Räikkönen should have been crowned champion a long time ago!

Kimi Räikkönen waited too long to secure a world title in F1 and should be a three-time world champion by now, claimed his manager David Robertson.

The Finnish driver was crowned for the first time in 2007 during the last Grand Prix in Brazil after narrowly defeating Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

And although Räikkönen was thrilled by this success, Robertson believes that his protégé should have more titles to his name by now if he hadn’t suffered from the poor reliability of the McLaren cars: His former team.

« Two championships were taken away from Kimi, » said Robertson in an interview with the Finnish television channel MTV3.

« He would currently be the youngest champion if it weren’t for McLaren’s reliability issues. »

« He has continued to improve and we are very happy with this point. But he should be a triple world champion today instead of just a world champion! »

Robertson also suggests that Fernando Alonso’s departure from McLaren is further evidence of the team’s difficulties in managing drivers.

« Alonso’s departure was a bad thing for McLaren. The team is unable to establish lasting relationships with their drivers, » added Robertson.

It will be interesting to see how things evolve between Kovalainen, freshly appointed as a race driver, and McLaren-Mercedes.