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Will the Iceman get left out in cold for 2010?
Kimi Raikkonen: he’s the 2007 Formula 1 world champion, the man we all know as the ‘Ice Man’, the man who likes to rally under the name of ‘James Hunt’, who is probably the highest paid driver in F1, who mumbles a lot in press conferences, and who is arguably the fastest man on the track (when he can be bothered, that is). But are we about to lose this great driver from Formula 1?
The Finn has been in Formula 1 for 9 years now, and was due to drive for Ferrari in 2010 until they decided that they preferred Alonso instead. As part of his severance package Raikkonen will receive an estimated £17 million, for doing literally nothing. Poor old Jenson Button only took home £3 million this year from Brawn and had to pay for all his own transport. We can clearly add ’shrewd businessman’ to the list of reasons why we love Kimi Raikkonen. What’s not to like? The lucrative move to Ferrari may have appeared to some to be a greedy sell-out, but that’s only because he knows his own worth. And he’s married to a former Miss Scandinavia. Impressive stuff.
The rumours are rife. Will Kimi take a ‘gap year’ out of Formula 1 to do rallying or similar? Will he quit altogether? On his website Kimi says this about his future: “I am very motivated to win races… and will only remain in F1 if I can race for a team that can give me a car to fight at the front.” It’s a bold statement. He’s basically saying that he doesn’t have the time or patience to be pottering around in the midfield. The only thing that interests him is winning, and that’s the mark of a true champion.
It had been assumed that Raikkonen would simply hop back to McLaren for 2010, and pocket the tidy Ferrari sum as well. However, with the media running around like headless chickens/crazed teenagers at even the thought of a Button-Hamilton-McLaren dream team, it is looking increasingly likely that the doors are closed on that option for Raikkonen. So where else is there? Can anyone else afford him? If Ross Brawn wouldn’t offer Button anymore than £4 million to stay at the team, it is unlikely he would cough up four times that to get Raikkonen on board. If Raikkonen is ‘finnished’ with Formula 1, even for a year, it will be a supreme waste of a good driver, and to us here at the Sett that’s a far more important story than all the ‘McButton’ hype.
Badger update: literally seconds after going to press our worst fears were confirmed… Raikkonen will not be racing in Formula 1 in 2010. Sad times.
I can tell you now we are not three-stopping.Don’t worry about fuel because I’m going to get him out of this traffic earlier than that :D
What lap are we in, what lap are we in
He just asked: ‘What lap are we in?
Yeah, tell him that he’s about to complete lap eight
No, no it’s going to be all right
Right, I’m going to … I think we’re going to stop him just before we catch him and get him out of it, the reason being we’ve still got this worry on the fuel pump. It’s only a couple of laps short. We’re going to be stopping him early and we’re going to go to lap 40
Ask Nelson to crash.Ask Nelson to crash.!!
Nelson, no excuses now, you’ve got to get past Barrichello. You’ve got four clicks straight-line advantage. Come on, you’ve got to push now, you must get past him.
Nelson’s off. F@#ing hell. Nelson’s had a crash. I would say that would be a red flag. It’s huge!!
Whooeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! God bless ya Nelson! God bless ya!!!!! WOWOWOWOWOW!!! Thank you, thank you. You guys are great.
We are the champions my friends!! We’ll keep on crashing till the end!!!!
Ask him if he’s all right
Sorry guys. I had a little outing :D
Are you OK? Are you OK?
Think I broke my anus!!
F#*king hell … my every f*#king disgrace, f*#king, he’s not a driver.
What position we are now in all this?
To be honest, I don’t know Flabbio. It’s got to have been good for Fernando. But I honestly don’t know where he is
The pit lane is closed until we arrive? Please answer me.Please answer me.
Shut the F@#K Up Nando!!!
I am champion! I am champion! I am champion! !! Boowawawawa!!
F%#k you motherf#$king retard! Nelsinho!!
Concordo philleppe eu sou um idiota. Você vai fazer o mesmo por Nando, em 2010, quando ele vai ser o seu companheiro de equipa: D
Agree I am an idiot philleppe. You will do the same for nando in 2010 when he’ll be your team mate :D
I’d kiss an ass that do such a thing you retard!Eu beijo um burro que fazer uma coisa dessas você retard!
I was helpless! Flabbo would have F#@ked my mom, if i’d not agreed. você certamente sabe que ele é capaz disso!
Stop your F%^king rants! asino!il sesso è la salvezza :)
@Flabbio
Tiene Nelsinho y su padre sabe que destrozó la vagina de su madre?
of course he knew! he was the one who suggested it in the first place ;) & he joined the party too! egli è un esperto di incesto :D :D
i’m sure you too would have enjoyed her nando!
I too was there :P Max was there too ;)
Max? Max was there? I thought he’s learned his lesson!! unbelievable!!
Max will never learn anything! He’s our boss & we were obliged. told if we allow him to join us, he’ll make sure YOU are let off hook during the WMSC hearing.
Will I get an extension Flabbio?
Shut up you effing disgrace! I’d told told to park the car, not bin it!
Well that’s two badger exclusives in the space of a day. One -Kimi is leaving and Two; The original, unedited transcript of what actually happened during and after CrashGate.
Hahah. Very nice.
Sad for Mr Kimi.
Raikkonen a greedy sell out?? thats EXACTLY what he is!
Shame a good driver hasn’t got a drive. Surprised that Maca have gone with Button but he must be costing half at least what KR was reputedly asking. Unless he could get in the Merc/Brawn the next best available seat is proably Renault & no way will they pay. Not much chance of a good car either with the turmoil that team has gone through. I don’t think he will be back because I can’t see a good seat coming up in the next 3 years.
“Raikkonen a greedy sell out?? thats EXACTLY what he is!”
You mean like Button?
“- What do you mean you won’t go higher than 4 million and a championship-winning team? – That’s not good enough for me. I want money and i don’t care if my teammate is a million times faster than me, or that i don’t have manufacturer-backing. I’m quite happy to be a number 2 WDC if i get paid lots of money…”
It’s good for McLaren and gaining the support of the Brit’s. Liegate and er.. whateveritwascalled-gate in 07 will be distant memories in the minds of the hoards of patriotic new fans. But, i dunno. I don’t class Button as a driver of the same standard as the others who are on offer, most notably Raikkonen of course.
I hope Mercedes and Brawn get Heidfeld in their other seat now. McLaren have shown their hand and have gone for potential in-fighting again when Button realises that the team is built around Hamilton; a pairing of Rosberg and Heidfeld is as strong as the lineups offered by Ferrari and Red Bull.
Kovalainen’s last chance of staying in F1 is Force India… unless the Finn that they’ve been talking to is in fact Raikkonen…
That wasn’t a very Pro-Raikkonen speech, sorry. I’m a tad perturbed that he’s not got the McLaren seat and he’s lost it to an inferior driver.
[...] – a sabbatical? Seriously? It’s a bad spin on a seriously bad piece of news for the Finnish former world champion. What starts out as a year-long sabbatical will swiftly turn into an [...]
Raikkonen could have been racing in a top racing team, if he was flexible with his wage demand, instead he proved money means more to him than the true passion of racing, i mean can he really justify being paid so much more than Massa when Massa outperformed him a very good number of times?
also if Button was a sell out why did he take a huge pay cut just to be on the grid in 09? im sure Mercedes did not want him so just made him a crazy low wage offer, but if he had nothing else im Sure button would take it just to be on the grid. Raikkonen was not only over rated and over valued by many F1 fans, but also he over valued himself.
Now he will get paid a 10th of the F1 wage in Rallying, i cant ever see him back F1 now.
i personnaly wont miss the ice cold poassionless in-flexible robot, i think he was pre-programmed on 38 Million Euros, someone should have programmed a lower figure into him!
I think we will see Kimi back in F1 in 2011, either at Ferrari or in whichever team develops into their main challenger. Ferrari will realise early on that Massa isn’t up to it (it seems like they are taking a big gamble on him returning to his old fitness and ability levels).
History repeats it self and Prost was (put) in exactly the same position and came back winning. The only difference was Prost had made himself unpopular at Ferrari, but I haven’t read anything that suggests Kimi is persona non grata in Maranello.
So, depending on his contract, I would rate it as a 40% likleyhood Kimi will be back at Ferrari from around the fourth race in 2010. Why? I fear Massa and Alonso maybe be slow. Massa was never really fast and Alsonso after two frustrating seasons in a miserable car, and now with a comfortable pay day guaranteed, may have lost his will to win, and Mimi will miss the challenge.
I wouldn’t be so sure about Massa not being back to normal.
Remember that Mika Hakkinen almost died in a crash at the end of ‘95 and was back to full speed in time for the start of the ‘96 season.
Raikkonen won’t be back at Ferrari next year. It would be more likely that Hamilton’s moving on at the end of 2010 and we’ll see Kimi at McLaren partnering Button from 2011.. should he decide he wants to race in F1 again that is.
Hamilton is contracted to McLaren until the end of 2012. And believing that Alonso will have lost his will to win is just wishful thinking – if anything, he’ll be more fired up than ever to prove what he could have done in 2008 and 2009 if the car had been up to it. Massa should be fine, whatever way you want to slice it he was better than Raikkonen for the majority of their time together at Ferrari; I have no doubts that he’ll be as good as ever in time for next year.
I consider it a distinct possibility that Raikkonen will never return to F1, and to be honest I doubt he’ll be missed. He’s inconsistent and I never thought he was as good as his fans made out.
That’s an opinion born out of stat-reading. His McLaren drives were for the most part astonishing, but the car was woefully unreliable and he failed to finish most of his best races.
Perhaps the problem he had at Ferrari was that he was never a clear number 1. Massa was allowed to take the fight to him, and did so. Perhaps the same thing will befall Alonso.
But i agree with him probably of Kimi not returning after his year out. It’s unusual to come back into F1 once you’ve left the building.
Whoops, bad editing there.. XD
No, I think my opinion is based on more than stat-reading. Look at 2005 – plenty of people are keen to blame unreliability for Kimi’s failure to win the title. But Kimi also made race-ending mistakes at Imola and the Nurburgring, which cost him 24 points relative to Alonso. Without those errors he would have won the title even with the awful reliability of the McLaren.
Kimi had some amazing races for both McLaren and Ferrari. But there were plenty of others where he never seemed to show up at all. That’s inconsistency, and that’s why he’s not as good as many people say he is.
Mmm, I think Kimi will come back, Lauda, Prost, Mansell, all came back (although perhaps Mansell shouldn’t have). I think Alonso will catch Ferraritis, that is after struggling for years in a bad team you get to Ferrari and think youve got it made, and expect you just have to turn up to win, then you find out you can blame the team for poor performances, I think Kimi had a bit of Ferraritis, but so many greats have had it in the past, including Prost, Lauda and Mansell. Ferrari only seem to do well when they get a young driver who has something to prove and of course Ross Brawn.
Hiya mate! Love you site! Cheers.