Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
why would kimi want to leave? he is in one of the 2 most consistently performing teams.. getting a bucket load of money.. onli reason for kimi leaving if ferrari fire him and i doubt that will be anytime soon
Plus if Kimi leaves where would he go? He left McLaren because he didn't get any titles and Ferrari was his best shot to be competitive and fulfill his championship dreams. I read many times in different publications that he wasn't after the money. He just wanted to be on the fastest and most reliable car to win the title. But if he is gone from ferrari he can just kiss his title aspirations goodbye!
And who will replace him? Hamilton? Not any time soon, I'm sure Dennis will pay whatever money Ferrari offers to Hamilton if that's the case and given the actual technical, political or whatever circumstances Ferrari is sunked in right now I dont think Hamilton will make such a move if he has the best car out there right now.
Kimi Raikkonen to leave Ferrari - reports
20 giugno 2007
manchild wrote:Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:14 am
...I wouldn't be surprised seeing Alonso leaving Mclaren at the end of the season as well as Kimi leaving Ferrari - both of them ending up in Red Bull or perhaps even Toyota.
Geez manchild, that's dangerous stuff, like jugggling hand grenades. What if somehow, your rumors convinced Shu to come out of retirement? How could you live with yourself? roflmao
Militia Est Vita wrote:Plus if Kimi leaves where would he go?
Anyone read Autosport? They are making a good case for a swap with Rosberg............it seems that Ferrari are very keen on the young Rosberg, fast, good work ethic and very technicallly minded. Kimi would remain under contract to Ferrari (they pay him), but heads off to Williams and they get Nico in return. IF (big big big IF....) this is true, presumably Nico's departure is padded with a fat cheque made out to Team Willy. Not sure if I would want a "sacked" Kimi in my team - he may work even less........on the other hand, he is quick and Wurz is a good tester.
Somehow I suspect that Kimi will wake up soon - put in a few stellar drives and all this will be forgotten...........
its been only 7 races, why ferrari would fire kimi, come on. out of seven races, he already won once, finished 3d twice. one race technical failure, once he a made mistake(monaco), and he finished 5th and 4th in north america, i think its not bad, considering the pace of the car.
is there a reason why Ralf's name is not in front of Alonso's?
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Come on, people.
Kimi isn't going anywhere. Why would Ferrari spend all that money on his salary only to consider firing him after only 7 races. My guess is that he will serve out both years of his contract with Ferrari, and only then can we talk about any type of driver swap.
There was a story that Kimi might be replaced by Michael. That would be the dumbest thing ever. Michael has been out of F1 for a year, he is aging, and the team he built had been destroyed. Besides, he might only have a year or two of competitive racing left in him, so after he leaves, Ferrari will be in the same situation as they are this year. My guess is that Luca will figure that they might as well tough it out now that they are in this situation.
This is what happens when you kick out Michael, Luca!
Don't kid yourself, the only thing keeping the team together was Brawn, even if Michael had stayed the team would have been in the same situation.
Does anybody remember when Kimi first came to F1? he was on probation, he only just got a superlicence having missed both F3 and F3000, the FIA agreed to closely watch his first 6 races and then decide if he could keep the licence. He shone, leading his 3rd GP (before the steering wheel came off) and then he was shipped off to Mclaren the next year to the dismay of Sauber team mate Heidfeld who had been testing for the Silver arrows all year and ended up not getting a drive. Then Massa arrived in the swiss team and he wasn't considered as good as either of them. Of course Ferrari dominated both Kimi and Fellipe's debut seasons (imagine telling each of them they'd be wearing the red just 4-5 years later).
Look at the championship now, both the 'new sensations' are in that all conquering Ferrari team, with Fellipe leading Kimi by 7 points! Then just 6 points behind is good ol Nick who stuck it out with Saulber even through their move to BMW power. I think thats quite ironic that the drivers considered weakest back in 2002 are easily challenging the one we all put money on to win a championship (2?) before now.
Also check out DC! More retirments than anyone this season (5) and he's still ahead of his team mate, all the Hondas and the red bull sister team. Oh, and the third fastest driver in F1!!!
Murphy's 9th Law of Technology:
Tell a man there are 300 million stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure.
Tom wrote:Don't kid yourself, the only thing keeping the team together was Brawn, even if Michael had stayed the team would have been in the same situation.
Right, but who was the large reason (perhaps the only reason) why Brawn left Benetton and went over to Ferrari. We all know that Michael had created a fantastic team around him, and regardless of whether you hate him or not, you cannot deny that he was the key to the success. And, with Michael's departure from the team, Brawn followed and that team is now, as it seems, in a total disarray.
"good olden days" doesn't harm anyone (unless it's done on the clock), but perhaps you're missing a big point here. Brawn, Todt, Byrne etc. aren't exactly young and even if they might (just) be on the top of their games now they certainly see a new generation coming. New ideas, new schooling, a lot of energy. They all know that and, mostly, are managing a transition. That is not to say that the experience of the old guard isn't useful or indeed indispensable, but it needs to be applied where it's most advantageous.
Change doesn't equal disarray. Some individuals may get more lost than others when seeking the way forward. No matter how well the "dream team" supported Schumacher, that success in no way can be replicated with exactly the same formula with another driver. It is not a matter of comparisons, it's a function of time. If Ferrari does anything, it plans ahead and there have long been signs that the team is consciously evolving around its new drivers, with relatively young but proven talent being put forward. That is not only forward thinking, it is necessary.
The old team worked years before getting into winning form. That's easy to forget, since it's been such a long time and much has happened since then. That the combination of Ferrari veterans and the team's newcomers now manage to hang, if only just by tooth and nail, in the championships is nothing to be sneered at. It means that no matter what, more things are being done right than wrong - and that they can build the future from many existing strengths; it's no mean feat considering that -05 and -06 were far from perfect for the "Schumacher-led" team.
I hope that they, along with a few other other teams, can yet challenge for the championships and make a season of this. It's still too early in the season to be thinking of this as McLaren and the "also rans", even if pure mathematics and the stats, realistically, indicate that that's exactly the case. Whatever is going to happen, this ain't 1997, it's 2007 and if that can't be accepted then surely there's not much to go on.
Ferrari president Luca Montezemolo has urged Kimi Raikkonen to start proving why he is
one of the most feared drivers in Formula One.
After switching from McLaren to Ferrari over the winter, the Finn made a
stunning start to the year with the Italian team by winning the curtain-raising
Australian Grand Prix.
Since then, however, Raikkonen - known as 'The Iceman' - has been distinctly off
the boil and now trails Championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 26 points.
After replacing seven-times World Champion Michael Schumacher - who now supports
the Maranello marque in his new role as advisor - the 27-year-old has hardly
lived up to his billing or salary, which is reputed to be the biggest in Formula
One.
Montezemolo, speaking in Gazzetta dello Sport, said: "We are waiting for the
real Raikkonen, the one that everyone fears.
"Michael has said Kimi and Fernando (Alonso) were his toughest rivals, and
Alonso has said the same about Raikkonen and Schumacher.
"Kimi has always been in the fight, and now we are waiting for him to go back to
being the one everyone fears - and we are convinced that he will do it."
Montezemolo, though, is concerned at the dominance McLaren are now exerting
after Ferrari won three of the opening four races of the year.
McLaren hold a 35-point lead in the Constructors' Championship, with Montezemolo
adding: "Clearly the two McLaren drivers are formidable.
"We got distracted for a moment and I don't like this situation. We have to
regain our competitiveness.
"We have all the means to fight back and we must work out how to recover the two
or three tenths (of a second) that separate us from McLaren."
Perhaps the rest of the season will show an upswing in preparation for a full WDC assault next year.
