Kimi: Mercedes drive or sabbatical?

[AzShadow]

The prospect of Kimi Raikkonen returning to McLaren seems to be one of the more plausible outcomes of the driver market.

Many people at McLaren still love Raikkonen; in many ways he's the perfect McLaren driver.
For a team that grounds their engineering in pure mathematics and physics, to have an unemotional, repetitive - almost robotic - driver in the car is much easier than having a man who is inconsistent and variable.

You'll never be able to prove anything with an inconsistent driver, because you'll never know if what you're changing on the car is working.

McLaren engineers still talk with wonder about Raikkonen's consistent lap times. He was so good, they say, because he would come back to the pits, say what was wrong, they would fix it and he would go out and go faster. Simple.

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh, who values his engineers' opinions highly, wouldn't rule out employing Raikkonen again when asked on Saturday afternoon.

He also said the team wanted to employ the two best drivers they could, despite the problems they had with Hamilton and Alonso two years ago.

Raikkonen only left McLaren because his relationship with then-team boss Ron Dennis deteriorated when he signed Fernando Alonso. Is history repeating itself at Ferrari?

How Lewis Hamilton would feel about having Raikkonen in the other McLaren is another matter.

As a matter of interest, in the McLaren post-race press release, every quote - with the exception of Hamilton's - praises Kimi for his win.

Given that most McLaren people would rather undergo root canal surgery than publicly praise Ferrari, one can't help thinking there's a bit of 'preparing the ground' going on here.

[phil1993]

Please please please go back to McLaren Kimi, I will love you again then

[iceman1]

Please please please go back to McLaren Kimi, I will love you again then

But He'll destroy Hamilton

[phil1993]

Kimi-Lewis is my dream team They would be veeery close I think. Had it been Hamilton of 2007/8 he would be trounced by Kimi, but now LH has matured and improved, I think in 2010 they would be very close. Kimi was great at McLaren, he destroyed Montoya.

[iceman1]

he destroyed Montoya.

And DC .

[phil1993]

he destroyed Montoya.

And DC .

But got beaten by Heidfeld

I think if they were team mates, Lewis would have the edge, just, because of the slight favouritism but on his day Kimi is unstoppable. He just needs to have 17 of those days

[hannibal_rising]

he destroyed Montoya.

And DC .

That was self-destruction

[Arhibald]

That'd be awesome if Kimi would go back to McLaren not that I don't like him now that he's racing for Ferrari, he'd be great in any other team as well. But as mentioned, he kinda had a bit better performance when he was at McLaren so going back isn't such a bad option, now that Ron has walked away from F1.

[MavF1]

Kimi back to McLaren woul be great indeed; would give us awesome driver lineups in both Ferrari and McLaren (in fact it would be similar to 2007 with Alonso and Raikkönen just switching teams) and with the prospect of Brawn and RedBull hopefully being strong again next year, 2010 could be a great season.

Mhm, my post I did previously in this thread isn't accurate anymore now that I thought it through.....in fact I docare if Kimi stays in F1: him and Lewis in one team could be a lot of fun.

[Sanredrose]

he destroyed Montoya.

And DC .

Do you honestly think DC was destroyed by Kimi ? DC was never capable of challenging Mika or Kimi. They both were way too quick to DC.

DC is a backmarker who looked good because he drove a Mclaren !

[Sanredrose]

Please please please go back to McLaren Kimi, I will love you again then

But He'll destroy Hamilton

I don't care if Kimi destroy's Hamilton. In my opinion Kimi is the only driver in the grid who hold the tag - " Invincible ". When he is on a roll, no one can challenge him.

[Sanredrose]

That'd be awesome if Kimi would go back to McLaren not that I don't like him now that he's racing for Ferrari, he'd be great in any other team as well. But as mentioned, he kinda had a bit better performance when he was at McLaren so going back isn't such a bad option, now that Ron has walked away from F1.

Kimi would perform better if he comes back to Mclaren. For some reason the team works out well with Finnish drivers than other nationalities. But at the same time i don't want Heikki to leave. Heikki needs a little more support from the team as he has been a good team player.

[sejtur]

Heikki's too slow man, McLaren need Kimi.

[Sanredrose]

Heikki's too slow man, McLaren need Kimi.

Conflicting emotions ! But how many times in the past have you seen someone return back to their old team. With the exception of Alonso, can you think of anyone else ??

[sejtur]

Well, if he gets dumped by Ferrari or in 2011, what else team has he got to go to? Ferrari and McLaren are still the best teams out there. I don't see Kimi setteling with Toyota or something like that. Kimi's different from everybody on the paddock, we can't predict his moves from what other drivers moves were...