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

[miezicat]

is it sure that Citroen will only have 4 cars? why not more if they find drivers to pay for?

[sleenster]

is it sure that Citroen will only have 4 cars? why not more if they find drivers to pay for?

That definitely has not been ruled out:

In France it is has not been ruled out that there could be a fifth car for Kimi Raikkonen. But the Finn continues to look for the necessary budget to stay in the World Rally Championship.

http://www.rallye-magazin.de/index.php? ... e7d95027ae


But this is also what Quesnel said:

On the final day of Rally GB this year, Quesnel said: “Next year we will have a team M1 and a team M2. For the M2 team, the board doesn’t intend to pay anything so I have to find the full budget. We have a lot of demand but we would prefer to have the drivers with the budget who are also very fast. It’s complicated. We have to wait a little bit but I am sure we will have two cars in the Junior Team.”

http://www.maxrally.com/news/entry/van_ ... rs_future/

[Boudica]

The problem is WRC is in a bad place, there are actually a few drivers who does use their own money, the best example being Petter and I dont think anyone would think of him as being desperate, people actually admire him for it. Kimi doesn't even have to sponsor himself directly he properly has a lot of investments in different companies. They could use one of these companies to sponsor him. There is always the old adage if you want something bad enough you will do whatever you can to get it.

I just don't think Kimi is that desperate. He's not some struggling rookie driver waiting for his next big break or trying to get people to take notice of him. He's a F1 world champion. Rallying is not his entire life. If he can't go rallying then he'll just go find something else to do instead.

Yes, that is true Kimi doesn't really need it. But I would still rather see Kimi driving WRC then sitting at home doing nothing, especially if it was in his power to do something about it, like just paying his own drive. Kimi is still young, a racing driver's career isn't that long, but Kimi still has a few years of his prime left. That being said perhaps you are right, Kimi has been racing professionally now for ten years and perhaps he is ready for life after racing.

[miezicat]

is it sure that Citroen will only have 4 cars? why not more if they find drivers to pay for?

That definitely has not been ruled out:

In France it is has not been ruled out that there could be a fifth car for Kimi Raikkonen. But the Finn continues to look for the necessary budget to stay in the World Rally Championship.

http://www.rallye-magazin.de/index.php? ... e7d95027ae


But this is also what Quesnel said:

On the final day of Rally GB this year, Quesnel said: “Next year we will have a team M1 and a team M2. For the M2 team, the board doesn’t intend to pay anything so I have to find the full budget. We have a lot of demand but we would prefer to have the drivers with the budget who are also very fast. It’s complicated. We have to wait a little bit but I am sure we will have two cars in the Junior Team.”

http://www.maxrally.com/news/entry/van_ ... rs_future/

yeah it's a bit confusing. also it seems in some reports that van Merksteijn is driving as the van Merksteijn team (together with his father at some rallies) so what if they have 3 teams then? the junior too with Kimi and Petter? would only be 2 cars at the junior wishful thinking?

[sleenster]

Don't think van Merksteijn will be driving in his own team, it will definitely have to be part of the CJT (or M2) team because Quesnel is not willing to sell cars to privateers, lots of new technology in the cars and all. Quesnel has also said that Citroen want to run the car themselves. But I don't think the number of cars are the issue here, even if there is a DS3 for Kimi he still has to find some way to pay for it through sponsorship or his own money. And even if there are no DS3s left there are still many Fiestas and Minis left.

[Mar]

A little bit of speculation here. Just for the pleasure of it.

I can understand Kimi prefers Citroën to Ford, he already knows the team and feels comfortable there. But if he has lost Red Bull sponsorship it really doesn’t make some much sense to stay there.

If what’s being published is true, the Citroëns are twice as expensive as the Fords and nobody knows if they will really be the best cars next season. And even if they are better, well, Kimi would not set the world on fire next season anyway, a Ford should be good enough. If he has to search for the whole budget (even risking putting some money from his own pocket) Ford is a better option.

Ford said they would be able to have 10-11 cars and there is still 1 or 2 left.

And of course, we still have the mysterious case of Atkinson driving for Proton in the IRC instead of the WRC with Monster...

[sleenster]

I don't know if Atkinson if driving in the IRC because Monster couldn't find the budget for him.... if that's the case then Kimi is back to square one in having to find sponsorship to drive in Monster anyway.

[Mar]

Yeah, but one thing is to find half a million in sponsorship and another thing is to find 2 million: that’s still 333 million pesetas (in pesetas is much more scary), even with the crazy property market as it is you can buy about 8 big flats downtown with that money.

[sleenster]

Yeah, but one thing is to find half a million in sponsorship and another thing is to find 2 million: that’s still 333 million pesetas (in pesetas is much more scary), even with the crazy property market as it is you can buy about 8 big flats downtown with that money.

Whether it's 0.5 million or 2 million, that only gets him the car. We still have to think about things like who going to pay Kaj's salary? Or who is going to pay Mark Arnall's salary? What about travel and accommodation for them? These expenses will add up.

[Mar]

Yeah, but one thing is to find half a million in sponsorship and another thing is to find 2 million: that’s still 333 million pesetas (in pesetas is much more scary), even with the crazy property market as it is you can buy about 8 big flats downtown with that money.

Whether it's 0.5 million or 2 million, that only gets him the car. We still have to think about things like who going to pay Kaj's salary? Or who is going to pay Mark Arnall's salary? What about travel and accommodation for them? These expenses will add up.

But that would make it even more logical to try to get a Ford instead of a Citroën, right?

[sleenster]

Yeah, but one thing is to find half a million in sponsorship and another thing is to find 2 million: that’s still 333 million pesetas (in pesetas is much more scary), even with the crazy property market as it is you can buy about 8 big flats downtown with that money.

Whether it's 0.5 million or 2 million, that only gets him the car. We still have to think about things like who going to pay Kaj's salary? Or who is going to pay Mark Arnall's salary? What about travel and accommodation for them? These expenses will add up.

But that would make it even more logical to try to get a Ford instead of a Citroën, right?

That is assuming that Kimi wants to pay for a car and pay Kaj's salary in the first place but I just have this feeling that he has too much pride to do so.
I want to see Kimi driving and if it came down to it, I would rather he pay to drive than the R-word, but then again it doesn't cost me anything to see him driving and it's not my money so it's very easy to say "just pay, what's the big deal? he's rich"

It's true that Ford offered Dani a car for 0.5 million, but I think their initial offer was more than that, like 1-1.5 million? I think Ford's offer to Dani has kind of been subsidized by Ford because they do need him for the tarmac rallies. And I doubt Kuipers and Ostberg are paying just 0.5 million for their cars anyway. Malcolm Wilson will probably ask Kimi to pay more than that since he has questioned whether Kimi is actually cost-effective in the past.

[Mar]

Oh, I meant with sponsors, not Kimi paying. The less money you need, the less sponsors money you have to find.

Didn’t somebody say the standard money Ford is asking to the customers is 1 million? I don’t remember any longer what I have read and where it was (too much information for my little head). And I think for Monster team, it’s less than that because Monster puts some of the money (did I just make that up? )

[sleenster]

Oh, I meant with sponsors, not Kimi paying. The less money you need, the less sponsors money you have to find.

Didn’t somebody say the standard money Ford is asking to the customers is 1 million? I don’t remember any longer what I have read and where it was (too much information for my little head). And I think for Monster team, it’s less than that because Monster puts some of the money (did I just make that up? )

Yeah, I really hope Kimi has found some sponsors by now but the longer it takes, the more worrying it is. Quesnel did say that Kimi has money problems but I don't know if that means that he has big money problems or small money problems. I guess Monster really is our last hope now because he probably does have to find more than just 2 million in sponsorship for Citroen due to the other expenses.

I don't remember how much Ford is asking from its customers, but Malcolm Wilson can't be asking too much less than what Citroen are asking, I will try to search for some exact numbers.

[icemaid]

haiz, this is getting...
forget about rallying Kimi, come back to F1!

[Mar]

Icemaid, there’s no place in F1 where he could go.
There’re no seats, no good ones, no middle-class ones and not even bad ones. If he doesn’t manage to get the money to keep on rallying, it’s over.