The moment that proves Raikkonen is no Vettel lackey

There is now a common perception in Formula 1 that Kimi Raikkonen, a past world champion, winner of 20 grands prix, and a driver generally considered one of the best of his generation, has become just a supporting act to Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Popular opinion in the F1 paddock considers Vettel to be Ferrari's pre-ordained championship contender, that Raikkonen is little more than a lackey - enduringly present in Maranello merely to perform the driving equivalent of carrying Vettel's case, shining his shoes and doing anything in his power to ensure Ferrari's contemporary answer to Michael Schumacher fulfils his destiny.

Vettel's new arch-rival, Lewis Hamilton, became convinced of this notion himself after last year's Monaco Grand Prix, when Raikkonen somehow contrived to lose the race to Vettel despite starting on pole. It was a one-stop race, which Raikkonen led into the first corner, on a circuit where successful overtaking is harder to find than manufacturer opposition to Fernando Alonso's quest to win Le Mans.

"It's clear to me that Ferrari have chosen their number one driver," Hamilton said after that race. "It's very hard for the leading car to get jumped by the second car unless the team decide to favour the other car, so that's very clear."

And so such jellies of suspicion begin to set in the frigid minds of those who wish to believe Ferrari is just like it was in the late-1990s and early '00s - centred around the competitive desires of one German driver and totally beholden to his whim.

Raikkonen's willingness to hold station behind the deranged steering of Vettel's car a few months later in Hungary - playing the part of dutiful rear gunner to perfection - did nothing to dispel that notion. Nor did Ferrari's readiness to sacrifice Raikkonen's race on the altar of Vettel's victory hopes in China earlier this year.

To be fair, Raikkonen hasn't done much to help his own cause either, generally underperforming since he returned to Ferrari in 2014 and never holding a sustained upper-hand over his team-mates - save for a brief purple patch of form in the closing part of the '16 season, and that wind-the-clocks-back pole effort in Monaco.

Since he and Vettel joined forces in 2015, Raikkonen has won no races (Vettel has won 10) and achieved fewer than half Vettel's number of podium finishes. When you too often drive like a number two, it's easy to see why people would think you are one.

But there is one standout moment from F1's most recent race that suggests Raikkonen is more than a mere lackey for Vettel's championship ambitions.

When Vettel locked his brakes over a Baku bump in trying to pass Valtteri Bottas for the lead of the Azerbaijan GP at the final restart, Vettel was immediately overtaken by the Finn and the sister Mercedes of Hamilton at the exit of Turn 1. As Vettel scrabbled to stay out of the barriers and lost momentum on the short run to Turn 2, he lost a further position - to none other than his own Ferrari team-mate.

The move wasn't a brake-smoking late lunge in the style of Max Verstappen, or Vettel's failed attempt on Bottas, but in the heat of the moment Raikkonen had the chance to make a contested pass on Vettel and he chose to make it - sliding up the inside as the two Ferraris approached the 90-degree left-hander.

There was no order from Ferrari, no hesitation on Raikkonen's part

It would have been easy for Raikkonen to slot dutifully in behind his team-mate, protect Vettel from further attack and boost the points tally of Ferrari's 'chosen champion'. But Raikkonen didn't do that - he overtook Vettel and finished second. There was no order from Ferrari to the contrary, no hesitation on Raikkonen's part - proof surely, if it were needed, that Kimi is not Ferrari's automatic number two driver.

This is a very different Ferrari to the one fans booed raucously on the 2002 Austrian GP podium, after Rubens Barrichello had near-enough ground to a halt to allow Schumacher - already dominating that year's drivers' championship - to win a race Schumacher's performance did not merit. I very much doubt there is a specific clause in Vettel's new contract that stipulates he can decide who his team-mate is and what that driver must do for 'the cause'.

Recall the latter part of 2016, when Vettel had one more year to run on his original Ferrari deal and his form was inconsistent. Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene pointedly told Italian TV that "each of us has goals so it is only right that anyone, no matter who it is, earns their place and their salary".

This reiterated the point that drivers no longer call the shots at Maranello under the current regime. That's not to say Ferrari won't prioritise one driver over the other - Vettel clearly had first call on new parts during last season's title run-in, for example - but the days of Schumacher mandating his team-mate be contractually subservient, or Alonso demanding Felipe Massa be removed from his path to avoid risking Ferrari's failure in the drivers' championship battle, are seemingly gone.

Ferrari still expects its drivers to do whatever is necessary for Ferrari to win, which can lead to favouritism, but does not mean favouritism is necessarily a pre-requisite for that success. It would have been interesting to see whether Ferrari would have sacrificed Vettel in the same way in China, had Raikkonen not suffered the mysterious loss of straightline speed that cost him pole and been the one leading early on, then jumped in the pits by Bottas.

Monaco 2017's Ferrari scenario also takes on a slightly different hue when considered in the light of what happened between the Red Bull drivers in Baku. Verstappen unexpectedly emerged ahead of Daniel Ricciardo despite taking the theoretically disadvantageous later pitstop - because the particular circumstances of tyre warm-up in that race, combined with how Verstappen drove his in-lap, and where he picked up DRS from backmarkers, made it so. Sometimes, shit happens - without teams having to make it so.

Raikkonen has been on the receiving end of Ferrari's patronage in the past, remember. His 2007 title success is owed in large part to team-mate Massa giving up victory in the season-ending Brazilian GP, so Raikkonen could overhaul the McLaren drivers by a single point. Had Massa not suffered a suspension failure in that year's Italian GP, Ferrari would most likely have thrown its full weight behind his title push instead. The following season it did, and Raikkonen was happy to support his team-mate's ultimately failed bid to beat Hamilton to the crown.

The point here is that the two drivers were closely matched enough for it not to be in Ferrari's best interest to automatically back one over the other. It was minded to eventually, and probably will be again this season, but only once it becomes clear which of them deserves that support because a) that driver is the most likely to succeed based on their results, and b) because Ferrari deems that driver requires extra support to beat rivals from other teams.

Raikkonen knows from experience how this works - perform as strongly as you can, but in the best interests of the team first and foremost, and if you end up being the best Prancing Horse to back when it comes to the crunch moment, then that's what Ferrari will do.

Ferrari is perfectly happy to still have number one and number two drivers, although that doesn't mean Raikkonen automatically falls into the second bracket. But he certainly will do if his results are not good enough - and he knows this better than anyone.

"Obviously it depends where we qualify and first who is ahead and who is behind," Raikkonen says. "It is clear and straight for both: simple rules, as long as I remember in any team I have been in.

If he doesn't drive like Vettel's lackey, Raikkonen won't become one

"Unfortunately, a lot of times people try to make it very complicated with stories out of not such big things, but as a team we always try to get the best results for us."

Raikkonen outqualified Vettel in Australia, came close to taking pole in Bahrain, even closer in China and was only one "painful fuck-up" away from finally getting the job done in Azerbaijan. He is only 18 points behind Vettel in the standings currently and looks to have begun this season in better shape than he has in any of the V6 hybrid turbo years so far. No wonder Vettel feels the perception F1 has of his current team-mate is distorted.

"I think one thing is always to look at the result and the other is if you look a little bit deeper," says Vettel. "It's been incredibly close this year so far. To be honest, most of the Fridays I think he had the upper hand so far. Here and there I was struggling to understand the car and feel the car.

"Knowing him, knowing his strength, he's incredibly talented and able to drive around problems. If you look at the previous years, the image is a bit distorting. It wasn't as one-sided as you might think if you look at the results."

It's simply down to Raikkonen to maintain a high level of performance and achieve the results this would merit. If he can do this, a title charge of his own is surely not out of the question at this stage. Don't mistake Raikkonen's servitude to his team for subservience to his team-mate. If he doesn't drive like Vettel's lackey, he won't become one.