I don't think saying that "Kimi can't be the backbone of a team because he's not pushing the team" is entirely fair on Kimi. There are lots of stories around of how he did in fact tell Ferrari what he wanted from the car, they just didn't take him seriously because he didn't keep going on about it over and over again. We all know that is something that Alonso does do. I know I'm tired of hearing the same story from the Alonso/Ferrari camp over and over and over again about how they're not fast enough.
There was an interesting quote from Alan Permane about the steering issues Kimi has had this year in one of the Autosport magazines. He said that they are still trying to improve it for him, although it's a bit on the backburner at the moment because he's got something he can drive with and they had to put efforts into bigger performance enhancing upgrades. But he also said that they can't forget about it,
just because he doesn't complain about it all the time. It's feedback he
did give them on an issue that they have not quite got to the bottom of and they will need to work on it.
Essentially, if Kimi was a manager, you'd say he has a hands off approach: he'll tell you what's wrong and expect the people whose job it is to fix it, to do just that. But he won't go chasing after them to make sure they do; he'll expect that they want to do what's best for him because that's what's best for the team results and that means fixing the issues he's raised without the need to chase up. Manager-Alonso will tell you what's wrong, go back to his desk and send you an email to remind you what he told you and then call you to ask if you received his email and reiterate that he does need it fixed. I think the reason why Kimi is gelling better at Lotus than he did at Ferrari, is because at Lotus went in expecting this. At Ferrari they weren't really set up for that sort of driver.
As far as Kimi's attitude toward the press goes, I don't care. Much as I "need" the press to get the information I want, I very much detest how there is very little unbiased, straight-facts reporting. If you want to follow F1, it seems you have to either enjoy gossip, sometimes to the point of slander, or develop a very good bullshit-filter. So I can very much see how some of the drivers really don't enjoy being
forced to talk to the press and having at least one of them call them out on the bullshit questions they ask, is refreshing if not always politically correct. I can see how that can get old. But then I'm still ok with it because I don't think being a "fan" of Kimi's includes watching and reading every single interview he does. Let's face it, if you've seen one (per race, or two races perhaps), you've seen them all. And that goes for all the other drivers as well
