The Kimi Rally Monster Cool Lounge

[Kriss]

first part of the Hungarian article
I did it a hurry so sorry for the mistakes i advance

Where is Kimi Raikkonen?

We continue our series where we try to form opinion in those questions which divide millions of fans and where the ordinary sports media is helpless.

First we solved the Schumacher mystery then we analyzed the trinity (Senna, Schumacher and Alonso) but the best for last - the interpretation of the Raikkonen factor. Have fun!

Let’s face the fact that Kimi is not going back to Formula1. It seems that he’s found the place where he really feels good and he has no intension to test himself in the championship of lies and intrigue. Let’s say it: the Formula 1 was able to squander the most brilliant talent of the last decade and the only special individuality who was able to expose the human side of the sport in addition doing his job perfectly like a machine. Who is to blame?

It would be very simple to say that Ferrari. Many thought that Kimi was worthy successor of Schumacher in Maranello and with him the Scuderia could continue its success – with the latter definition I could completely identify myself but the first part of sentence raised doubt in me even in the beginning of 2007.
We have to admit that Kimi is not the type of racer who is getting his team behind him with his huge work ethic. He is doing his job, telling what he wants and when he gets it he drives his car fast, damn fast. Motivating his team, building emotional relationships are not of his strengths. Kimi is a really old school racer who doesn’t care a bit about marketing, doesn’t make friends, doesn’t do anything else but going into the factory telling what he wants and then performs. Why? Because the only thing Kimi knows is how to drive the car very fast. And today this is not enough to be a real great racer. We could speculate for a long time whether this new style is good or not but the facts are facts – nowadays it is not enough to drive the car fast, a driver must have a much more complex knowledge to achieve his dream.

Kimi wasn’t capable to measure up to the task which was only partially his fault. Coming from his style and habit he is not a very passionate person and his genius isolated him from his team. He had many arguments with Ron Dennis because the McLaren team couldn’t provide a championship contender technique and Ron (rightfully) demanded consequence and intelligence in Kimi’s racing.

There was something that he misjudged. Kimi’s way of competing is very simple – he wants to win no matter what, and he doesn’t think that in certain situation he should slow down. This kind of attitude brought him the love of ten and hundred thousands of fans but also is to blame for having only one world championship title in his cabinet.

[luieluv]

Superb job kriss. Lovely reading.

[Kriss]

Superb job kriss. Lovely reading.

thanks lui
I will finish it when I get home (I'm in my office and it's time to work a little )

[luviceman]

thank you so much Kriss for the translation!

He is doing his job, telling what he wants and when he gets it he drives his car fast, damn fast.

I love DAMN FAST part yes, Mr. Raikkonen can drive his car damn fast!
I believe we will see Kimi who will be driving crazy in WRC car and win
I know we should not expect much to him yet, but hope to see him on the podium in near future

[sleenster]

Kriss you're awesome , don't worry take your time

[sleenster]

Raikkonen commits to 10 WRC events

25 Jan 11

More details have emerged about Kimi Raikkonen's second term in the World Rally Championship following Citroen Racing's season launch at its Versailles headquarters near Paris on Monday.

Raikkonen, 31, finished 10th in his debut campaign at world level last season but has held off confirming his 2011 programme following the sudden death of his father Matti prior to Christmas, and amid uncertainty over the continued support of sponsor Red Bull.

However, Citroen Racing boss Olivier Quesnel has said that the ex-Formula One world champion will definitely begin his campaign on Rally Sweden next month and will go on to tackle a minimum of nine further events.

Raikkonen will run under the ICE1 Racing banner from Citroen Racing’s base and with a full complement of Citroen engineers and mechanics. He will skip the rounds in Mexico, Italy (Sardinia) and Argentina and is due to get behind the wheel of the DS3 WRC for the first time at a test in Sweden this weekend.

“Kimi has signed up for 10 rallies and if everything goes well maybe [it will be] more rallies,” said Quesnel. “We are very pleased to have him. Of course we would like to have him for all rallies but it depends of him what he does.”

Quesnel said he expected Raikkonen to make more progress in 2011 following an encouraging learning year in 2010, when he claimed a best result on Rally of Turkey back in April.

“I don’t know when it will happen but when everything clicks for him it will be impressive,” said Quesnel. “I am not sure he can beat Sebastien Loeb or Sebastien Ogier or [Jari-Matti] Latvala and so on but I am sure he can be [in the] top five without any problem.”

http://www.wrc.com/news/raikkonen-commi ... ?fid=14051

I like the vote of confidence from Quesnel

[Ice-Ludy]

Ogier and Kimi didn't get along so well it seems

Ex-teammates rude comment about Räikkönen

Citroën factory team's second driver, Sebastien Ogier has risen to miss last year's team-mate Kimi Räikkönen.

Ogier ran most of last season the junior team Citroën F1 world champion tallitoverina. French driver believes that a fellow countryman Sebastien Loeb with co-operation is going much better.

- between us there is no problem. Naturally, we are each other's rivals, but I think we are coming along well outside competitions. At least much better than Kimi Raikkonen, because last year I switched to him never a word, Ogier revealed the Le Figaro newspaper's website.

Again the issue is outside racing. We all know that kimi is not known to have friends outside the competition. So nothing new. And well kimi did open up to people like ken, loeb and sordo too. So ogier perhaps not the person kimi felt like spending time outside the rally days. As simple as that.

yeah, definitely looks like it... I mean when I started to think a remember many picturs of Kimi hanging out with Petter, Ken, Loeb, Sordo, Mikko, and even ogiers co-driver (Ingrassia) but no pictures of Kimi hanging out with Ogier....

was it on this forum that there was discussion that Quesnell had commented somewhere that Kimi and Elena (Loebs co-driver) got along very, very well ...

but it it little interesting to hear such a comment after everybody else at citroen talks about him as a sweathart...

Luie and Julia, I agree with you! Specially because we have seen Kimi get along with everybody so I guess who has issues is Ogier!!! Honestly, I don't care!!!

[Ice-Ludy]

Kriss you're awesome , don't worry take your time

Thank you Luie for finding the article and a huge thank you Kriss for translating it for us!!! The first prit was great!!

[Kriss]

Part2 (Part3 coming from home)

Kimi made a mistake in his carrier when he signed Ferrari, In 2007 the great personalities of the post Schumacher era (Alonso and Kimi) made unbelievably wrong decisions. – practically they swapped teams. It was obvious at his very young age that Alonso belongs to Ferrari and it was hard to imagine Kimi in such a passionate environment. In his first season with the passionate support of Jean Todt pulled together the world title. (how and why I have a special theory) then after the Frenchman’s departure Kimi vanished. Trust is vital for Kimi.
He can not live without trust; he has to feel that that team is there for him, works for him and wants his success – even if he is not willing to do anything else but driving very fast. With Todt’s departure the trust disappeared. In Maranello the chiefs became less talented but Italians and they couldn’t find the way with the Finnish champion. In 2008 Kimi wasn’t losing to Massa because the team put him down but because he wasn’t in the mood to drive for Ferrari. It seemed from many of his expressions. He didn’t feel the confidence, he wasn’t the team’s mascot anymore, they didn’t observe his opinion and that was enough to lose his spirit for a lifetime.

And of course there is a very significant detail that in 2007 Kimi had fulfilled his dream and became a world champion. Everybody who ever won something knows that after the euphoria of winning emptiness comes very quickly. Kimi was fed up with the media hype, he didn’t have a minute without the press. Many questioned the equity of his title, they said that he only won because of the McLaren’s inner battle. Kimi simply lost his spirit – and it is Formula1’s fault: the environment, the rules, the sharks of the media.

Formula1 needs a great talent like Raikkonen in any circumstances – especially in current times. Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso all are exceptional talents but they are from the new era, raised for racing, treat the media and the fans like a machine, they never do anything risky. They are fast, talented but without personality, self-will, the freedom of individuality which could predestinate them to be remembered after 30-40 years as gritty racers.

[Ice-Ludy]

Part2 (Part3 coming from home)

Kimi made a mistake in his carrier when he signed Ferrari, In 2007 the great personalities of the post Schumacher era (Alonso and Kimi) made unbelievably wrong decisions. – practically they swapped teams. It was obvious at his very young age that Alonso belongs to Ferrari and it was hard to imagine Kimi in such a passionate environment. In his first season with the passionate support of Jean Todt pulled together the world title. (how and why I have a special theory) then after the Frenchman’s departure Kimi vanished. Trust is vital for Kimi.
He can not live without trust; he has to feel that that team is there for him, works for him and wants his success – even if he is not willing to do anything else but driving very fast. With Todt’s departure the trust disappeared. In Maranello the chiefs became less talented but Italians and they couldn’t find the way with the Finnish champion. In 2008 Kimi wasn’t losing to Massa because the team put him down but because he wasn’t in the mood to drive for Ferrari. It seemed from many of his expressions. He didn’t feel the confidence, he wasn’t the team’s mascot anymore, they didn’t observe his opinion and that was enough to lose his spirit for a lifetime.

And of course there is a very significant detail that in 2007 Kimi had fulfilled his dream and became a world champion. Everybody who ever won something knows that after the euphoria of winning emptiness comes very quickly. Kimi was fed up with the media hype, he didn’t have a minute without the press. Many questioned the equity of his title, they said that he only won because of the McLaren’s inner battle. Kimi simply lost his spirit – and it is Formula1’s fault: the environment, the rules, the sharks of the media.

Formula1 needs a great talent like Raikkonen in any circumstances – especially in current times. Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso all are exceptional talents but they are from the new era, raised for racing, treat the media and the fans like a machine, they never do anything risky. They are fast, talented but without personality, self-will, the freedom of individuality which could predestinate them to be remembered after 30-40 years as gritty racers.

Wow!!! Reading this brings me memories!!! Thank you so much Kriss!!!

[Kriss]

Part3

So it can be seen that Kimi is the last person in Formula1 who loves life, who raced with real emotions, he didn’t like to be controlled, who had separate ideas about life and didn’t approached everything through F1. When he wanted to be drunk he got drunk and didn’t care about the opinion of the media. He never wanted to seem perfect because he never was.
Today, it seems he has found his place – sad for us that he he had to leave F1 for that. Rally is unarguable his environment, personally I feel that he’d changed carriers with Sebastian Loeb.
The precision of the French champion of records would predestinate him for very big results in F1. The coolness of Kimi can be a winner in rally. And yes, the Flying Finnish is very fast there. Only those trees beside the road …..

[luieluv]

Thanks a million kriss. The article is fantastically written and i can very much relate it with my thoughts. I like this King Jack now.

[Anelise]

Thank you so much Kriss!!!!!!!!
Great Job!!!!!!!

[Denorth]

Loeb and Raikkonen tipped for Le Mans
News24th January 2011
By Giles Wade

Seven-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb has been tipped to return to the Le Mans 24 Hours this year: an event that he has already contested twice, with a best result of second place in 2006.

Loeb came close to a Le Mans seat in 2010 with Peugeot, before deciding to prioritise his World Rally Championship campaign and testing commitments with the new Citroen DS3 WRC.

Now though, with Loeb likely to retire from rallying at the end of 2011 – especially if he wins the title again – the 36-year-old is looking at his racing future for 2012 and beyond.

With the Le Mans 24 Hours scheduled for 11-12 June this year, between the rallies of Argentina and Greece, Loeb would have time to take part in the endurance classic – which is not always possible due to the demands of the WRC calendar.

Former Grand Prix Champion Kimi Raikkonen – who will contest 10 rallies this year in a Citroen DS3 WRC – is also keen to race at Le Mans. Discussions have taken place with Citroen’s sponsor Red Bull about the possibility of running a Peugeot 908 in Red Bull colours at Le Mans; with the two rally stars among the driver line-up.

Raikkonen will only miss the rallies of Mexico, Italy and Argentina this year, although more rounds could be forthcoming if extra budget is secured.

http://www.maxrally.com/news/entry/loeb ... r_le_mans/

This is kind of news we all don't mind to see confirmed
I think it is safe to say that Kimi won't have difficulties with sleeping between his shifts

[Denorth]

Thank you, Kriss. It was interesting to read