The Kimi Rally Monster Cool Lounge

[sarnee_ice]

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/09/ ... lliams-f1/

Kimi and Williams F1

Now that the first reports are out of the way, it is a good moment to analyse the idea of a Formula 1 return for Kimi Raikkonen. The 31-year-old won the World Championship in 2007 with Ferrari, after five seasons with McLaren. He then seemed to lose interest somewhat and in 2008 was eclipsed by Felipe Massa. The same happened in 2009, although Massa’s head injury put Raikkonen back into the spotlight towards the end of the year, although by that point it was clear that Ferrari had decided that its future lay with Fernando Alonso. Raikkonen wanted to get out of F1 and try his hand at rallying, believing he would have more fun. He made the ambitious decision to leap straight into the World Rally Championship, with a Citroën Junior Team car and produced a solid first season. This year, driving for his own team, which is nonetheless under the Citroën banner. It has been clear, however, that Raikkonen has been missing circuit racing and this was underlined recently when his ICE 1 Racing was excluded from the WRC manufacturers’ title after the team failed to show up for Rally Australia, due to “logistical and organisational difficulties”. The team was also ordered to pay the entry fee to the event organisers and was fined $22,000 by the FIA. The cars were run by Kyle Busch Motorsports. In August Kimi popped up in Spain where he was testing a Peugeot Le Mans sports car at the Aragon circuit, the Peugeot company being part of the same PSA Peugeot Citroën company as the Citroën brand.

And then he was spotted on a quick visit to Williams F1. The team is in need of more finance at the moment and while there is an option to go for a second driver with money associated with his candidature, alongside Venezuela’s Pastor Maldonado, the team is hoping to avoid that situation and get a top class driver, which would attract money based on the promise of better performance. That is not easy to achieve in the current economic climate, but with Raikkonen on the books, the team would have the only World Champion of the last 10 years who is not currently competing. Williams needs success and has instigated a completely new technical team in an effort to stop the rot that has seen the organisation slide to the back of the F1 field in the last 15 years. The success or failure of this new team is likely to decide the fate of the team’s chairman Adam Parr, who has been running the team in recent years, following the decision by Patrick Head to step back from a daily role and Sir Frabnk Williams’s acceptance that he needs more help to do do the job. Williams had previously employed another young executive Chris Chapple, but he lasted only from May 2005 until November 2006.

Williams last won the World Championship back in 1997 – 14 years ago – but then slipped to third in 1998 and fifth in 1999, before starting a new partnership with BMW and bouncing back to third 2000 and 2001 and second in 2002 and 2003. Things began to go wrong in 2004 when the team slipped to fourth overall and the relationship with Munich turned sour and ended in 2005, when the team was fifth in the Constructors’. With Cosworth engines in 2006 the team was eighth (hence Chapple’s departure) but a switch to Toyota engines in 2007 resulted in fourth that year, but since then the slight upward trend from eighth to seventh to sixth ended this season with a dive to ninth overall.

For Kimi there is little to lose. If things go badly the team can take the blame, but if the results are better this will reflect well on him. Negotiations over contracts will mean that Raikkonen will have to compromise on his normal level of earnings, but he is not short of money and a healthy bonus scheme would be a very good way to motivate him.

[Mar]

So, Kyle Busch was preparing Kimi's rally cars?
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¡Ay! What a mess!

[icemaid]

So, Kyle Busch was preparing Kimi's rally cars?
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Oh boy is this see saw guy for real??!!
Some motorsport blogger he is!

[sleenster]

Did he really just accidentally expose the fact that he knows nothing about NASCAR or rallying? If so, I do admire his ability to write in such an "authoritative" manner about things he knows nothing about

[Mar]

Mr Saward is not my favourite blogger, but I think this time he just made a mistake formatting his text. There's just a sentence about Kimi going NASCAR missing before the Kyle Busch one

[iceman1]

BBC showed a small video about Kimi's future during the Quali buildup


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlgNqdxPxHg

[luieluv]

No current F1 negotiations for Räikkönen

26 September 2011

Kimi Raikkonen’s long-term manager Steve Robertson has moved to ease speculation over the Finn’s potential return to Formula 1, revealing to GPUpdate.net that although the 2007 Champion completed a visit to the Williams factory in recent weeks, no current negotiations are taking place with regards to a seat at the Grove squad.


"At the end of the day people know Kimi visited Williams, but there’s nothing more to say apart from that," Robertson, who also manages British F3 Champion Felipe Nasr, told GPUpdate.net. "There is nothing more to report (from that visit)."

Following his title winning campaign with Ferrari, Räikkönen finished third and sixth during his next two seasons before taking up a career in the World Rally Championship. In recent weeks a possible return for the 31-year-old has been hyped up by the media, but Robertson insists this is not the case at present, with Formula 1 remaining off the current agenda.

When asked to confirm whether or not talks have been taking place in recent weeks, Robertson plainly replied: "No," before going on to explain that the pair will make a comment about their future motorsport plans when they feel it is suitable to do so.


Steve Robertson was talking to GPUpdate.net's Mike Seymour

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2688 ... raikkonen/

[amoljoshi]

No current F1 negotiations for Räikkönen

26 September 2011

Kimi Raikkonen’s long-term manager Steve Robertson has moved to ease speculation over the Finn’s potential return to Formula 1, revealing to GPUpdate.net that although the 2007 Champion completed a visit to the Williams factory in recent weeks, no current negotiations are taking place with regards to a seat at the Grove squad.


"At the end of the day people know Kimi visited Williams, but there’s nothing more to say apart from that," Robertson, who also manages British F3 Champion Felipe Nasr, told GPUpdate.net. "There is nothing more to report (from that visit)."

Following his title winning campaign with Ferrari, Räikkönen finished third and sixth during his next two seasons before taking up a career in the World Rally Championship. In recent weeks a possible return for the 31-year-old has been hyped up by the media, but Robertson insists this is not the case at present, with Formula 1 remaining off the current agenda.

When asked to confirm whether or not talks have been taking place in recent weeks, Robertson plainly replied: "No," before going on to explain that the pair will make a comment about their future motorsport plans when they feel it is suitable to do so.


Steve Robertson was talking to GPUpdate.net's Mike Seymour

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2688 ... raikkonen/

Only reason why I would want to see him in Williams F1 team is because team is British (which suits him)... Kimi might get Chris Dyer with him...



About Robertson not talking about it, is may be because he wants to keep it a top secret.. You all know what happened last time when a Team declared in public about Kimi`s interest in a seat..

[Kriss]

thanks lui

same as always this time of the year, we don't know anything but we can read different oppinions, speculations and denials every day
and it's not even October

[amoljoshi]

thanks lui

same as always this time of the year, we don't know anything but we can read different oppinions, speculations and denials every day
and it's not even October

Gear up for October... Wonder how Lewis`s dumbness (?) is going to help this driver market..

[luieluv]

Autosport Plus artice. Any access to this one sleenie?

Why signing Raikkonen is not a risk

- http://plus.autosport.com/premium/featu ... ot-a-risk/

[Suomileijona]

Thank you very much Luieluv!

[iceman1]

Autosport Plus artice. Any access to this one sleenie?

Why signing Raikkonen is not a risk

- http://plus.autosport.com/premium/featu ... ot-a-risk/

Here we go

Spoiler:

With Kimi Raikkonen rumoured to be in the frame for a return to F1 with Williams next year, Tony Dodgins says bringing the enigmatic 2007 world champion back to the sport would bring only minimal risk

All the early news and gossip in Singapore was alliterative – kerbs, curfews and Kimi.

You can never get too excited about kerbs. Okay, they delayed practice and looked like they might become a nuisance, but you knew they'd be sorted.

Why were they dislodging this year when they hadn't before? It seems that the same fixing points and bolts were being used and the threads were becoming a little second-hand, not assisted by over-enthusiastic use of hammers by the locals.

The strategy most adopt for Singapore is to stay on European time. Keep going until 5-6am, go to bed, remember to switch on the 'do not disturb' light, get up around 1pm, shower and head into the circuit.

For race-team personnel these days, there is a curfew to observe. The F1 sporting regulations say, 'No team personnel who are associated in any way with the operation of the cars are allowed into the circuit during one six-hour period which commences nine hours before the start time of practice'.

The rule is there due to F1's resource-restriction agreement which, these days, limits teams to 47 such personnel. Such is the intensity of F1 that it was easy to envisage race crews working constant all-nighters if it were allowed. And nobody really wants zombies preparing race cars.

So, on a 'normal' race weekend, you make a mental note not to arrive at the paddock gate at 7am on a Friday or 8am on a Saturday, or else you are queued up behind the world and his wife at the electronic swipe gate as the whole paddock arrives en masse, champing at the bit.

Normally they all arrive together in team minibuses. In Singapore though, many of the hotels are within walking distance so you can be a bit more individualistic about your arrival.

First one to fall foul of the unusual Singapore timings and/or his maths, was Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost, who arrived early for work on Friday and accidentally broke the curfew.

You're allowed to break it four times in a season, to repair a crashed car for instance, and when someone does the FIA issues a bulletin to inform everyone.

Coming in early on Saturday, we passed the Virgin PR girl heading in the opposite direction.

"Going shopping?" we joked.

But she was looking concerned, having been ejected from the paddock. Not so long afterwards came an FIA missive that the Virgin and Mercedes teams had broken the curfew because PR/marketing staff were at the circuit before they were supposed to be.

When we got to our desks in the press room, one of our colleagues was looking a bit sheepish.

"Oops…" he said, "I saw her coming in, they'd put a load of barriers in the way and I held her bag while she climbed over. I told her that marketing staff didn't count and she was fine to go in."

That's what half the paddock thought as well.

"It's completely bonkers," someone said. "How can Virgin's PR girl be deemed to be involved in the operation of the car?"

Cue a cheap but amusing shot from the opposite side of the desk: "Don't know. But she probably should be. Bet she could find more downforce than Nick Wirth!"

Truth told, the poor girl felt dreadful. Right spoiled her day it did. And Ross Brawn was less than impressed too, saying that the rules needed clarification.

There was a happy ending when the FIA agreed that it was indeed barmy and rescinded the curfew breakages. All except Franz Tost's.

Kimi; Raikkonen, that is. He's been sighted at Williams of course and the rumour mill is churning faster. Will he be back in the F1 paddock in 2012, bolstering the ranks of active world champions to a record six?

I wouldn't bet against it. I shouldn't image he was at Grove to discuss the purchase of a KERS system for his bicycle, even if Cosworth has built the very thing.

Raikkonen obviously did not leave F1 on his own terms. Ferrari elected to pay him off a year early and take Fernando Alonso. Many in F1 believe that Alonso is the best driver out there, even if the 2011-spec Sebastian Vettel is making them think twice.

Talking to a Ferrari man in Singapore, there is no doubting the 2007 world champion's speed or talent. It's just that Raikkonen didn't pick up and lead a team, galvanise it, in the way that Alonso does.

A Ferrari team used to dealing with Michael Schumacher for so long was amazed by both Raikkonen's pace and his immediate grasp of Ferrari technical systems in 2007. It seemed there was spare mental capacity by the bucket load.

But, they say, the real Kimi is not the Kimi of popular perception. The so-called Ice Man, unfazed by anything, impervious to outside influences and very much his own man, is an illusion.

Thinking back, they say, Raikkonen did not feel comfortable when he thought Felipe Massa was becoming Ferrari's favoured son in 2008. While he doesn't need mollycoddling, he does need to feel that a team is behind him.

By way of example they say, Kimi, disappointing early in '09, was a different driver after Massa's unfortunate accident in Hungary involving the rogue spring.

The focus of the team again, Raikkonen was awesome in the second half of the year with a car that was not one of Maranello's best, taking podiums while Luca Badoer and then Giancarlo Fisichella were struggling to get the other car out of Q1.

There can be no doubt that Pastor Maldonado will be in one Williams next year. Team chairman Adam Parr can no doubt think of millions of good reasons why, but outgoing technical chief Sam Michael has been impressed with the Venezuelan in the cockpit, too.

Including Singapore, Rubens Barrichello is just 8-6 ahead in their personal qualifying battle and Michael says: "I'm happy with Pastor. He came into the team as a GP2 champion, he's run Rubens pretty close all year and I rate Rubens.

"I think Pastor will be much better again in his second year, knowing all the circuits. His first four races were pretty rough but that's what you get with a rookie. He definitely deserves his place in F1, there's no doubt about that."

With Barrichello, you know what you are going to get. Sam, with just a few hours of his Williams career remaining when I spoke to him, wasn't about to embroil himself in the Raikkonen gossip, over which it seems there had been a 'no comment' edict from Grove.

"My personal opinion, which is not a Williams opinion," he said, "is that it would be great to see Kimi back in F1 because he's a good personality, a world champion and obviously a quick driver."

Some wouldn't necessarily concur on the personality side but you'd struggle to find anyone who thinks it would be a risk by Williams on the driving front, presuming that Raikkonen would drive for less than his usual king's ransom.

One man with a good feel for these things is Jackie Stewart.

"It's true that Kimi's only been used to McLaren and Ferrari," JYS said in Singapore, "but I think it's worth a shot. He's one hell of a driver and I think he'd be good."

[luieluv]

Thanks a ton iceman 1. Brilliant article from autosport for a change and it clearly states how kimi was sidelined in 08.

[Suomileijona]

Thank you very much, Iceman1!!