28/06/2018
NEWS STORY
You wait for ages and then two come along at once... last week we were told that McLaren is making a bid to secure Daniel Ricciardo with a $20m a year offer, only for another story linking Kimi Raikkonen with the struggling Woking outfit a week later.
While the Raikkonen move make a bit more sense, in all reality McLaren has a lot more on its mind right now than who will be driving its cars next season.
Naturally, the Raikkonen story has little in the way of substance and certainly no quotes, other than the Woking outfit's blunt: "We don't discuss driver matters".
On the back of three pointless races - read that any way you wish - talk of a toxic atmosphere within the team, clueless management, Freddo-gate and headlines declaring a "crisis", the Woking team will be glad of any story that turns attention away from the current reality.
As for Raikkonen, the Finn continues to frustrate, much as he always has. Looking set to upstage his illustrious teammate one minute, and lacklustre the next.
While he insists that if he wasn't enjoying racing he would quit, there are times it appears he's merely going through the motions, only to pull out one of those mega laps or moves moments later.
Whether Ferrari opts to keep him for another season remains to be seen, but certainly on his good days The Iceman would still make a valid contribution to any team... if they are prepared to give him the occasional kick up the derriere or perhaps number one status.
As clearly good as Charles Leclerc is, those early mistakes this season as he found his feet indicate that the youngster is his own harshest critic, and though many may want to see him alongside Sebastian Vettel at Maranello, Ferrari - and Charles himself - might feel that another season in the midfield aimed at polishing his obvious skills will prove worthwhile.
At a time F1 is facing up to losing Fernando Alonso, it would be tough for the sport to lose another of its stars... again.
However, the future of Raikkonen and Leclerc aside, one cannot help but feel that all this smoke and mirrors is about the future of McLaren itself.
Looking at the bigger picture, a star driver is the very least of McLaren's issues, indeed one is reminded of the time Ferrari - during one of its lean periods - sacked Alain Prost, Patrick Tambay commenting that if they couldn't succeed with the best driver in the world how could they ever hope to succeed at all.
Check out our Thursday gallery from Spielberg, here.