10-09-2013, 17:50
in the subject of Kimi Raikkonen
September 10, 2013 by Joe Saward
There is much talk about Kimi Raikkonen joining Ferrari in 2014 and Lotus team boss Eric Boullier admits that he is still trying to put together a deal that the Finn wants. If he can do that, he says he is confident that Raikkonen will stay, although the decision will ultimately be up to the Finn. Ferrari has made it clear that Raikkonen is interesting to them although team boss Stefano Domenicali told GP+ that “in the actual situation I don’t know if he would be the right choice.” What that means is that Domenicali is not convinced that Fernando Alonso will be happy with Raikkonen as his number two. The Spaniard is famous for being rather fragile when he has a strong team-mate and while he may say in public that he does not care who he has as his team-mate at Ferrari, behind the scenes he has started to talk to other teams about leaving Ferrari if Raikkonen joins the team. And this is where things stop making sense. Raikkonen is good, no question, but most of the people in F1 rate Alonso as overall the best driver in F1 at the moment. He’s frustrated, yes, but the team is working hard to change its engineering staff in order to get him a better package to allow a challenge in 2014 and 2015. The clock is ticking on Fernando’s career, just as it is on Raikkonen’s and ironically both men are under pressure to be in a winning car if they want to add to their title tallies. The problem is that there are no drives available at Red Bull Racing or Mercedes so Kimi and Fernando must choose between the next best and hope that they will move forward. Having the two together in the same team is a nice idea, but it is unlikely to work because Alonso will feel betrayed. Hence Domenicali’s uncertainty. Who calls the shots on drivers? That remains to be seen. It should be Stefano but Luca Montezemolo is never far from the process.
“We will think of this immediately after Monza,” said Montezemolo. “We wanted to arrive at this weekend without any strange pressure. We will take a decision in the next days – and we haven’t taken any kind of decision yet. We haven’t signed a contract with anybody. We will talk with Massa, then we have our opinion, and then we will decide. We can take somebody else… we have several names. We haven’t taken any kind of decision yet at all.”
If Raikkonen does join Ferrari, you can expect stories that Alonso is talking to Lotus… One of the key issues now is to see to what extent Renault is willing to get behind the Lotus team, which could provide it with a lot more visibility than is currently the case. Right now, Renault is paying the R&D costs for the engines and Nissan’s Infiniti brand is reaping the benefits with Red Bull Racing. Renault needs a way to get Nissan to contribute to the costs, which will free up cash for Renault to buy some signage on the side of the Lotuses.
It is probably no coincidence that there was a very heavy Nissan presence at Monza over the weekend.
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/09/1...raikkonen/
September 10, 2013 by Joe Saward
There is much talk about Kimi Raikkonen joining Ferrari in 2014 and Lotus team boss Eric Boullier admits that he is still trying to put together a deal that the Finn wants. If he can do that, he says he is confident that Raikkonen will stay, although the decision will ultimately be up to the Finn. Ferrari has made it clear that Raikkonen is interesting to them although team boss Stefano Domenicali told GP+ that “in the actual situation I don’t know if he would be the right choice.” What that means is that Domenicali is not convinced that Fernando Alonso will be happy with Raikkonen as his number two. The Spaniard is famous for being rather fragile when he has a strong team-mate and while he may say in public that he does not care who he has as his team-mate at Ferrari, behind the scenes he has started to talk to other teams about leaving Ferrari if Raikkonen joins the team. And this is where things stop making sense. Raikkonen is good, no question, but most of the people in F1 rate Alonso as overall the best driver in F1 at the moment. He’s frustrated, yes, but the team is working hard to change its engineering staff in order to get him a better package to allow a challenge in 2014 and 2015. The clock is ticking on Fernando’s career, just as it is on Raikkonen’s and ironically both men are under pressure to be in a winning car if they want to add to their title tallies. The problem is that there are no drives available at Red Bull Racing or Mercedes so Kimi and Fernando must choose between the next best and hope that they will move forward. Having the two together in the same team is a nice idea, but it is unlikely to work because Alonso will feel betrayed. Hence Domenicali’s uncertainty. Who calls the shots on drivers? That remains to be seen. It should be Stefano but Luca Montezemolo is never far from the process.
“We will think of this immediately after Monza,” said Montezemolo. “We wanted to arrive at this weekend without any strange pressure. We will take a decision in the next days – and we haven’t taken any kind of decision yet. We haven’t signed a contract with anybody. We will talk with Massa, then we have our opinion, and then we will decide. We can take somebody else… we have several names. We haven’t taken any kind of decision yet at all.”
If Raikkonen does join Ferrari, you can expect stories that Alonso is talking to Lotus… One of the key issues now is to see to what extent Renault is willing to get behind the Lotus team, which could provide it with a lot more visibility than is currently the case. Right now, Renault is paying the R&D costs for the engines and Nissan’s Infiniti brand is reaping the benefits with Red Bull Racing. Renault needs a way to get Nissan to contribute to the costs, which will free up cash for Renault to buy some signage on the side of the Lotuses.
It is probably no coincidence that there was a very heavy Nissan presence at Monza over the weekend.
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/09/1...raikkonen/
Fernando es de otro planeta