Ralf is currently one of the best paid drivers in Formula 1 and it’s always been difficult to fathom exactly what he’s being paid that much money for.

I mean he’s very fast sometimes, but he’s certainly not consistant about it. And although I’m guessing Alonso and Kimi will be paid a lot of money next year I think he’s been being paid more than either of them this year.

Perhaps, I’ve always thought, this means that’s he’s very good with the sponsors and that’s why he’s so liked. But two things probably count against this. One the continuing rumours of his homosexuality – not that there’s anything wrong with that but sponsors probably don’t like the fact that he’s married and also supposedly gay.

But also he’s clearly not that popular with the fans. In the most recent FIA / AMD survey:

Michael Schumacher 28%
Kimi Raikkonen 17%
Jenson Button 8%
Fernando Alonso 7%
David Coulthard 6%
Juan Pablo Montoya 5%
Jacques Villeneuve 4%
Mark Webber 3%
Takuma Sato 2%
Rubens Barrichello 1%
Giancarlo Fisichella 1%
Nick Heidfeld 1%
Tiago Monteiro 1%
Nico Rosberg 1%
Scott Speed 1%
Jarno Trulli 1%

And you’ll notice that he’s not there. Not even there! Gosh I’m not sure the sponsors will like that.

Actually while we’re on the subject of sponsors not being willing to spend vast amounts of cash on things that aren’t really working terribly well. Look who is last on that list: Jarno Trulli aka Ralf’s team mate. Toyota can’t be too happy about that, but then look at the teams list:

Ferrari 30%
McLaren Mercedes 21%
Renault F1 8%
WilliamsF1 8%
Honda Racing F1 6%
Red Bull Racing 4%
BMW Sauber F1 3%
Super Aguri F1 2%
Panasonic Toyota 1%

and we see that they’re not doing too much better!

I’ve never really been sure about Ralf, but in the last few years he’s sort of come into his own a bit certainly when talking to the press and so on. This is in a similar way to what’s happened to David Couthlard since he went to Red Bull. But me liking him wont help, if Ralf doesn’t get faster or more popular soon he might have to go.