The Kimi Rally Monster Cool Lounge

[sammyosammy]

... if people think Kimi is going to be lapped 3 times (at least) a race, nobody is going to buy the package.

I have it

[Mar]

... if people think Kimi is going to be lapped 3 times (at least) a race, nobody is going to buy the package.

I have it

I mean from those who don't have it now and will only buy it because they think there will be a Finnish guy winning.

My premise was that motorsport fans care about cars regardless of all those things. I just didn't write it
You mad at me? Sorry!

[NewF1Boy]

It's a complete 360. Kimi seems out of the window now.

[sammyosammy]

[quote="Mar"
You mad at me? Sorry!

Oh no, oh no!!!

[Moominpappa]

Kimi told our local newspaper (from the city where Kaj lives) that he has improved a lot as rallydriver during his first two years. He thinks also that if he continue next year, he will still improve his driving and will get more near to top five drivers. He said that podium place is possible but then he must drive more (both rallies and tests). He has not yet done this so full time.

At the end Kimi told again that there is nothing sure right now for next year and he has liked the time in rallying and it's possible that he drive in WRC next year.

[luieluv]

Kimi told our local newspaper (from the city where Kaj lives) that he has improved a lot as rallydriver during his first two years. He thinks also that if he continue next year, he will still improve his driving and will get more near to top five drivers. He said that podium place is possible but then he must drive more (both rallies and tests). He has not yet done this so full time.

At the end Kimi told again that there is nothing sure right now for next year and he has liked the time in rallying and it's possible that he drive in WRC next year.

[Mar]

[quote="Mar"
You mad at me? Sorry!

Oh no, oh no!!!

[sarnee_ice]

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/11/ ... s-stories/

It is yet to be officially confirmed but I am reliably assured that Charles Pic has signed to drive for Marussia Racing in 2012, with an option to stay with the team in 2013. Timo Glock is already under contract to the team and will be Pic’s team-mate – unless one of the big teams makes him an offer, in which I believe he has a contract that would allow him to leave. I am not sure how one defines a top team (probably based on the results of the previous season) and he could leave (probably) if offered a drive with Lotus Renault GP. That might leave the slim possibility that Jerome d’Ambrosio could stay next year. The team likes him and I think he has been one of the quiet revelations of the year, as matching Glock when one had no experience is no mean achievement. Sadly, I think Renault is looking more and more towards a pairing of Vitaly Petrov/Romain Grosjean, and so Jerome will need to look elsewhere, and without money behind him it is going to be tough to get a job. He deserves better. I feel much the same way about Adrian Sutil. There is no doubt he is quick and he had ceased to be as wild as he used to be, but he is not seen as a very technical driver, and his adventures in China this year will not help his cause. Nonetheless he deserves a drive. I guess that he is probably number three on the wish list at Williams, behind Kimi Raikkonen and Rubens Barrichello, but the team’s target really does seem to be the Finn, although I hear that is looking for equity in the team (which Sir Frank Williams is not going to give him, no matter how much money he may bring from his financial backers). Frank does not necessarily need the money, but the fact that he has gone back to Qatar after Dubai suggests that there are still is to be dotted and ts to be crossed. I am pretty sure that Williams will have major support next year from QNB, but a deal is not done until the

[Kriss]

thanks for the info Moomin and sarnee ice

[sleenster]

From AS Plus:

Why Raikkonen will be missed by the WRC

Kimi Raikkonen looks certain to quit the WRC and return to doing what he does best next year. But, as David Evans explains, the rallying fraternity was only just getting to know the flying Finn and will miss him.

Spoiler:

Kimi Raikkonen, over and out. Landing his Citroen on its roof close to the source of the River Severn in the heart of Wales was not the most glamorous end to the Finn's World Rally Championship career.

If, indeed, it is the end of his WRC career.

I think we can be pretty certain it will be.



Raikkonen has had his fun, but it looks like the day job is calling. The busman's holiday is over. And just when the WRC was learning to love him, as well.

Working with Raikkonen was a struggle last season. Trying to communicate with the man of ice through a closed car door and dark shades with a baseball cap obliterating pretty much all of his facial features while he stared intently at his feet was not easy.

But we persevered. And this year, it did get easier. Granted, cap and glasses were omnipresent, but he gradually lost interest in his size nines and occasionally opened the door. Perhaps saving the best until last, he actually got out of the car and entertained the crowd in Conwy last week.

"Entertained…" Hmm. He talked. But he talked and talked. And then he waved.

Stories about Raikkonen being economical with his words are about as interesting as they are run-of-the-mill, but having followed the fella around the world for two years (except not to Australia; he decided not to go when he remembered how far away the place was), Raikkonen's display on Rally GB was, for him, incredible.

Unfortunately for rally fans further into the event than Hafren, that was as good as it would get. He rolled his DS3 WRC gently into a ditch in the mid-Wales woods on Saturday morning and was in Geneva for the Swiss equivalent of Match of the Day that night.


Dealing with the Finn has got easier

If he doesn't come back, Raikkonen will be missed in the WRC. His was a World Rally Car always worth watching, largely because there was the occasional element of the unexpected in which line it would or wouldn't be taking. Across the world, whether he liked it or not (and he didn't) Raikkonen was revered.

There was a real sense of eras ending in Wales last week. Beyond Raikkonen, whose era will admittedly have been pretty short, there was the whole Sebastien Ogier and Mikko Hirvonen issue.

At the time, nobody was talking about the subject that everybody wanted to talk about – when Hirvonen would be announced as Ogier's replacement. At the time of typing, this remains the case, although Citroen has convened a press conference in Paris on Wednesday…

When asked about his future, all Ogier would say was: "What will I be doing in the next couple of months? Well, first there's going to be some skiing, then it's Christmas."

He smiled. His fate with Citroen sealed.

It's not often this year that I've felt sorry for Ogier, but I did in Wales. He switches from being a polite and engaging chap to being quite the most arrogant driver in the service park. But, make no mistake, he's good. And he's going to be world champion. Lots of times.

When he arrived back in service at Sunday lunchtime, he stepped from a DS3 WRC for the final time and looked emotional. Maybe that emotion was born out of his victory on the Powerstage, but I suspect it ran considerably deeper than three more meaningless 2011 points. It could have been regret, resentment or the simple realisation of what was happening.

Whatever. The handshakes lingered a little longer than usual. The Seb-Seb partnership was never supposed to end this way.

If it was tears you were after, you wouldn't have had to look much further than Ford's table in the post-event party in Cardiff. As far as the Cockermouth team's concerned, Hirvonen's family and family comes first. Except on this occasion, family came second. The Finn might be wearing red next season, but the blood will always run blue, especially when the BDA beneath the bonnet of his MkII Escort rumbles into life at home.

There was another Ford-related question bouncing around Builth at the weekend – the one about the future of the Blue Oval in the World Rally Championship. Ford of Europe is still investigating its continued participation in the series and an announcement will come in due course.

But can you really imagine the WRC without Ford? Me neither.

The world championship would be a massively poorer place without the Fiestas. It would be Formula 1 without Ferrari. I completely understand the economic pressures on Ford, but this sum really does add up. From the east coast of Australia to the frozen north of Europe and all points along the way, millions of people have been exposed to Ford's Fiesta RS WRC and you'd have to be pretty soulless to say it's not the fastest, meanest and coolest looking motor to come from the firm in years.

I simply can't believe the cost-benefit analysis doesn't stack up. Used properly, the WRC offers an exceptionally powerful marketing tool. If you're not convinced of that, go watch some onboard Jari-Matti Latvala from last week. That's what a Fiesta can do. Or, more precisely, that's what M-Sport combined with a marginally unhinged Finn can do.

Admittedly, a Fiesta is hardly a supercar, but the RS WRC derivative shares the same DNA as the one you can buy for a couple of hundred a month for a few years.

So, Ford, go figure.

I can't let this column pass without registering my enormous approval for the route of last week's Rally GB. I got home pretty well exhausted, deprived of as much sleep as I would have liked and the superb Skoda I'd been loaned repainted in a shade of brown more alluring than anything Farrow and Ball have to offer. That's top to bottom through Wales via the world's finest forests for you.

Andrew Kellitt and team, your work is done. I salute you. And thank you.

[Mar]

Thanks Sleenie!

[Suomileijona]

Thank you very much, Sleenster!

[Kriss]

Thank you very much, Sleenster!

+1

[dindi]

Thanks, Sleenie!

[luieluv]

just picked this up from another forum:

latest tweet.
German publication BILD reports tht Williams want to take a decision today abt their driver situation.