Formula 1. Austrian Christian 'Toto' Wolff told the Kronen Zeitung that the Finn, who won his title with Ferrari, was one of several names on their list of possible drivers for next season.
Former champions Williams, enduring their worst season in F1 with five points from 17 races, have said nothing officially about any contacts with the year-old 'Iceman' despite mounting media speculation. Asked at the recent Indian Grand Prix whether Raikkonen might return to race for Williams next year, team chairman Adam Parr refused to be drawn. Raikkonen, still hugely popular with F1 fans despite leaving the sport for rallying at the end of , told the latest edition of F1 Racing magazine that anything was possible but nothing had been decided.
To be honest, I don't know myself yet. THIS will polarize many, myself included. If there is one way to get me to route on WilliamsF1, its with Kimi behind the wheel. Fixy 7th November , Kimi Raikkonen is undoubtedly a great talent.
He showed incredible speed in his years in F1. Schumacher had a car which was sometimes capable of podiums, and a highly-motivated Rosberg as team mate. With a mid-field car unless Williams pull out a surprise and an inferior team mate, and considering Kimi is younger than Michael, he can obtain good results in if he puts all his commitment in it.
Definitely he should make a comeback. He is undoubtedly the best driver of the modern era of Formula One, so he deserves his place from F1 circus. Alain paganbasque 7th November , He should not return to F1 with Williams, but I would like to see him again. Anyway I want to see again a battle betwen Kimi and Lewis, or Kimi eating another ice cream in Malaysia.
I can only see him coming back, not liking it and leaving again. Keith Collantine keithcollantine 7th November , I doubt any of the drivers enjoy doing PR. Raikkonen is no different in that respect. But if you get to drive mph racing cars for a living and are paid eight-figure sums to do it, it would rather childish to then whinge about having to spend time with the people who sign the cheques.
Most drivers realise this and deal with it. Alianora La Canta alianora-la-canta 7th November , Wow, that is an incredible number of days. Interesting when you take this fact with the Button killing it in the F1F popularity poll. Buttons value to Mclaren must be enormous and it appears Mclaren are fully aware of this and capitalising on it. This can be notice in the number of Internet publications, even when Button had done some pretty amazing races most of the tittle talk about Hamilton… Right now if you do a search in google for Hamilton he will have at least 16,, results, for Button this is only 9,, Kimi has almost 5millions.
Yes I did notice that they misplaced Rosberg, he should be just after Button and not after Alonso. James jamesf1 7th November , I would love to see Raikkonen back on the track. It would be an epic prospect to see what he could do in below average machinary.
However, he has to ask himself what is right for him. Does he want to return to a 20 race calender if he doesnt want to do all the travelling? Will his heart be in it if he cant feature in the top 10 as often as he had become used to let alone the top 3. Does he see Williams as a platform up to a bigger team in ? All seem plausible at the moment. I voted against. Those aspects, if anything, have become worse over the last two years. This will result in him being a shadow of the self we know he can be and signing off F1 underperforming and unhappy.
I think other drivers should be given a chance, Kimi had his, lucked into a World title and stopped trying. Mallesh Magdum malleshmagdum 7th November , There are Kimi lovers and Kimi haters….. Why this is so damn big thing? You can call me heartless and cold person, if you want. Sri 7th November , Neil Davies neil-davies 7th November , I voted yes purely because having six world champions on the track at the same time is even cooler than having five.
One cooler, in fact. Rocky rocky 7th November , I think a younger perhaps more eager driver would be a better choice. He simply responded — the car feels the same. My desire to see Kimi back in F1 has approximately nothing to do with logic. The prospect of having him back is simply too exciting for me to assess the pros and cons rationally!
The Last Pope the-last-pope 7th November , It was a race season: Vettel scored the most over the last nine. Hamilton over the last eight with 40, Raikkonen was second-highest with I think Williams will benefit from signing Raikonnen and all this back and forth is simply they are trying to settle on a right price.
As we have seen from Barrichello driver input is worth next to nothing in this day and age. Would Williams have the worst season in history if it has the services of most experienced driver ever to develop the car? As for Kimi not liking PR responsibilities? I think he should come back, not with Williams though, unfortunately there is no much options available at the time. AkaSparks akasparks 7th November , Williams just signed Renault as engine supplier Renault supplies Red Bull Kimi races for Williams in to get back into the sport Webber retires at end of Kimi moves over to Red Bull to race for Renault powered Red Bull in Michel S.
I fear a similar fate will befall Kimi, and unlike him, Villeneuve never lacked passion. ChrisJones 7th November , In my opinion, Kimi became disenchanted with F1 after achieving his goal. He thought another series might suit his personality better, so he dabbled in a little bit of everything WRC campaign, LMP and nascar tests, etc. He soon realized that the grass most definitely was not greener on the other side of the fence, and came to the conclusion that F1 was where he was supposed to be.
I doubt many will deny that he is still one of the top drivers in the world, and certainly deserves a drive with one of the top F1 teams. Kimi probably figures he will get his feet wet again with a midfield team, no pressure to win, take his time getting up to speed with the new regs and tires.
Once he thoroughly destroy any potential Williams team mate in , he is probably hoping that will be enough to secure a seat with a top team. Given his existing ties with Red Bull and Webbers current form, my guess is that he will partner Vettel in , or possibly to McLaren depending on whether Hamilton decides to stay put.
Sergey 7th November , Being humble and being yourself are two different things. James Brickles brickles 7th November , Quite simply, I would love to see Raikkonen back in F1, even if it is with a limping team. I wish people would stop making comments about about rally when they dont understand it and clearly dont follow it. Where to start. The only privateer who has gone to all of the rallies in recent years is Petter Solberg.
Which brings me to another point there NO seats in WRC, it is one of the big problems with the sport. How would you expect someone like Kimi who has almost no experience in rally terms to get some kind of factory seat, while a WDC like Petter Solberg who is one of the biggest names in the sport cant even find a seat somewhere?
It is a misrepresentation to say that Kimi cant find a seat in WRC. Any chance of achieving a good position and points was completely gone. Except for the last two rallies one crash and one mechanical failure Kimi has done a really good job this season in WRC.
He is often faster then new promising talents Mads Ostberg and Novikov. In rally Finland where he has more experience then in other rallies, he was practically matching Petter Solberg pace wise for an extended period.
That is pretty remarkable for a guy with 20 rallies worth of experience. Experience in rally is much more important then in F1. There is certainly a lot of nonsense about Kimi going around that people like to repeat as facts.
I still dont understand why people would say Kimi was bad in , he had the 4th to 5th best car on the grid and won a race with that car and scored 4 podiums. Have the current drivers in the 4th — 5th fastest cars won any races recently?
Or are they even getting podiums? The fact is Williams has scored 5 points so far this season, they are at the back of the grid only one step ahead of the new teams. They need something or just about anything badly, they would be darn lucky to get Kimi. RaikkonenNo1 8th November , Also, I still wonder: even if what you say about that Australia rally is true, he could have decided from the start not to compete in Australia, and pick another rally instead, or not have put himself on the FIA list in the first place.
You are very right in my mind in pointing out that a team with only 5 points so far this year could do worse than to have Raikkonen, even if he is inconsistent, on the good days he should be able to show a lot more than Barrichello, making it likely worth it even then to take a risk with him.
Raikkonen is one of the naturally fast drivers. McLaren actually had 3 top driver leave them in less than 3 years. On the other hand recently there are changes, with Whitmarsh doing the personnel handling and not Dennis and McLaren have seen a steady boat, as far as drivers are concerned. Ferrari lost Raikkonen, but it was mostly them kicking Kimi out and returning to good old days of politics which we all hate remember Italian drivers for Italian cars? Tyres as someone pointed out, will be the key.
Kimi was never too hard on the tyres. He was better than Montoya, as was documented well in one issue of F1 Racing, and it was to do something with how they line up for corners. Kimi is faster both in to one and in getting out of a corner. He will need to get used to the car and the tyres and overall balance of things, and given his natural ability he will be fine. Williams and Kimi both need a break and are able to provide one for each other.
Hopefully, the car will be upto scratch and if it is, you know you could count on Kimi to go fast alright. Well, at-least he would avoid hitting Massa! Boy did i cheer and raise toasts to having another Macca engine toasted. Nothing warms the heart of a tifosi like a McLaren engine burning. Boy that lad Button is good! Kimmi will most certainly spice things up for the fans, whether he bombs or does well.
If Kimmi does have a meltdown and does the throw in the towel if the car is not fast or up to his expectation. It will make for great Hamiltonesque media interest and the comments section here would go crazy.
Reading the comments here I realised that although I as a fan will win either way with Kimmi returning. I do remember that there is a whole team of people working their guts out to put the car on track. Icthyes icthyes 7th November , I think it would bring nothing to F1 to see Kimi back, considering he was giving nothing when he left. Adam Tate adam-tate 8th November , Yes, yes and yes, he should comeback. It would be sad to loose Rubens Maldonado should be ousted instead but Kimi still had a lot to prove and on his best he was untouchable.
He should come back, what does he have to loose? And more crucially, on the back of their worst season in history, what do Williams have to loose? Trido trido 8th November , Personally I would love to see him back but I too would question his motivation over the course of a season. Maksutov maksutov 8th November , But overall I think he should come back because he is a unique character and its great for the sport.
Can Williams afford him? No Is Raikkonen good enough? Maybe Committed? Not really. Eggry eggry 8th November , Kimi could race in Well, If he had remained instead of Massa, of Ferrari should be better than we know. Darren 8th November , Him coming back will be entertaining to say the least! The Limit 8th November , To a certain degree the thought of Kimi Raikkonen making a comeback into Formula One is attractive to me.
He is a former world champion, and a multiple grands prix winner. For Williams, a team that have gone fourteen years without a championship to their name, Raikkonen would be a big name to join their ranks.
However, I am not totally convinced. For me, Raikkonen pretty much summed up Formula One pre For a time back in , only Tiger Woods earned more money per year than Kimi Raikkonen anywhere in the world. To be fair, that has not changed all that much but with the cash came the pressure. When Raikkonen was being beaten by Felipe Massa in the Finn has the appearance of a man who could not be bothered with Ferrari and maybe Formula One in general.
He knew that Ferrari were after Fernando Alonso, but even so, gave off a very indifferent attitude. This is bearable when you are successfull, but when a driver is not winning I would imagine that kind of attitude would get old quickly.
Williams are in a dark place as ends. The are a far cry from the team that Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, and Jacques Villeneuve drove for to championship glory. There is nothing to suggest that will be any different from the Grove based team, which begs the question, why would Kimi race for them?
Michael Schumacher has certainly not found his return to the fold an easy one, and Mercedes Benz are certainly far better in terms of performance than Williams. It would be risky, especially if Williams get the Kimi of If they get the Raikkonen were saw a decade ago at Sauber, then that is a different kettle of fish all together. Bullfrog bullfrog 8th November , If he does come back, Williams reserve driver could be a smart move for whoever gets shuffled out at Force India and Lotus.
Senna, Grosjean or Sutil. Good chance of some races later in the season. Should have explained that better : I meant guys currently in GP2 who are ready for a shot at F1. Squib 8th November , He was awesome to watch, especially in , and — some truly magnificent driving!!!
AndrewTanner andrewtanner 8th November , It seems I have arguments and counter-arguments. I appreciate they posted a profit earlier this year but for me the disparity between a driver with plenty of oil money and the highest ever paid F1 driver is just too big a void to get my head around. This would requires a massive pay cut from Raikkonen or a willingness to play the long game. Driving with Williams next year is going to be one hell of a gamble for him. On the back of their worst ever season and with so little experience with current regulations it will be a mountain to climb.
I would love to see him stay there for a few years to see what he can do. Raifosa raifosa 8th November , Rumor has it that QNB sponsorship is 30m euro, half of which will go to Kimi. Again if rumors are true. If he does so in a convincing manner, then I propose that he will be able to pick and choose again from top teams for This might very well be the plan he has in mind.
A fun photoshop done by an Atlas member. Make no mistake — if he does sign for Williams, it will be no more than a one year contract with an option for renewal. Oh, a whole lot I would say. Everyone will want to have a piece of the story of the enigmatic world champion making a comeback with the Williams team. And their sponsors will drool over the extra attention. Forget the image that Kimi is a turn up and drive kinda guy.
This kind of nonsensical rumors occur because of his closed personality. But ask anyone who has worked closely with him and they will all tell you how talented he is in giving very accurate feedback to the engineers and that he works as late as he has to. Kimis incredible car feel is just what Williams want in a driver to get the car they need that will bring them back towards the front.
So Williams will hopefully get results they could only dream of with Barrichello and Maldonado. And Kimi gets one year of experience that is more than enough to get up to speed with the Pirellis and racing an F1 car again. Not to mention it will be a stepping stone to a top team the following year. James Allen claims that his sources tell him that both the Willams and Raikkonen camp are very keen to do this. And they have gotten as far as talking about practical stuff like how many promotional days he needs to do and so on.
James Allen is not always right of course, but he is spot on a lot of times. For instance when it came to Alonso to Ferrari in What we do know is that Kimi visited the Williams factory and was shown around by Adam Parr, chairman in Williams. Willams is not saying anything at all about this. And the Robertsons are denying any ongoing negotiations. Just like they did before Kimi went to Ferrari, mind you. I say there is way too much smoke here to not be a fire as well. I think there is a big chance seeing Kimi drive an F1 car next year.
And I also believe there is a semi-long term plan to advance to a top team and drive there for at least years. In the end it is up to Kimi.
But my belief is that his visit to the factory was to show Kimi the seriousness of Williams intentions for a great car in Show him the facilities, the planned staff changes, what kind of people he could have at his side on race weekends. That sort of stuff. To ease Kimis mind that he at least wont be fighting at the back of the field.
Lets talk rally. Sure he could do rally in But this would mean another year as a privateer where a big part of the expenses are coming out of Kimis own pockets. As it is in the WRC right now, even some of the best drivers in the world does not have a paid factory seat. So what chance does a second year rookie like Kimi have? As it stands, it will be like this for a couple of years.
I just cant see that Kimi will want to pay his own way in rally for very long. On the other hand, if he does, say 3 years of F1, things might have changed a lot in the WRC by then, if he wants to pick it up where he left. He might even get a paid seat then. And the Le Mans test? He did indeed test a Le Mans prototype at Peugeot not long ago, so it would be fair to say that he is interested in doing that as well.
But Le Mans is basically just one big race once a year with a couple of support races around it. It is absolutely an option, but what would he do the rest of the year? To flip it around — the Formula 1 calendar does have a 2 week gap between the Canada and Europe race and in between there is the Le Mans 24 hour race.
Technically that is possible to do. But we have heard nothing of the kind since his 2 outings back in May. That is clearly not the plan for next year, or else we would have heard something from across the pond. Plenty of time to do that though if he wishes. Even after a few years in F1. Of course there is also retirement. I have seen no signs of any intentions in that direction. In my opinion, Kimi knows he is far too young to hang up any of his helmets. I think he wants to get back into Formula 1 because it is a steady paycheck while doing something he loves.
Okay, the paycheck will be significantly smaller than his last outing in F1. But nobody is getting that kind of money anymore anyway. And he is aware of that. He will probably bring a few sponsors of his own. Add to that some new deals and appearances with sponsors and it is easy to add some substantial cash to his paycheck.
One thing is for sure, it will be far more lucrative than his rally campaign where he had to cut Australia mostly due to costs. But can Williams really afford Raikkonen? With Kimis name I think it would be relatively and I stress relatively easy to drum up some extra millions.
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