Kimi: Mercedes drive or sabbatical?

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Where will Kimi Raikkonen be in 2010?

Poll ended at 28 Dec 2009, 21:51

Sabbatical (rallying)
14
64%
Mercedes
8
36%
Other
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 22

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Ali
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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by Ali » 26 Sep 2009, 07:52

From the press conference:

Q: Stefano, it has already been mentioned that one of your drivers, shall we say, is between a Spaniard and a Finn. What is the situation within the team?
SD: I think what I can say is repeat what our president said. In the last couple of days the situation has changed, so we will keep you updated as soon as we can say something. At the moment nothing to add on that.
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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by Ali » 26 Sep 2009, 07:56

iceman1 wrote:
Zack wrote:This is real ohh God! :(
Nah not yet . Just wait for next year :D

Steve Robertson basically said that Kimi's contract can be broken, whilst Domenicali said in the press conference that "in the last couple of days the [driver] situation has changed" - this can only either mean the Raikkonen-McLaren deal is done.

JA Article
:) Busted!

Can you copy-paste that article Icy? I can't open the site :(
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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by iceman1 » 26 Sep 2009, 08:10

Ali wrote: Can you copy-paste that article Icy? I can't open the site :(
No sorry I can't.

OK here we go :p
Spoiler:
Things are moving quickly now in the one key move in the driver market which will unlock the others. Today Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali said “In the last couple of days the situation has changed, so we will keep you updated as soon as we can say something. At the moment nothing to add on that.”
What did he mean?

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo was in Madrid on Thursday and took part in a question and answer session with the readers of Marca, the leading daily sports paper. He was collecting one of their awards. He allowed himself to get a bit carried away, as he does sometimes, and said the following,

” I’m happy with the five year deal with Bank Santander. I’m happy to have a Spanish sponsor and I’m pleased with my team with Alonso.”

He was toying with them because he then said, “Next year we will have Massa, Raikkonen and a Spanish sponsor.”

It’s almost as if he is enjoying the moment, the speculation and is feeding it. However he did say get serious and lay out the plan, “Up to now the priority was to confirm Massa was okay in himself. Then we needed to get some certainty he would be okay as a driver. We’ve got that and Felipe will be with us. In these last few days we have cleared up a few things and when Domenicali returns from Singapore we can decide some important things. All the great driver have passed through Ferrari apart from Clark, Stewart and Senna. I consider Alonso a great driver.”

So it seems we are possibly a week or so away from knowing whether the Alonso Ferrari move is on or not, nine months after it was first mooted in Gazzetta dello Sport.

What has changed? Perhaps on his visit to Spain, Montezemolo got some kind of assurance from Santander that they would be willing to put up the extra funds needed to make the early transfer of Alonso to Ferrari in place of Raikkonen.

Perhaps Alonso is more keen to distance himself from Renault and the cheating scandal, just as Michael Schumacher was in 1995, with the same team when it was Benetton. The parallels between Alonso’s career and Schumacher’s are amazing, both had early opportunities with Flavio Briatore’s team, both won back to back titles then had a fallow period. Maybe the pattern continues with the move to Ferrari.

Raikkonen said on Thursday, “I believe that they want to speak to me about this. But it hasn’t happened yet.” Indeed, Italian colleagues tell me that Raikkonen has been seeking a meeting with Montezemolo but has yet to get a date from him. His name continues to be linked with McLaren but the team denied that there was a pre-contract in place.

As for Massa, Domenicali gave an update on his condition today, “Felipe makes steady progress: he started a programme of physical exercise and preparations to drive. The next step will be the simulator and then he can drive a kart. When he can get back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 single-seater, we’ll decide when the next steps have been completed.”

A final note on Montezemolo, he was asked whether he felt he was ‘Mosley’s next victim’, to which he replied, ” In life you must have a clear conscience and fear nothing.”

This weekend looks like being a tough one for Ferrari, with many of their rivals having brought upgrades. Ferrari stopped development of the car over a month ago to focus on 2010, “Clearly, when evaluating today’s free practice times, one has to consider the various unknown factors, but it is equally clear that our situation looks pretty difficult,” said Domenicali.
Perhaps on his visit to Spain, Montezemolo got some kind of assurance from Santander that they would be willing to put up the extra funds needed to make the early transfer of Alonso to Ferrari in place of Raikkonen.

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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by Zack » 26 Sep 2009, 09:12

It seems like Kimi want to drive Ferrari but Ferrari are force to get rid of him due of Santanders who in return wants Alonso. SAD!

This is s*t .. Ferrari's pride is lost :zz: Drivers are chosen by Sponsors :(
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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by iceman1 » 26 Sep 2009, 09:21

I hope Kimi wins the WDC with Mclaren while Ferrari are still paying him :rofl: :rofl:

McLaren will get a new shot of handling two world champions at the same time :D

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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by Ali » 26 Sep 2009, 09:23

Kimi has an unfinished business in McLaren. I think it's enough of a motivation for him to go to Macca before switching to Rallying.
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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by TwistedArmco » 26 Sep 2009, 09:24

It's sit, is it? :p Plus, I would make two assertions:

1) Ferrari have wanted Alonso for years.
2) Kimi seemed more suited to the McLaren environment.

As Luca said, Ferrari have had basically every great driver pass through its doors. I would say a few more greats than he listed have not raced there, such as Fittipaldi, Hill (G.), Brabham and Piquet, but that the list of all-time greats who have driven for Ferrari include Fangio, Ascari, Lauda, Prost, Schumacher and indeed Raikkonen. It's only natural that Ferrari should want to hire Alonso, given his status as statistically the best current F1 driver. I think they wanted Santander to ease Alonso into Ferrari, not the other way round. :O
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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by blizzard » 26 Sep 2009, 10:37

Yeah I wish him the best of luck at McLaren and I hope he will destroy Hamilton! :n


But I also hope neither Ferrari, nor Santander pay him one cent when he is driving for McLaren. Normally a driver is not allowed to race for another team whilst on one team´s payroll right?

Or the siatuation just hasn´t been explained correctly.

It might be the case, that Ferrari breach the contract and therefore it get´s terminated. They then have to pay a compensation to Kimi for breaching the contract. Then Kimi is basically without a contract for 2010 and can sign for McLaren. That´s the only constellation which makes sense.

Surely Montezemolo is not that stupid and pays Kimi his normal salary for 2010 AND let´s him drive for McLaren :lol:
Luca´s got an MBA after all :cool:

Anyway the luckiest man in that situation will be Kimi, receiving some 65 or 70 million next year...Schumi like salary.
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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by AzShadow » 26 Sep 2009, 10:41

Montezemolo is stupid enough to sign 7 drivers when they only have 2 cars so I could believe anything from him.
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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by syafiqa » 26 Sep 2009, 11:06

For the first time i think kimi should go back to mclaren.Pairing with Hamy as teammate.
What a great having 2 former world champion in the same team with different personality.
One with cold icy character and the other one with press friendly.What a compliment :roll::

And one more thing,i think its the right time for me to switch from ferrari to MCca fan and ofcourse be supporter to 1Malaysia F1 team :)

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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by JoostLamers » 26 Sep 2009, 21:43

Latest rumour:

Santander pays McLaren to get Raikkonen out of the Ferrari and in the silver car..
Spoiler:
Sep.26 (GMM) The wheels of speculation regarding the futures of Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso continue to spin in Singapore.

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali, who has Raikkonen under contract for 2010, on Friday admitted that "the situation has changed ... in the last couple of days".

At the same time, Alonso revealed that he has made his mind up about his plans for next year, while the Raikkonen camp admitted that contracts can be broken.

Germany's Sport Bild now reports that mutual team sponsor Santander, keen to make room at Ferrari for Spaniard Alonso, has agreed to pay McLaren 25 million euros if it will give Raikkonen a race seat for 2010.

And in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Alonso was asked what he thought of Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo's comments about Ferrari hoping to announce its drivers for 2010 "soon".

"He (Montezemolo) said it is going to be soon but I don't know when," the 27-year-old responded. "I have taken my decision more or less, but there are several options, not just one."

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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by HandoZiZle » 27 Sep 2009, 02:46

Zack wrote:It seems like Kimi want to drive Ferrari but Ferrari are force to get rid of him due of Santanders who in return wants Alonso. SAD!

This is s*t .. Ferrari's pride is lost :zz: Drivers are chosen by Sponsors :(
I think this is the same exact situation with Schumacher. I think Schumacher could've drove for at least one more year but he was forced to leave because of, ironically, Kimi. I think Ferrari will lost a great talent and i'm not sure if Alonso can save Ferrari like Schumi did but who knows. I still think Alonso is going red next year specially now that he's cleared from any wrong-doing at last years Singapore GP.
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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by iceman1 » 28 Sep 2009, 11:11

McLaren can handle Raikkonen

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79008

I read somewhere that The Official announcement (Kimi to Mclaren) is going to be on Wednesday.

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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by AzShadow » 28 Sep 2009, 12:14

Funny since Alonso's Ferrari announcement is expected on Thursday. Maybe McLaren just wants to piss off Ferrari a little.
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Re: 2009 Kimi's last season?

Post by Jacobss » 28 Sep 2009, 12:35

YES YES YES !!!!

KIMI WELCOME AT HOME :) :)

At least back to my lovely team. :cool: I left supporting McLaren after Kimi goes to Ferrari, but now I'm gonna to love them again :).

F1 strongest line-up - Kimi and Lewis

stronger than Massa and Alonso :n
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