BAR Boss Fears for Raikkonen F1 Debut

Finland's Kimi Raikkonen is too inexperienced to be in Formula One this season and could pose a danger to others, according to British American Racing (BAR) team boss Craig Pollock.

"Even though I believe that Raikkonen is a talented driver, I still don't believe that he's done enough driving to be sitting in an F1 car," he said in an interview on the website of British weekly magazine Autosport on Friday.

Raikkonen has competed in just 23 single seater car races in his career and will race for Sauber this season after winning the 2000 British Formula Renault title.

"The problem is not for him driving around a track, the problem is his lack of experience potentially causing a situation that could be dangerous," said Pollock.

The BAR boss also said that Frenchman Olivier Panis had exceeded expectations since he joined the team after a season out of racing as McLaren test driver and was pushing Canadian former champion Jacques Villeneuve hard.

"He's come in very hungry and he's come in wanting to do the best for the team," said Pollock.

"He is in contact with me daily and he's making a huge effort. He knows that Jacques and myself are very close, but he's actually more in contact than Jacques is.

"Nobody can say it's because of lack of communication or the team is not behind him. The team is now so much behind him that Jacques is now going to have to start to make an effort."

Panis's predecessor, Brazilian Ricardo Zonta, left the team at the end of last season and later complained that his confidence had been undermined at BAR.

"I will never return to a team whose driver is a world champion and whose owner is also the manager and best friend of this driver. I suffered too much," he said.