Speculation-thread: Will Kimi be in WRC or F1 next season?

[Moominpappa]

Here the latest in Finnish. I translate the main thing.
http://www.hs.fi/urheilu/formula1/artik ... 5260176287

Kimi Räikkösen manageri Steve Robertson on ollut yhteydessä Renaultin formula 1- talliin. Renaultin tallipäällikkö Eric Boullier paljasti Italian GP:n yhteydessä viime viikonloppuna, että Räikkönen on ollut yhteydessä häneen.

"On totta, että keskustelin Boullierin kanssa. Haluamme kartoittaa kaikki mahdolliset vaihtoehdot Kimille ensi vuodeksi ja kysyin, missä Renaultilla ollaan menossa, Robertson kertoi Turun Sanomille.

Räikkösen lisäksi myös Heikki Kovalainen on yhdistetty ensi kaudeksi Renaultille. Tällä kaudella talllin autoja ovat kuljettaneet Robert Kubica ja Vitali Petrov.

Robertsonin mukaan Räikkönen jatkaa todennäköisesti rallin MM-sarjassa ensi kaudella.

So, Robertson has spoken with Renault. He want to look all possible alternativies to Kimi for next year. At the end Robertson said that the most possible situation is that Kimi will continue in WRC.

Yes, this news is from HS. Original is from TS.

[Moominpappa]

I read the TS story by Heikki Kulta. Hopefully some nice Finnish will translate it even my previous post has told the most interesting part of it.

[Sébastien Loeb]

Good news
thanks

[Boudica]

Here the latest in Finnish. I translate the main thing.
http://www.hs.fi/urheilu/formula1/artik ... 5260176287

Kimi Räikkösen manageri Steve Robertson on ollut yhteydessä Renaultin formula 1- talliin. Renaultin tallipäällikkö Eric Boullier paljasti Italian GP:n yhteydessä viime viikonloppuna, että Räikkönen on ollut yhteydessä häneen.

"On totta, että keskustelin Boullierin kanssa. Haluamme kartoittaa kaikki mahdolliset vaihtoehdot Kimille ensi vuodeksi ja kysyin, missä Renaultilla ollaan menossa, Robertson kertoi Turun Sanomille.

Räikkösen lisäksi myös Heikki Kovalainen on yhdistetty ensi kaudeksi Renaultille. Tällä kaudella talllin autoja ovat kuljettaneet Robert Kubica ja Vitali Petrov.

Robertsonin mukaan Räikkönen jatkaa todennäköisesti rallin MM-sarjassa ensi kaudella.

So, Robertson has spoken with Renault. He want to look all possible alternativies to Kimi for next year. At the end Robertson said that the most possible situation is that Kimi will continue in WRC.

Yes, this news is from HS. Original is from TS.

Someone posted this on Autosport:

Kimis manager Steve Robertson confirms to Heikki Kulta at Turun Sanomat today
that they been in contact with Renault and Eric Boullier under Monza weekend.
Just "asking whats goin on at Renault" and looking for different alternatives for Kimi next year.
Robertson says to Kulta the most likely alternative for Kimi is still rally next year.
And he totally denies the rumour about Nascar alternative.

[sleenster]

I read the TS story by Heikki Kulta. Hopefully some nice Finnish will translate it even my previous post has told the most interesting part of it.

Thank you Moominpappa, that was still a nice translation

Even though Eric Boullier is acting like a (insert suitable expletive here), it's Steve Robertson's job to talk to NASCAR, Renault, Citroen, Ford, Mini, Monster Rally Team, who knows?? Robertson has to seek out all possibilities and get all possible deals on the table for Kimi so that Kimi can ultimately decide what he wants to do. That's what a manager's job is.

Original TS article here too:
http://www.ts.fi/f1/uutiset/159954.html

[sammyosammy]

Should be sleeping by now, a long and busy day tomorrow to come.
All this Boullier this, that and if or if not bs leads me to only reasonable question..
...no matter who stands for WDC ´10, - is it going to be Felipe-baby or Webbo in Renault seat ´11? It sure ain´t Kimster, he´s got his seat already.
Nighty people

[Maria d]

sammy what seat will kimi be sitting in? i am so confused

[brendakarli]

hahahah methinks the robertsons got pissed that renault is publicly making such statements about kimi - so they have to come out and say they were the ones who approached renault, not kimi himself. I believe this would be the true statement bcos kimi would not need to approach them since he has a mgt team to conduct negotiations for him since he pays them to do so.

this is robertsons' way of telling the publlic that renault bosses are talking c**p and bigging themselves up by marginalizing kimi the way they r doing so right now. It is obvious kimi was never considered for the seat - everything was for show from renault's perspective. I do believe now that kimi will stay in WRC since citroen boss has stated they would like to continue their partnership with kimi.

I also think that this forum will be a good place for kimi fans to stay even if he does return to f1 - the other forum that I feel attracts decent people to its site is james allen's blog (although I sense that james is also not a fan of kimi's). Oh well, only time will tell... kimi clearly knows how to affect people even though his critics have panned him as having zero character!

The JINX

My money is on Fonzi and Ferrari - WDC, WCC 2010

[bourbon]

Back to awaiting an announcement from Kimi.

They won't get me again - no matter how provocative the article...even "Kimi signs with Renault" won't do it!

[Ice-Ludy]

Here the latest in Finnish. I translate the main thing.
http://www.hs.fi/urheilu/formula1/artik ... 5260176287

Kimi Räikkösen manageri Steve Robertson on ollut yhteydessä Renaultin formula 1- talliin. Renaultin tallipäällikkö Eric Boullier paljasti Italian GP:n yhteydessä viime viikonloppuna, että Räikkönen on ollut yhteydessä häneen.

"On totta, että keskustelin Boullierin kanssa. Haluamme kartoittaa kaikki mahdolliset vaihtoehdot Kimille ensi vuodeksi ja kysyin, missä Renaultilla ollaan menossa, Robertson kertoi Turun Sanomille.

Räikkösen lisäksi myös Heikki Kovalainen on yhdistetty ensi kaudeksi Renaultille. Tällä kaudella talllin autoja ovat kuljettaneet Robert Kubica ja Vitali Petrov.

Robertsonin mukaan Räikkönen jatkaa todennäköisesti rallin MM-sarjassa ensi kaudella.

So, Robertson has spoken with Renault. He want to look all possible alternativies to Kimi for next year. At the end Robertson said that the most possible situation is that Kimi will continue in WRC.

Yes, this news is from HS. Original is from TS.

Thanks Moominpappa

[Julia]

You have to remember that Formula One is a business. The aim is to make money and the best possible way to do so is to be the best. Maybe Renault have realised that Petrov has disappointed & Renault haven't expanded into Russia as expected. If they have Kimi then possibly they can attract sponsors and get the results that would negate the high cost of Raikkonen's probably salary.

yeah, its all business. The reason i think Renault is hyping Kimi so much is that they need a titelsponsor if they want to have two good driver instead of one good and one paydriver... in plain english they cant afford Kimi at the moment. In the beginning of the summer there was rumor that they almost had one but since that it has been very quiet. So they are hyping again and hope somebody gets interested when they here that even Kimi has been in contact...

that monster/ford possibility is also interesting (and probably one of the other rally options) but if he signs with them he definitely burns down all bridges to RB. But as a another rallyoption to the RB/citroen deal its good. You need to have more than one good option when you negotiating.

[SpaMaster]

Apparently Motoring News in the UK has an article about Kimi talking to Prodrive-Mini with Redbull money. Has anyone seen or heard about this article?

Yeah I have. I think its a pretty weak rumour to be honest. MN thinks Meeke & Gronholm/Ostberg will drive the Mini. They do suggest though that Monster want Block & Raikkonen...

I see Robertsons hand all over these. Kimi's name would be even better for Monster than it is for Red Bull for the market outside US . (I understand they are behind Red Bull outside US?)

[Kriss]

Thanks Moominpappa

[Wolfie]

Who remembers endseason 2006 when Robertson was negotiating with Briatore for a seat in Renault? With the Ferrari-contract in his pocket

We have this Lex Hollo on MTV3 who writes hilarious and witty articles and I thought you might enjoy reading this one, he is like Finland's Leo Turrini

Sneaky F1-people
16.9.2010

If F1 wouldn't have the halo created by it's history and the puffy status created by money, then the whole insane puttering around would probably had been buried ages ago.

The World Council decided last week that they had no evidence backing up Ferrari using team orders in Hockenheim. There Felipe Massa was told even twice in the same sentence that he should understand that brother-Fernando behind him is faster than him. And Felipe understood because it didn't take many seconds before Alonso made a pure style passing.

After the race Ferrari got a fine of 100 000 dollars. Even though they didn't see that the team was guilty the fine was still valid. Interesting logic. Although when it comes to magnitude it was the same as stealing a lollipop from Jorma Ollila (rich man in Finland). The council's clear message to the F1-world seems to be: we don't like that, you shouldn't use team orders but that wasn't any team order because we have no evidence but still we don't quite like that kind of business so pay your fine even though the fine is ridiculously small.

FIA also mentioned in their justification that in the specific case Ferrari had a justified fear that the team mates would collide. Absolutely touching caretaking. I haven't cried this much since Minna got voted out from the BB-house. Or whoever it was.

When thinking about how much money is circulating in the F1-world one would assume that they could get more sneaky dudes to make up strategies. Maybe Massa's race engineer Rob Smedley really didn't think of anything else than "Fernando is faster than you" in the heat of Hockenheim's race.

I suggest to F1-teams, completely free of charge, an especially innovative code language for future similar situations. A1 could mean: go go go, you are in a hurry now and B2: sorry, let your mate pass you immediately in one way or another. To further confuse the big bugs the codes could be reversed in the next race. Although it might be that a more simpler sign language would be enough to fool them.

Now we are again living those times which will get the anti-fans of F1 to the barricades. Every tube is filled with more and more imaginary driver rumours. From the Finnish perspective the most seriocomical has been attaching Kimi Räikkönen to practically every possible and impossible sentences. When Renault's boss says that it looks like it's going to be a dry weather, it can nicely be connected to Räikkönen; if the boss thinks that tomorrow is more sunny than yesterday it cannot mean anything else than hiring Räikkönen. I mean the man is nothing but sunshine.

The same boss also spew out an extremely unambiguous comment about the current driver Vitali Petrov's situation:

“At this moment Vitali is our second driver and we try to do all we can so that we can secure his seat as our other driver. I doubt that he did enough in Monza to justify his seat next season.”

Translated it means exactly the following:
“The Russian still spins around here because his sponsors have brought us so much money. We are always interested in money but wonder if we could get this business swinged with Bernie so that Vitali would leave but the money would stay with us? Monza at the latest showed that Petrov's job is at most a bus driver somewhere in Ural.”

Lotus team's boss Mike Gascoyne on the other hand informed that Lotus isn't going to develop this year's car anymore. That's cool Mike but if you even have developed the car it sure hasn't been very strongly sensed from the sofa at home. Better luck next season.

F1 has wandered itself already ages ago into an uncontrolled ameba bigger than itself; more happens outside the sport than inside the sport. There is reason to actively give artificial respiration to this machinery because for example last weekend's race in Monza was again in it's boredome bloodcurling. Without the extremely refined rumour mill and the hulabaloo outside the tracks, F1 would probably not exist anymore. Even in it's current state the sport still interests amazingly many people. There's nothing bad in that, F1 is the traditional royal class which also deserves to be noticed through that as a sport. Yet it's clear that the sport could be made more interesting than what it is today. If there would be good will. And right people at right places. No inward heated plotting. No s*hit-talking pushers greedy for money. No weird and unclear regulations that are applied to the situation at hand. No this. No that.

F1 today is like Finland's Turku. There's nothing wrong with the city itself but the people....

[Julia]

HELP!!

Somebody who can translate from germany... (its not my first language and I got a little bit unsure what he says)...

Helmut Marko have commented Kimi and rally today and it sounded very strange...and definitely quite different from the autosport article in jun.

Das Engagement in der Rallye-WM verlief jedoch weniger erfolgreich als erhofft - auch für Hauptfinanzier Red Bull.

"An Publicity ist noch nicht so viel rübergekommen, wie wir uns erwartet haben, aber das hängt auch damit zusammen, dass Räikkönen relativ oft Unfälle baut und die Resultate ausgeblieben sind", erklärt Red-Bull-Motorsportkonsulent Helmut Marko gegenüber 'Motorsport-Total.com'. "Sehr zufrieden" sei er mit Sébastien Loeb und Sébastien Ogier; das Projekt Räikkönen funktioniere aber nur mit Siegen: "Wenn der sportliche Erfolg da ist, dann ist der Werbeeffekt genauso da. Das geht Hand in Hand."

Ob Red Bull die Rallyekarriere des finnischen Superstars weiterhin finanzieren wird, steht derzeit noch nicht fest: "Momentan hat einmal die Formel 1 Priorität", stellt Marko klar. Erst wenn sich dort die Situation im Titelkampf entspannt, werde man darüber nachdenken, wie man sich in allen anderen Kategorien aufstellt.

http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/news ... 91607.html