He turned in a fine drive on the difficult one-stopper in the second Silverstone race, and his weekend performance last time out at Barcelona was exceptional. He made things tough for himself with a messy opening lap to let Magnussen by, but he overcame the Haas on a two-stopper to get back to where he needed to be - heading Class C.

Those runners took three different strategy approaches in Spain, with Haas one-stopping and Williams splitting its two-stop approach between its cars (Russell starting on softs and Nicholas Latifi taking them at the end, with both doing a short middle stint). Alfa also did a two-stopper, but both Raikkonen and Giovinazzi's services were more spread out.

Compared to his team-mate, Raikkonen was 0.366s quicker per lap in the opening stint, which Giovinazzi reversed in the second by going 0.316s faster on average, but Raikkonen's previously-used mediums were a factor here. In the final stint on new softs, the 2007 world champion edged it - 0.085s quicker per lap. The end result was that he ultimately beat Magnussen home and Giovinazzi didn't, with Russell an obstacle for both Alfas at different stages.

Now is a good time to be hitting fine form for Raikkonen. Although the campaign is only six races old, the calendar year is long past its halfway point and his initial Sauber contract expires at the end of the season.

There is already threat to his seat. If the Racing Point/Aston Martin driver wrangling means Sebastian Vettel replaces Sergio Perez, a younger, equally capable driver (at this stage in Raikkonen's career at least) with massive backing is available. Perez is an attractive candidate for any team. Plus, Alfa team boss Frederic Vasseur has a long history with Nico Hulkenberg, who recently reminded F1 of his potential as Racing Point's super sub.

The other Alfa seat is set by Ferrari, which will have to choose whether to extend Giovinazzi's career or surely promote one of whichever F2 junior it so desires from Callum Ilott, Robert Shwartzman and Mick Schumacher. All three are in Formula 2 title contention.

PLUS: The quintet giving Ferrari a tough decision to make

The biggest question is surely his motivation and whether he wants to carry on plugging away at the back for the highs of a Q2 grid spot

If Raikkonen can keep up his run of form and turn in starring performances such as he did at Barcelona then he will either give Alfa a simple choice of extending his career, or a tough one if there is an outsider in contention. If he reverts to the results from the opening four races, there's an argument to be made that he doesn't deserve his place on the grid for a 19th season with future stars, as well as drivers already in their prime, waiting in the wings.

But overriding all of this is Raikkonen's own desire.

Thanks to the coronavirus cost-saving measures, Alfa's current predicament is locked in for 2021 too. So, the biggest question is surely his motivation and whether he wants to carry on plugging away at the back for the highs of a Q2 grid spot and the scraps of the points.

Raikkonen is known for not wasting time on tasks he doesn't enjoy - so he must decide if that is what F1 has precisely become.