From the Pulpit

So... the battle for the Drivers' Championship has reached the stage when people can be heard to whisper the dreaded phrase 'still mathematically possible'. In other words, for all practical purposes, it is now impossible.

Yes, on paper, Kimi Raikkonen could still nick the title - but, on tarmac, it is now out of his control. Even if he wins all four remaining Grands Prix, netting himself 40 points in the process, and even if Juan Pablo Montoya trundles in behind him on all four occasions, it is still most unlikely that Fernando Alonso will fail to score the 14 points in those four races that he would need to become World Champion whatever mighty feats Kimi can produce.

So what will Kimi do? Well, he will try to win those four races, willy-nilly, because that is what great racing drivers do. And Kimi is one of the greatest racing drivers we have seen. And, barring disasters, he will do so.

But, sadly, McLaren and, more specifically, Mercedes-Ilmor, have failed to bar enough disasters this season - and, although Alonso and all at Renault have performed fabulously well all season, undoubtedly they owe a debt of gratitude to McLaren and, in particular, to Mercedes-Ilmor. The number of failures and other gremlins on Kimi's car this year has been, bluntly, unacceptable - for a team as experienced and as prestigious as McLaren, especially so.

After all, Jordan, run by a motley crew of ill-sorted newcomers, supported by a few hardy old sweats, have managed to get Tiago Monteiro to the finish 15 times out of 15 so far this year. Why can't McLaren-Mercedes, with four times Jordan's budget, with infinitely better facilities and with many more staff on the job, do likewise?

As I left the Monza paddock on Sunday evening, I overheard a Renault man mutter to his colleague, "If McLaren-Mercedes win the Constructors' Championship, Kimi Raikkonen will have won it for them; if Kimi Raikkonen loses the Drivers' Championship, McLaren-Mercedes will have lost it for him."

But the Championship is no longer the point, Ron Dennis would have us believe. Poor Ron. Much as I respect - no, make that admire - him, he really did drop a bollock with that one. I am referring, of course, to his unfortunate 'badge' sound-bite, repeated to every journalist he encountered on Sunday afternoon in the Monza paddock.

The version I heard went like this: "I've been trying to persuade Kimi that winning the Championship isn't the be-all and end-all. It's just a badge. The best driver doesn't always win that badge, and motor racing culture understands and respects that."

In a sense, Ron is right. Motor racing is about big balls and white knuckles, about bravery and fever, about flat-through-Blanchimont and sideways-through-Woodcote (the old one, of course, Ronnie Peterson-style). Equally, Peterson, Gilles Villeneuve, Carlos Reutemann and Stirling Moss were all great drivers, despite the fact that, for a variety of odd-ball reasons, none of them ever became Champion.

But, like it or not, motor racing is also about winning Championships. Yes, Nurburgring 1957 was mega, but it is not what Juan Manuel Fangio is now most famous for. He is most famous for his five Drivers' Championships, just as Michael Schumacher will go down in history, above all else, for his seven Drivers' Championships - perhaps eight. And Fernando Alonso, not Kimi Raikkonen, will almost certainly now take on that aura of greatness in a few weeks' time. It could even happen at Spa this weekend.

Ron knows all that, of course. Moreover, McLaren's very culture is built on a reverence for Championships - for 'badges'. And, not to put too fine a point on it, if, on the last lap of the Chinese Grand Prix, Juan Pablo should spin his MP4-20 into the gravel, thereby failing to score the vital points that would have earned McLaren-Mercedes the Constructors' title, and thereby allowing Flavio Briatore's Renault to win 'the double'... well, I doubt if Ron would be impressed if, 20 minutes later, Juan were to slap him on the back and breezily remark, "Don't worry, Ron. The Constructors' Championship is only a badge, innit?"

So why did Ron say what he said? My guess is that he said it out of a mounting sense of desperation - for, although he denies it, deep inside he must be profoundly worried that Kimi will sign for Ferrari for 2007. More than profoundly worried, in fact; it is a prospect he dreads as you or I might dread the death of a terminally-ill loved one.

He is right to be concerned, though, for undoubtedly Ross Brawn and Jean Todt and, more ominous still, Luca di Montezemolo are extremely keen on the boy from Espoo. And now that Philip Morris have renewed their sponsorship of Ferrari until 2011, they have the money to make Kimi the most fabulous financial offer ever conceived in the history of sport.

So Ron was clutching at straws when he said what he said, and the straw that settled in his sweaty palm - to wit, the 'badge' analogy - was a bad 'un, because it belittled that which everyone knows Ron himself holds dear. A man who famously says, and says often, "Not winning causes me real pain", cannot also expect to be taken seriously if he then describes winning the FIA Formula One Drivers' Championship as a mere trinket, a bauble, "a badge". And Kimi saw that discrepancy, and liked it not.

Should Kimi go to Ferrari? Well, I fear he will, whether he should or not. But I am not sure that Ferrari know what they are getting. Yes, he is as quick as any man who has ever sat in a racing car, and cooler under pressure than almost any other, but his off-track delinquency can sometimes be more abject than perhaps Montezemolo, Todt and Brawn realise - certainly, his revelry is more reckless than they have prior experience of in a driver. (Eddie Irvine? No way; the Swerve's antics were small beer compared with Kimi's most intemperate hi-jinks, believe me.)

As a result, Ferrari may find Raikkonen a real handful. But perhaps they know that, and will install the appropriate human support systems. On the other hand, Ron tried that, of course...