One of the nice things about being around auto racing as long as I have is that you get to know a lot of people.
And while some of those folks might be involved with some of the lesser formulae, they are usually well-connected to the big boys and are inclined to tell you stuff that the guys in the big leagues won’t.
Such as this little nugget.
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| AP FILE PHOTO |
| Is Kimi Raikkonen being "persuaded" to leave Ferrari to make room for Fernando Alonso? |
Ferrari is trying to “move” Kimi Raikkonen out of the team in order to make room for Fernando Alonso in 2010. This is because of a five-year contract the Scuderia signed in recent weeks with the Spanish banking giant Santander. One of the conditions – denied by one and all, of course – is that Alonso would have a seat.
One scenario had Raikkonen moving to the World Rally Championship for the last year of his contract with Ferrari. Which explains why Ferrari didn’t object when Kimi said he wanted to give the WRC a shot, which he did in Finland in August and wounded up crashing the car.
Although he brushed it off at the time, Raikkonen let his friends know that rally driving is not for him – at this time in his career, in any event.
The latest suggestion is that Ferrari is trying to convince McLaren to take Raikkonen back. The reasoning is that second-driver Heikki Kovalainen hasn’t been pulling his weight and for Lewis Hamilton to continue improving, he’s got to have a teammate who can really push him and the Kimster would certainly fit that bill.
McLaren is said to be lukewarm to the idea. To sweeten the offer, Ferrari has apparently offered to pay part or all of Raikkonen’s salary for a year while he’s driving for the British team.
As they say, where there’s smoke there’s fire. Don’t bet against it.
Given the state of formula 1. I would join WRC if I was Kimi... just keep crashing cars until you become good at it.
It is a hefty price to pay to get ALonso IMO, if Ferrari pays Kimi's salary for a year to dump him on Mclaren...
Posted by: rob | 09/22/2009 at 02:48 PM
This would only prove what I was saying all along - sport today is all about money. If Alonso ends up at Ferrari, he will be babied, something he really enjoys. In that sense, it may be good for Ferrari but not good for competition. Teams today do what sponsors say, just like Mercedes is telling Brawn to seat German driver in one of their cars. The show must go on....
Posted by: Edward Palys | 09/23/2009 at 08:02 AM
Interesting all this is happening. My question is going to be what will happen with drivers from Sauber-BMW? Petronas/Proton/Lotus is taking over correct? Will Kimi now be a contestant to win a seat with them, or will they just have the 2 current BMW drivers in new cars? There is also the USGP team entering for next season. Then since Renault is out for 2 seasons, will there be another team entering to replace them? I know there were a few requests for entering F1. It's all so interesting. As for Kimi going into WRC, I don't know, there are basically only 2 MFG's in WRC, Ford and Peugeot. Kind of boring now. If WRC is to be popular again, we need all the different Manufacturers in again. =D
Posted by: Rick | 09/23/2009 at 01:37 PM
Rick - Renault is not out for 2 seasons. They were given a suspended sentence.
Posted by: Andrew | 09/23/2009 at 05:26 PM