In the last couple of weeks, the future of the Finnish "Iceman" Kimi Räikkönen has been a very popuar headline on the press and F1 & WRC rumours. It feels like almost every month there is a new rumour about Kimi and his future since he left the F1 series, thanks to Ferrari who bought him out and got Fernando Alonso to the team. Kimi didn't find a F1 race seat which could be competitive enough, so he made his choice and went to the World Rally Championship.
In WRC the results haven't been what Kimi wants. Of course we all know that rally is much different World than F1 or any other series on track. This year, it has been very hard to know what's going on at Kimi's mind. It's hard to get a straight answer from him, because he really don't know what he wants to do. Kimi has become a multitask driver, by trying Nascar this year and there has been plans about joining Le Mans, maybe Indy Car too?
These rumours become out again couple weeks ago, when Räikkönen visited at Williams factory. Williams haven't been competitive this season, but the team is changing the main persons inside the team and will get Renault engine for next season. Some people say Kimi is interested on a race seat with Williams. That would mean Rubens Barrichello would be out from the team, because Pastor Maldonado is likely to stay on the team thanks to the big sponsor money which he brings for the team. Some sources say Maldonado's sponsor would pay Kimi's salary too, because we can all expect Kimi wants a high salary which might be too much for Williams right now. Hard to say. Does Kimi really believe Williams can be on the top again?
Kimi has been away from F1 for two seasons now. Everybody would like to see him back, even many people are critical about Kimi's behaviour etc. but we all know what Kimi can do when he is on his best. Two years is a big break and there has been lot of new things Kimi needs to get used to if he comes back. There are new Pirelli tyres which are totally different compared to the old Bridgestone tyres. There is DRS, and we have heard critical comments from Kimi about the DRS. Kimi thinks with DRS overtaking is not real racing anymore. But if the rule will be changed as FIA is planning, that would be also one positive point for Kimi to come back. Now the cap between drivers must be under one second before the driver who's gonna overtake is allowed to use DRS on the DRS activation zone. FIA is planning to make the cap smaller. It might be under half second.
Räikkönen told today to Finnish MTV3 that he wants to race and not to be a team boss. Kimi already has a own team at motocross and his own WRC team Ice One Racing. His team lost all it's team points of this season, because Kimi didn't join the rally Australia. There's an amount of races that all teams must drive to be able to collect team's WC points, but because Kimi skipped Australia, his team is not able to drive enough races this season. Fans started to think after that, is Kimi even motivated to drive rally? Sad for those fans at Australia who went to see WRC just to see Kimi and wasn't able to see him. I didn't see any comment from Kimi about what happened with rally Australia. He doesn't care about his fans, it sadly seems. He didn't tell he has no plans to go to Australia even he was on the participant list.
This weekend at rally France, Kimi crashed to Henning Solberg's car when they were moving to the next special stage. Kimi had to overtake Henning because Kimi's start position to the Stage was higher than Henning's. Henning was in front of Kimi and warming his tyres and brakes. Henning had no idea Kimi was behind him, and when he made the big breaking, Kimi crashed to him. Kimi's car damaged. And Kimi decided not to continue at super rally even he was able to do it. He told today to Finnish MTV3 that he did not continue because he doesn't know what he wants from his future.
So, even Kimi himself doesn't know what he wants. Most of fans would like to see him back at F1. This is time for decisions for Räikkönen. But whatever he does, he will be followed by his loyal fans.
Ótimo post, parabéns
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