“Ferrari has found its new Schumi”.
After the first F1 season since 1991 began without Michael Schumacher in Melbourne, that was how the widely circulated Italian newspaper La Stampa described Kimi Raikkonen’s winning debut at the wheel of a Ferrari.
“Kimi: he smiles less but the substance is the same. Schumi is gone but Ferrari remains,” the daily La Gazzetta dello Sport echoed.
Il Seccolo XIX headlined: “Kimi a la Schumi”.
Corriere della Sera said: “Schumacher’s legacy is in good hands”.
Even Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport fondly contrasted the generational-change at Maranello based Ferrari, observing that Raikkonen “secured his tenth grand prix win with a style that Michael would be proud of”.
The Spanish ‘Diario As’, however, compared ‘iceman’ 27-year-old Raikkonen’s podium antics with the famous ‘Schumi-leap’ of the departed seven time champion.
And referring to Spain’s big hope Fernando Alonso, it observed: “The enemy is a Finn”.
“Even when celebrating his victory, Raikkonen shows no emotion,” the newspaper ‘As’ wrote, and La Gazzetta dello Sport (Italy) agreed that, on the podium, “Kimi remains ice-cold”.
