Kimi's future - No racing in 2010?

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Originally Posted by truefan72

car budget and driver budget are two different things.

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Not at all, not at all, they are both part of the team's budget and Toyota's team budget has not been yet approved by their board of directors who are sitting and watching from Tokyo (and are happy that Honda were stupid enough to give up after investing 3/4 of a billion last year).

Already this year Toyota's budget has been reduced due to the financial crisis and they are looking to reduce it to close to 100 million for next year. This is one of the reasons why they don't want to renew Trulli's contract, because he wants more money than they are ready to pay him.

So where should they find money to make such extraordinary offers to Raikkonen when they don't have the money to pay what Trulli is asking?

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Originally Posted by ioan

Not at all, not at all, they are both part of the team's budget and Toyota's team budget has not been yet approved by their board of directors who are sitting and watching from Tokyo (and are happy that Honda were stupid enough to give up after investing 3/4 of a billion last year).

Already this year Toyota's budget has been reduced due to the financial crisis and they are looking to reduce it to close to 100 million for next year. This is one of the reasons why they don't want to renew Trulli's contract, because he wants more money than they are ready to pay him.

So where should they find money to make such extraordinary offers to Raikkonen when they don't have the money to pay what Trulli is asking?

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And Räikkönen is not even interested in driving for Toyota. I mean what are they going to do next year? My guess is that they will come up with an inconsistent car, the technical team they have have done it every single year.

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Originally Posted by DexDexter

And Räikkönen is not even interested in driving for Toyota.

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That I can believe.

Ferrari would be foolish to sack Kimi. Nobody knows for sure whether Massa will get back to what he was. And what he was was only a little above average.

I can't wait to see what Fred's excuse is when he gets smoked by Kimi.

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Originally Posted by rabf1

I can't wait to see what Fred's excuse is when he gets smoked by Kimi.

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Like Felipe smoked Kimi? :D

Kimi is way to inconsistent and winning only 1 race in more than one year is really not what Ferrari were expecting in return for a 50 million paycheck (per year that is).

If Felipe isn't around next season Ferrari can still have Alonso instead of Kimi (as I'm pretty sure that the managers of both these drivers will not accept that their proteges lose face driving against each other in the same car as their market value would plummet), and at least they know that Alonso is consistent every time he gets in a car.

I'm not saying Kimi isn't fast enough to be a Ferrari driver, he sure is as fast as any other diver out there, it's just that he sometimes let's his twin brother take the wheel way to often and the speed is not there when that happens.

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Originally Posted by ioan

Like Felipe smoked Kimi? :D

Kimi is way to inconsistent and winning only 1 race in more than one year is really not what Ferrari were expecting in return for a 50 million paycheck (per year that is).

If Felipe isn't around next season Ferrari can still have Alonso instead of Kimi (as I'm pretty sure that the managers of both these drivers will not accept that their proteges lose face driving against each other in the same car as their market value would plummet), and at least they know that Alonso is consistent every time he gets in a car.

I'm not saying Kimi isn't fast enough to be a Ferrari driver, he sure is as fast as any other diver out there, it's just that he sometimes let's his twin brother take the wheel way to often and the speed is not there when that happens.

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Well, couple of days ago I was certain that all the Finns would switch teams next year. Now it seems HK will stay at McL, Nico will move to Brawn and Kimi will stay at Ferrari.

So expect Alonso driving for Ferrari in 2011. The big Q is what will he be doing next year.

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Originally Posted by ioan

Like Felipe smoked Kimi? :D

Kimi is way to inconsistent and winning only 1 race in more than one year is really not what Ferrari were expecting in return for a 50 million paycheck (per year that is).

If Felipe isn't around next season Ferrari can still have Alonso instead of Kimi (as I'm pretty sure that the managers of both these drivers will not accept that their proteges lose face driving against each other in the same car as their market value would plummet), and at least they know that Alonso is consistent every time he gets in a car.

I'm not saying Kimi isn't fast enough to be a Ferrari driver, he sure is as fast as any other diver out there, it's just that he sometimes let's his twin brother take the wheel way to often and the speed is not there when that happens.

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His twin brother is actually a big brother called Rami. Are you saying that he took Kimi's place in some of the races in 2008? :)

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Originally Posted by truefan72

everyone always thinks it is a forgon conclusion that Alosno will be in Ferrari, but I am not so sure Ferrari are courting Alonsi the wayhe is courting them. For this to happen they would have to buy out Kimi's very large contract, and think that massa and alonso will be a good pairing. I doubt that would happen. If Alonso joins the team, he would expect the type of entitlement that MSC enjoyed and what he though he would get from McLaren. But massa is no pushover both on the track and personality wise.

If they get rid of massa ( a real possibility) then kimi would care less if Alonso was here or not and will continue to perform by doing his own thing. He will absolutely not play second fiddle to Alonso and team orders would be out of the question. You would see on track racing of a high caliber and potentially dicey situations. Either way it will be up to Alonso to adjust his behavior.

Kimi sits pretty IMO. Mclaren and Brawn and possibly even toyota as a good option.(with toyota offering him a staggering deal)

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You probably wrote that before Santander confirmed that they'd switch to Ferrari, but that pretty much guarantees that Alonso will be driving in red if not in 2010 from 2011.

Kimi doesn't really stand in a strong position. He certainly is in no position to ever get paid as much as he has been, the recession will take care of that. He had better hope and pray that Massa is slower than he's been when he comes back because otherwise he doesn't really have a chance of keeping his seat at Ferrari.

Will McLaren have Kimi back? Why would they need him? Things are working out well with Lewis and all they need is a competent support driver.

Brawn? Maybe, but on a salary similar to Button, ditto for Toyota.

The question is what does Kimi really want to do? He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who wants to break records and I can see him switching sports to find something else that interests him, why else would he compete in WRC? He may not want to remain in F1 that much longer at all.

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Originally Posted by DexDexter

His twin brother is actually a big brother called Rami. Are you saying that he took Kimi's place in some of the races in 2008? :)

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It certainly looked like Rami drove for most of 2008 and 2009. :)

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Originally Posted by ioan

It certainly looked like Rami drove for most of 2008 and 2009. :)

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Just for the record: Rami is the older brother. And he´s the silent one :) And Ive seen Kimis family at races but they dont come to the paddock.

Btw, thats something I dont understand, but its another story anyway...