Don't do it, Frank

Phil: My co-blogger texted me tonight with alarming news linking Kimi Raikkonen to a seat at Williams next year.

Now I think I speak for both of us when I say: what would Raikkonen and his salary expectations see in cash-strapped Williams? And what would struggling Williams see in the laziest man in motor sport? Unless of course, Raikkonen brings a mouthwatering sponsorship deal to the table, and is so desperate to get back into F1 that he'll drive for anybody, for nothing? Anyway, my advice to Sir Frank would be: don't you think Rubens would do a much better job?As the following set of statistics should prove beyond reasonable doubt.

Everyone knows that the first man you have to beat in F1 is your teammate - after all, only he has exactly the same machinery as you. Detailed analysis shows that, at the end of the European season, about half the drivers are beating their teammates, and the other half aren't*. Even more detailed analysis shows that relative to their teammates, the drivers who are doing the best are (the percentages are the percentage lead in points over their teammate):

Barrichello 75%
Kobayashi 70%
Alonso 52%
Sutil 50%
Vettel 41%
Alguersuari 19%
Rosberg 7%
Button 5%
Petrov 0% (against Heidfeld, 94% against Senna who has only driven two races)
Hamilton -6%
Schumacher -8%
Buemi -23%
Webber -70%
di Resta -100%
Massa -110%
Perez -238%
Maldonado -300%
Senna -1600%

So there you have it. Barrichello has scored 75% more points than his teammate, and therefore is in principle outperforming his admittedly crap car better than any other driver.

*It's only about half because Petrov has exactly the same number of points as his teammate Heidfeld, who to confuse matters further, isn't his teammate.