Raikkonen possible return for 2011..!

vectra

Hope to hell and back this is true.:D

2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen is believed to be in discussions with regards to a Formula 1 return for next year. The Finn, who departed Ferrari for the World Rally Championship (WRC) this season, has been tipped as a possible candidate by Renault Team Principal Eric Boullier.

Story here >> Räikkönen contacts Renault about next season
:cool:

Frank Bullitt

I think he is realizing that he is crap at rallying.

vectra

Gintonious wrote: »

I think he is realizing that he is crap at rallying.

Fair play to him for trying.;)

losthorizon

Its only his first season at Rallying. Hes doing quite well. I reckon he will stay where he is. He seems much more relaxed than when he was in F1 and now seems to be enjoying himself. He has got a fair few points. Who knows what he could do next season?

EvilMonkey

The other side of this rumour is Petrov to Lotus who will be using Renault engines next year.

thegoth

I think Kimi should stay at Rallying and build on what he learned this year, otherwise its been a wasted year for him. I think Reanult would be better off sticking with Petrov as he fits well into their sponsorship and business model plus they have a top rated driver in Kubica.

Personally Id like to see Kimi vs Kubica, but I think its best for Kimi and Reanult to keep things as they are

vectra

thegoth wrote: »

I think Kimi should stay at Rallying and build on what he learned this year, otherwise its been a wasted year for him. I think Reanult would be better off sticking with Petrov as he fits well into their sponsorship and business model plus they have a top rated driver in Kubica.

Personally Id like to see Kimi vs Kubica, but I think its best for Kimi and Reanult to keep things as they are

I dont think so.
Was it not too long ago Renault were looking for some advance payment from Bernie to put things in motion for next season?
Rumour has it that if Kimi joins then a chunky sponsorship deal with Nokia would be in place.
Also rumour mill has it that mastercard would do a handy sponsorship IF kimi were to drive for them.

Rumour 3)

Kimi has already signed with Red Bull Racing to replace Kasey Kahne for 2012 in Nascar

bm365

So if Webber were to win this year's Championship (or even Vettel) and Schumacher is still around we could have 6 World Champions on the grid next season!

losthorizon

bm365 wrote: »

So if Webber were to win this year's Championship (or even Vettel) and Schumacher is still around we could have 6 World Champions on the grid next season!

No wonder team orders are so hard to introduce - which of those drivers are going to listen anyway! Brilliant.

liam7831

losthorizon wrote: »

Its only his first season at Rallying. Hes doing quite well. I reckon he will stay where he is. He seems much more relaxed than when he was in F1 and now seems to be enjoying himself. He has got a fair few points. Who knows what he could do next season?

I hope ur joking, he is totally rubbish at rallying. The poor bast**d cant even keep up with Wlson or Villagra:D

vectra

liam7831 wrote: »

I hope ur joking, he is totally rubbish at rallying. The poor bast**d cant even keep up with Wlson or Villagra:D

Would you like to take his place and prove everyone wrong?
I dont think so.. :pac:

He has got plenty of praise from ex- Rally drivers that would know al lot more than you or I

bm365

losthorizon wrote: »

No wonder team orders are so hard to introduce - which of those drivers are going to listen anyway! Brilliant.

And if Villeneuve succeeds in buying Hispania, 7 World Champions on the grid possibly!! Ok its not very likely but......

SouperComputer

LIGHTNING wrote: »

We could all try rallying and find out we are crap at it, no big deal about that!

Not quite the same. Kimi is an an F1 champion with a reputation to defend. IMO it takes kahunas to move from one diciplne at the top level and move to another in a very public setting. He's got more at stake than you and me (I ?)put together!

liam7831

vectra wrote: »

Would you like to take his place and prove everyone wrong?
I dont think so.. :pac:

He has got plenty of praise from ex- Rally drivers that would know al lot more than you or I

In Finland, Juha kankkunen entered the race and said that if Räikkönen can't beat him then he might as well go back to F1. Kankkunen finished 8th and Räikkönen finished 25th.

I guess you think he dont know wha he is talkin bout either

homer simpson

Another thing to be concidered would be for a certin Mr Leob to head down the F1 route, i don't think its too likley but he did say he was keeping his options open, he has won everything there is to win in WRC the lure of the new cars in WRC next year might tempt him to stay but ya never know!


On kimi heading back to F1 i think he has got on very well this year in the rally scene he just needs to tidy it up a bit, he has a habit of going off in silly places, other than the crashing i believe he has some pace in there, look at ken block also his first year in the big time, hes mile ahead of him and dont forget ken is an acomplished rally driver with a god few titles under his belt before he came to WRC whereas kimi is on his first proper year of any sort of rallying, i believe there is more to come from kimi from a rallying point of view these new cars will be a real leveler for the first half of next year i reckon so ya never know.

losthorizon

Or as they said on RTE Radio 1 today Kiki Rakikkonen might be joining Roberto Kubica at Renault in 2011. Go Michael Lester!

Frank Bullitt

He will also have to take a serious pay cut to his usual demands if he wants to go to Renault.

Kubicia is on about 7-8 million, Raikkonen was on nearly double that at Ferrari and I doubt Renault will fork that out for him.

vectra

Gintonious wrote: »

He will also have to take a serious pay cut to his usual demands if he wants to go to Renault.

Kubicia is on about 7-8 million, Raikkonen was on nearly double that at Ferrari and I doubt Renault will fork that out for him.

Renault wont have to
Mastercard or Nokia will stump up for him.

Frank Bullitt

If he is the one who contact Renault then the ball is in their court so to speak.

That and only a few teams are willing to pay that kind of money as well, regardless of title sponsors.

vectra

Gintonious wrote: »

If he is the one who contact Renault then the ball is in their court so to speak.

That and only a few teams are willing to pay that kind of money as well, regardless of title sponsors.

Not really

Have you thought that Nokia or Mastercard brought him to Renault as did Santander did with Alonso to Ferrari?

Myrddin

Gintonious wrote: »

Kubicia is on about 7-8 million, Raikkonen was on nearly double that at Ferrari

Are you serious? What was he earning at Ferrari?

vectra

EnterNow wrote: »

Are you serious? What was he earning at Ferrari?

I think his contract was 100 million for 4 years or thereabouts

thegoth

vectra wrote: »

I dont think so.
Was it not too long ago Renault were looking for some advance payment from Bernie to put things in motion for next season?
Rumour has it that if Kimi joins then a chunky sponsorship deal with Nokia would be in place.
Also rumour mill has it that mastercard would do a handy sponsorship IF kimi were to drive for them.

Reanult just had a cash flow problem. They were due a sponsorship payment in like 6-8 weeks but decided they would like to start work on the 2011 car earlier than planned so they wanted a cash advancement to cover this. No one ever believed that Reamult were in trouble.

Didnt know that about Nokia and Mastercard. That would help, but I still think it would mean a MASSIVE reengineering of the new Reanult business model where they no longer have sponsors but business partners such as Lada who are big in Russia. Petrov is Russian. See what I mean

Instinct tells me that the new Reanult boss is a pure business man. It makes more business sense to have Kubica as a number 1 and have a strong number 2 like Petrov who also reinforces the Reanult business plan.

Dont get me wrong I would LOVE to see Kubica vs Kimi but I dont think it will happen

Myrddin

vectra wrote: »

I think his contract was 100 million for 4 years or thereabouts

I'd say something, but it could incriminate me under the Blasphemy Act. But Jesus Christ that's some wage packet :pac:

A cool 25 mill per season, incredible.

amacachi

Could've sworn he was on 50 million a season and was out-earned by only Tiger Woods.

Myrddin

amacachi wrote: »

Could've sworn he was on 50 million a season and was out-earned by only Tiger Woods.

That's more along the lines of what I thought, surely it wasn't 100 mill?

Kersh

$51m he was on. IIRC he is the 3rd highest earner in f1 this year!! And he isnt even there. :eek:

For what its worth -

http://www.f1network.net/boards/read/s107.htm?110,11797670

Ghost Train

Kersh wrote: »

$51m he was on. IIRC he is the 3rd highest earner in f1 this year!! And he isnt even there. :eek:

For what its worth -

http://www.f1network.net/boards/read/s107.htm?110,11797670

Poor young Vettels only on 1.6million, thought it might be more but maybe Red Bull have him tied up in a contract

Myrddin

Kersh wrote: »

$51m he was on. IIRC he is the 3rd highest earner in f1 this year!! And he isnt even there. :eek:

For what its worth -

http://www.f1network.net/boards/read/s107.htm?110,11797670

Chandok & Yamamoto are unpaid? I also thought Vettel would be on a higher salary, Button too.

losthorizon

Ghost Train wrote: »

Poor young Vettels only on 1.6million, thought it might be more but maybe Red Bull have him tied up in a contract

Vettel is his own manager

vectra

Kersh wrote: »

$51m he was on. IIRC he is the 3rd highest earner in f1 this year!! And he isnt even there. :eek:

For what its worth -

http://www.f1network.net/boards/read/s107.htm?110,11797670

Looks like Kimi was on more :eek:

DRIVER SALARIES FOR 2007

1: Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, US$51 million
2: Ralf Schumacher, Toyota, US$25 million.
3: Fernando Alonso, McLaren, US$22 million.
4: Jenson Button, Honda, US$18 million.
5: Rubens Barrichello, Honda, US$12 million.
6: Jarno Trulli, Toyota, US$10 million.
7: Felipe Massa, Ferrari, US$8 million.
8: Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault, US$7 million.
9: Mark Webber, Red Bull, US$5 million.
10. Takuma Sato, Super Aguri, US$4.5 million.

DRIVER SALARIES FOR 2009

1. Kimi Raikkonen $45m
2. Lewis Hamilton $18m
3. Fernando Alonso $15m
4. Nico Rosberg $8.5m
5. Jarno Trulli $6.5m
6. Sebastian Vettell $6m
7. Mark Webber $5.5m
8. Jenson Button $5m
9. Robert Kubica $4.5m
10. Heiki Kovaleinen $3.5m
11. Nick Heidfeld $2.8m
12. Timo Glock $2m
13. Giancarlo Fisichella $1.5m
14. Sebastien Buemi $1.5m
15. Rubens Barrichello $1m
16. Jaime Alguersuari $0.5m
17. Vitantonio Liuzzi $NIL
18. Adrian Sutil [Rent a driver]
19. Romain Grossjean $NIL
20. Kazuki Nakajima $NIL

amacca

Raikkonen on 50 million!!!!:eek:

This brings some questions to mind for me

1) How did he get to negotiate that much .. he must have one hell of a manager/management company behind him....is that his wagepacket or do managers/flunkies etc all take their cut....is the amount simply a reflection coming second in 05, winning in 07, 3rd in 08 or were there other factors at play given other champions are earning so much less??

2) why quit? why not keep a good thing going?......how true is it that boredom with f1 was the main driving factor?....I just find it hard to swallow personally

3) I know money isn't everything but whats he making in rallying..surely it doesn't even approach that type of money.

amacachi

amacca wrote: »

1) How did he get to negotiate that much .. he must have one hell of a manager/management company behind him....is that his wagepacket or do managers/flunkies etc all take their cut....is the amount simply a reflection coming second in 05, winning in 07, 3rd in 08 or were there other factors at play given other champions are earning so much less??

Good negotiating and sponsors. Sponsors rather than teams pay the bulk of the wages most of the time.

2) why quit? why not keep a good thing going?......how true is it that boredom with f1 was the main driving factor?....I just find it hard to swallow personally

Once Massa got injured Ferrari had to keep him for this year. Whether they would have anyway or not is another thing which I don't want to discuss. Anyway since Ferrari were out it left few options, and most teams/sponsors couldn't afford to pay more than the amount that Ferrari were giving him to not drive in F1.

3) I know money isn't everything but whats he making in rallying..surely it doesn't even approach that type of money.

He's on 10+ million a year from Ferrari for not being in F1 so the rallying money ain't too important.

amacca

losthorizon wrote: »

Vettel is his own manager

lol:D, hes not doing a very good job is he. I feel more kindly disposed to him now after reading that...cant help being a bit of a begrudger

I reckon I could extract a bit more out of red bull for him, he should take me on as his agent/manager.

The pay level definitely doesn't match the talent level. despite what I may think of him this season.

amacca

amacachi wrote: »

Good negotiating and sponsors. Sponsors rather than teams pay the bulk of the wages most of the time.

so presumably hes a popular guy in Finland and/or very marketable elsewhere too for companies to be willing to pay percentages of that kind of a wage packet.

amacachi wrote: »

Once Massa got injured Ferrari had to keep him for this year. Whether they would have anyway or not is another thing which I don't want to discuss. Anyway since Ferrari were out it left few options, and most teams/sponsors couldn't afford to pay more than the amount that Ferrari were giving him to not drive in F1.


He's on 10+ million a year from Ferrari for not being in F1 so the rallying money ain't too important.

Bear with me, im fairly unfamiliar with the set up but am I correct in saying that massa got injured and the terms of his contract were that Ferrari had to hold onto him because of this

that then left one spot open on the team and ferrari wanted to fill that with alonso so there was no place for former champion Raikkonen

so they then paid him to vacate his seat in order to free it up for Alonso?


sorry about all the questions but does that mean this arrangement ends after this season and raikonnen has to find a new paymaster?

amacachi

amacca wrote: »

so presumably hes a popular guy in Finland and/or very marketable elsewhere too for companies to be willing to pay percentages of that kind of a wage packet.

I don't know the ins and outs but going to Ferrari makes a driver more marketable, certain companies will have drivers they want onboard and having a certain driver/team combination will lead them to be willing to pay massive sponsorship money.

Bear with me, im fairly unfamiliar with the set up but am I correct in saying that massa got injured and the terms of his contract were that Ferrari had to hold onto him because of this

that then left one spot open on the team and ferrari wanted to fill that with alonso so there was no place for former champion Raikkonen

so they then paid him to vacate his seat in order to free it up for Alonso?


sorry about all the questions but does that mean this arrangement ends after this season and raikonnen has to find a new paymaster?

Alonso had been signed for this season before Massa got injured. There was nothing to stop Ferrari getting rid of Massa except that it would've made for massively awful publicity. No team which depends on sponsorship is going to say "Yes he recovered from brain surgery, now we're getting rid of him".
I'm not sure if Raikkonen will stop getting paid by Ferrari this season or next, but after that I doubt he's too worried. He could most likely get a decent drive in F1 if he wants or he can stick to the rallying, I doubt money is high on his list of concerns for the moment. I think he part owns an F3 team or something so he could throw himself more into that as well if he felt like it.

vectra

amacachi wrote: »

He's on 10+ million a year from Ferrari for not being in F1 so the rallying money ain't too important.

I thought it was 2 pay-off options this year for him from Ferrari.

Option

A) $25 Million and NOT to drive for any other team in 2010

$10 Million if he does drive for another team in 2010


That makes it $25 million to drive rally this year plus whatever Red Bull are paying him
Possibly the hightest paid Rally driver this year.
another record for him

amacachi

vectra wrote: »

I thought it was 2 pay-off options this year for him from Ferrari.

Option

A) $25 Million and NOT to drive for any other team in 2010

$10 Million if he does drive for another team in 2010


That makes it $25 million to drive rally this year plus whatever Red Bull are paying him
Possibly the hightest paid Rally driver this year.
another record for him

I'm not a hundred percent sure, but either way it would've been hard to find a team that could sort that 15 million gap.

Frank Bullitt

He would be hard pressed to get Renault to fork that out considering he hasnt been in F1 for a year, had 2 bad years before that, and his laziness will always be called into question.

That and I firmly believe Kubica is more than a match for him any time of the day.

EvilMonkey

vectra wrote: »

I thought it was 2 pay-off options this year for him from Ferrari.

Option

A) $25 Million and NOT to drive for any other team in 2010

$10 Million if he does drive for another team in 2010


That makes it $25 million to drive rally this year plus whatever Red Bull are paying him
Possibly the hightest paid Rally driver this year.
another record for him

I think he is getting the $10M from Ferrari/Santander, 25 was if he sat on his hole and twiddled his thumbs for 2010.

vectra

EvilMonkey wrote: »

I think he is getting the $10M from Ferrari/Santander, 25 was if he sat on his hole and twiddled his thumbs for 2010.

Yes
That is what I said
25 million NOT to drive for another team

10 Million if he DID drive for another team
But wasnt that only an F1 team?
I dont think that deal had anything to do with any other motorsport.
They were just afraid in case he got a drive in a top team and would scupper their plans for Alonso and make them look like right idiots :pac:

vectra

Rumour looks to have some truth..

Renault Team Principal Eric Boullier has revealed that 'his' team is getting closer to making a decision on who will partner Robert Kubica in 2011. However he added that while Kimi Räikkönen is still in the frame, he wants to meet with the Finn before making a final decision.

FULL STORY HERE :cool:

reiger

raikkonen may be a Monster man next year Ken block and monster are looking to bring him to the monster ford world rally team,but if red bull stay with him you may see him heading for prodrive to join kris Meeke and possiably marcus Gronholm,he maybe pushed the door of citroen one reason been there maynot be a car for him till midway through the season as the DS3 will be in short supply and leob, Oiger and Sordo will get the cars before him

FREDNISMO

I Don't Rate Ken Block or Kimi as rally drivers,there are far more talented drivers out there, but i suppose money talks.

reiger

No one ever said they were the worlds best sure dan mckenna or garry mcphiliphs id beat them any day with their Mk2's but they add a diffrent perspective to the sport and the wrc has done well publicty wise out of the two of them.

EvilMonkey

Kimi rules out driving for Renault

"I am very disappointed with how they have used my name for their own marketing. I have never even seriously considered driving for Renault, and I can assure you that I am 100 per cent sure that I will not drive for Renault next season."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87205

Iron Hide

Sutil or Heidfeld to drive the 2nd Renault next year i think. If its Sutil then Heidfeld should get his FI seat.

Frank Bullitt

It was weird that the team said that they had been in contact with Raikkonen, cause usually all that stuff is kept quiet etc.

Id say Heidfled or Sutil will be there now, and petrov to Lotus maybe.

Voodu Child

Gintonious wrote: »

It was weird that the team said that they had been in contact with Raikkonen, cause usually all that stuff is kept quiet etc.

Presumeably it was said to put pressure on Petrovs backers for more money.

reiger

Kimi has lost the redbull backing for 2011 according to french sources and petter solberg is in talks with the citroen factory team to join the junior team with sordo,so no place for kimi at citroen next year,talk that redbull are to back mini.
Monster have been keen on kimi so he could be heading for the monster ford team to join ken block.it looks like the only spot hes left.or else it could be bye bye kimi from the WRC.

reiger

Kimi has sunk to a new all time low hes done in the C4 on the shakedown stage this morning its badly damaged and will not be fixed as the cage is damaged,so he will be a non starter on rally spain.
Citroen are sick of him even though hes gives them around 2.5 million in red bull money,as bad as Evgeny Novikov was he never was this bad.
this incident could hamper where Kimi goes next year and he has definitely lost the red bull money.so he's not that attractive of a proposition anymore.